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Start a readiness review

Tool

Evidence Room Builder

The data room and readiness guides as one checklist. Tick, filter, print or copy.

Read the data room guide Investor readiness checklist
What the evidence room builder works out Your stage and the items you hold go in; a filtered checklist of what is ready and what is left comes out.

You put in

  • Your stage
  • The items you already hold

Prepare Filters the checklist

You get back

  • What is ready
  • What is left
  • A list to print or copy as Markdown

Diagram: World Enterprise Group Incorporated. Illustrative: it shows the working, not any figure of yours.

Your ticks stay in this page. They are kept in the part of the address after the # sign, which your browser does not send to any server, and nothing is saved on this device. Copy the address to keep your place, and know that anyone you give it to can see which boxes you ticked.

Show the items suggested for your stage

The stages are WE's own suggested order for gathering evidence. They are a suggestion, not an investor requirement. A company with several products, or in a regulated field, should show all items and ask its own counsel what else applies.

Show the Markdown to copy by hand

1. Company

What it shows: that the company exists and who owns it.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: First product.

2. Product

What it shows: what exists, and what you chose not to build yet.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

3. Customers

What it shows: who uses the product and what they committed to.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

4. Metrics and finance

What it shows: that the numbers are defined once and calculated consistently.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

5. People and contracts

What it shows: that the company owns the work it sells.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

6. Intellectual property

What it shows: what the company controls and on what terms.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

7. Security and privacy

What it shows: where customer data lives and who can reach it.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

8. Legal

What it shows: what obligations the company has taken on.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype.

9. Updates

What it shows: a consistent history of reporting.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence.

Evidence for the twelve readiness statements

Each item is the artifact that would show one readiness statement is true. The statement it backs is quoted under it.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype. It backs the statement: “I can state the problem, and who has it, in two plain sentences that a stranger would understand.” If it is missing, start with Playbook: validate the problem.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype. It backs the statement: “I have recorded notes from conversations with people who have the problem, written in one consistent format.” If it is missing, start with Template: customer interview guide.

  • Suggested from: First product. It backs the statement: “A working version of the product exists, and at least one person outside my team has used it.” If it is missing, start with Playbook: build and ship v1.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence. It backs the statement: “I know how my first customers found the product, and what each one committed to or paid for.” If it is missing, start with Playbook: earn your first customers.

  • Suggested from: First product. It backs the statement: “My revenue, churn and activation measures are defined in writing and calculated the same way every period.” If it is missing, start with Research brief: early-stage SaaS metrics definitions.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence. It backs the statement: “I have found customers through at least one channel more than once, and I know what that channel cost me.” If it is missing, start with Playbook: build repeatable growth.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype. It backs the statement: “Everyone who has written code, design or content for the company has signed a written assignment of that work.” If it is missing, start with Insight: IP, contracts and access diligence.

  • Suggested from: Idea or prototype. It backs the statement: “The company is a legal entity, and ownership is recorded in one cap table that is up to date.” If it is missing, start with Guide: the seed data room.

  • Suggested from: First product. It backs the statement: “My core company documents sit in one organized folder that I could share within a day.” If it is missing, start with Template: seed data room checklist.

  • Suggested from: First product. It backs the statement: “I have a written list of where customer data lives and who can reach it.” If it is missing, start with Research brief: SaaS security baseline for year one.

  • Suggested from: Early customer evidence. It backs the statement: “I send, or have drafted, a regular written update on progress to people who follow the company.” If it is missing, start with Guide: investor updates.

  • Suggested from: First product. It backs the statement: “I understand the instruments I may be offered, and I have a list of questions for my own counsel before I sign anything.” If it is missing, start with Guide: SAFEs in plain language.

Before you share the data room

Five checks to make before anyone is given access.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

  • Suggested from: First product.

What this checklist is

An evidence room is the organized set of records someone needs to check a company’s claims. This checklist joins two guides into one list you can work through: the seed data room guide, which names nine folders and what belongs in each, and the investor readiness checklist, which lists twelve statements and the artifact that would show each one is true. The seed data room checklist is the same idea as a template to copy.

How the stages work

The guides do not rank their items by company stage. The stage on each item is WE’s own suggestion for the order in which to gather it, so you do not start with the heaviest folders. Choosing a stage shows the items suggested for that stage and every earlier one. It is a suggestion, and no investor is bound to ask for this list or to accept it.

Where your ticks live

Your ticks and your stage are kept in the part of this page’s address after the # sign, and nowhere else. Nothing is stored on your device, and nothing is sent to a server. Bookmark the address, or copy it, to come back to the same list. Anyone who has the address can see what you ticked.

What the list is not

It is general preparation, not legal or financial advice, and ticking every box does not predict that anyone will invest. WE makes no promise of funding. What you hold, and what you may share, depends on your company and your jurisdiction, so ask your own counsel before a document goes anywhere. Keep passwords, private keys and personal data about customers or staff out of an evidence room.

Want the numbers behind the evidence worked out?

The metrics calculator turns one month of your figures into the standard SaaS results, with every formula shown.

Open the metrics calculator Fundability and readiness