This article is part of an ongoing series on Due Diligence. To learn more about performing due diligence quickly and effectively, download this free eBook today Stones Unturned: An Investor's Guide to Due Diligence in Early Stage Companies or purchase our books at Amazon.com.
In addition to articles and eBooks, the Seraf Compass makes various tools and checklists available for anyone to use.
An area of diligence we talk a lot about is assessing the market and verifying customer demand. To help guide our investors through that process we have developed a Questionnaire for Checking Customer References.
During the due diligence process, you need to verify customer demand and assess the overall size of the market opportunity. The best way to do this is by reaching out to current customers and prospects for the company’s product. During our customer/prospect calls, we focus some of our initial questions on understanding the customer’s key pain points and try to discern their buying priorities. At Launchpad, we have a well-defined set of questions we use for our interviews. It makes a handy guideline you can use when calling the references; feel free to share it with your due diligence colleagues.
At the core of this questionnaire are a series of questions that will help you distinguish whether the company is selling aspirin, oxygen or jewelry. And, you can find out a bit more about the size of the potential market opportunity.
For more on the due diligence process, download this free eBook Stones Unturned: An Investor's Guide to Due Diligence in Early Stage Companies or purchase our books at Amazon.com.
