Template · Downloadable checklist (folders A to M)

Due Diligence Request List Template for Startup Fundraising

Alexander Jarvis · alexanderjarvis.com Free Intermediate

This is a ready folder structure (sections A to M covering legal, IP, employment, financials, and cap table) that you can stand up once and keep current, so your records stay investor ready between rounds instead of being rebuilt each time. It is written by someone who has sat on all three sides of diligence (founder, advisor, and VC), so the ordering matches how investors actually work through a data room. Use it as scaffolding, not gospel: seed-stage founders will legitimately have blanks, and the point is a living index you fill in over time.

• Gives you a concrete data room skeleton to maintain continuously, so a term sheet triggers a share, not a scramble.
• Organised the way investors read a data room, with a master index mapping every likely ask to a file, which is what keeps diligence from stalling.
• Honest about stage: early startups will not have every line filled, and that is fine, the value is the standing structure.