初创企业尽职调查解密

    你的创业金点子终于成功地找到了天使投资人或风险投资，对方已经签署了投资意向书后。现在，距离投资者开出支票只有一步之遥，即令人望而生畏的“尽职调查”过程。

    不知为什么，投资者尽职调查似乎总是笼罩着一层神秘色彩，虽然事实上这只不过是对创业者的商业模式、团队、产品、客户和计划的方方面面进行最后的核查。我认为，理解尽职调查只会改善信息流动，帮助创业者与投资者建立更好的长期合作关系。

    要知道，直到此时，投资者主要还只是与创始人进行了面谈，看了书面文件而已。聪明的投资者在开出支票前，总是希望能亲自或可靠的委托顾问与投资对象的团队主要成员、几个客户见面会谈，评估实际的产品。如果结果和他们之前听到的不符，所有投资将取消。

    通过这个过程，他们可以清楚地看到创业者是否获得了团队的全力支持、客户是否真正看好你的产品、产品是否已经就绪，以及是否还存在什么定时炸弹。私募股权公司进行尽职调查的方式各有不同，但在下面几个关键领域，创业者应该永远做好心理准备：

    • 团队实力和运转情况。如果是小型团队，每个成员可能都会被约谈。投资者将考察团队人才储备的深度、忠诚度和投入度、优缺点、团队合作和管理风格。团队运转不良、关键岗位上的员工爱唱反调，这些都可能会阻碍创业者获得投资。

    • 产品或服务的准备情况。技术性尽职调查的序幕通常是与工程和产品营销团队联合展开的评估，为期一天或两天。投资者会评估工艺和产品。目标是100%确认产品的功能和品质符合创业者的介绍、创业团队和工艺在未来也能保证这一点。最后，他们需要确认知识产权保护的情况。

    • 市场需求和市场规模验证。好的投资者能为公司提供很多帮助，但不能让客户购买产品。投资者会从创业者（精心准备）的参考名单开始，可能会和几十家潜在客户对话。他们还会与早有联系的科技领袖和业内人士对话。不花功夫验证，就不会达成交易。

    • 持续的竞争优势。如果投资者意外发现了创业者之前没有提及的竞争，交易也会无果而终，突然死亡。他们会竭力向行业分析人士求证，确认创业者确实掌握了独一无二的王牌，未来不存在竞争对手，也不会半路杀出个程咬金。

    • 业务和财务状况。创业者过去实现财务和业务目标的情况怎样？投资者将确认过去的投资和持股情况，为投资对象的公司创建一个准确的市值表。因为，信用记录糟糕、目前官司缠身或近年有破产记录的创始人会大大增加风险。

    After you have successfully attracted angels or venture capital with your million dollar product idea and you have a signed term sheet, there is still one more hurdle to overcome before investors write the check. This is the dreaded "due diligence" process.

    For no good reason, investor due diligence seems shrouded in mystery, when in fact it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers and plan. In my view, understanding due diligence can only improve information flow, and leads to a better long-term partnership with your investor.

    Remember that up to this point, the investor has primarily seen and talked to the founder and studied written documents. Before smart investors write a check, they, or a trusted consultant, will want to meet and talk with your key team members, several customers and evaluate the real product. If results don't match what they have been told, all bets are off.

    This is where they find out if your team is all behind you, your customers are truly excited, your product is ready to ship, and there aren't any skeletons in the closet. All private equity groups go about due diligence in their own way, but there are a few key areas of focus that entrepreneurs should always expect:

    • Team strength and health. For small teams, every team member will likely be interviewed. Investors are looking for your depth of talent, loyalty and commitment, strengths and weaknesses, teamwork and management style. A dysfunctional team, or even one naysayer in a critical position can stall your investment.

    • Product or service readiness. Technical due diligence typically starts with a full one or two day review with the engineering and product marketing staff. Investors are evaluating your process as well as your product. The goal is to feel 100% confident that the product has the features and quality you assert, and the team and process to keep it true in the future. Finally, they need to validate intellectual property protections and status.

    • Market need and size validation. A good investor can do a lot to help a company, but can't make customers buy products. Investors will likely talk to dozens of potential customers, starting with your reference list (undoubtedly well prepped). They will also speak to technical leaders and industry contacts where they have prior relationships. No validated pain, no deal.

    • Sustainable competitive advantage. The kiss of death is for investors to find unanticipated competition you neglected to mention. They try to confirm from industry analysts that your differentiators are indeed unique, and that there are no future competitors or big gorillas in stealth mode just around the corner.

    • Business and financial status. How well have you met previous financial and business milestones? Investors will validate pre-existing investments and stock ownership to create an accurate market capitalization sheet for your company. Founders with bad credit, active lawsuits, or recent bankruptcies dramatically increase the risk.