Claw & Talon

Diligence Checklists

Choose the diligence path that matches the decision in front of you, then use one focused checklist for calls, memo writing, and evidence requests. These are not a substitute for professional advice.

Start here Open checklists Use database
Analytical desk with structured evaluation boards, signal-vs-noise charts, documents, and secure technology motifs.

Start with one decision, not a wall of questions.

Use the selector to isolate the checklist that matches the route: direct company, sector-specific company review, syndicate/SPV, fund, public-market exposure, or scoped research support.

Direct company Checklist 1 of 13

First call with an Israeli startup

A fast screen for buyer clarity, proof depth, milestone quality, and what would justify deeper diligence.

Questions to ask

  • What problem are you solving and for whom?
  • Why now?
  • Why is the team unusually suited to solve this?
  • What evidence exists beyond the demo?
  • Who is the buyer, user, and budget owner?
  • What is the sales cycle?
  • What must integrate for the product to work?
  • What customer proof exists?
  • What would make the company hard to copy?
  • What regulatory/export-control issues could matter?
  • What follow-on capital is required?
  • What would change your mind?

Evidence to request

  • Customer names or anonymized proof points where confidentiality requires it.
  • Product demo tied to a real workflow.
  • Current round materials, use of funds, and next milestone plan.
  • Public sources that support claims about customers, pilots, funding, and technical validation.

Positive signals

  • Founder can identify buyer, user, and budget owner separately.
  • Evidence is specific and recent.
  • The team volunteers disconfirming risks rather than only selling upside.

Warning signs

  • Every answer depends on a future pilot.
  • No buyer owns the budget.
  • The company cannot explain what would make the thesis wrong.
Investor Pathways Glossary
People Checklist 2 of 13

Founder and team diligence

Checks whether the founding team has the operating fit, references, role clarity, and missing hires that the thesis requires.

Questions to ask

  • What founder insight is non-obvious?
  • Which customer, mission, or technical problem has the team lived directly?
  • Who builds, who sells, and who recruits?
  • What senior gaps exist?
  • How does the team handle conflict, security review, and board feedback?
  • What references can speak to execution under pressure?

Evidence to request

  • Founder references.
  • Prior product or mission artifacts.
  • Hiring plan and current team map.
  • Board/adviser list with actual operating role.

Positive signals

  • Clear division of responsibility.
  • References confirm pace and judgment.
  • Team experience maps directly to the buyer problem.

Warning signs

  • Credential-heavy story with weak execution proof.
  • No commercial owner.
  • Unclear founder equity or unresolved founder conflict.
Start Here Unit 8200 glossary entry
Sector Checklist 3 of 13

Cybersecurity company diligence

Separates urgent budget ownership, deployment proof, and durable control points from crowded-category feature claims.

Questions to ask

  • What security category is this?
  • Who owns the budget?
  • What is the deployment model?
  • What does the product replace or integrate with?
  • Why is this urgent for CISOs?
  • What proof exists in production?
  • How crowded is the category?
  • What is the wedge into a broader platform?

Evidence to request

  • Production deployments.
  • Security architecture notes.
  • Integration list.
  • CISO references.
  • Competitive map.
  • Measured impact on response time, exposure reduction, or control coverage.

Positive signals

  • Urgent budget owner.
  • Low-friction deployment.
  • Durable telemetry or remediation advantage.
  • Clear reason incumbents cannot bundle the wedge quickly.

Warning signs

  • Dashboard-only product.
  • No production proof.
  • Generic AI claims.
  • Crowded category with no distribution edge.
Cybersecurity sector page Cybersecurity database sector
Sector Checklist 4 of 13

AI company diligence

Tests data rights, evaluation discipline, workflow ownership, reliability, cost assumptions, and incumbent platform risk.

Questions to ask

  • What model/data advantage exists?
  • Is the company using third-party models or proprietary models?
  • What data rights exist?
  • How is performance evaluated?
  • What workflow does the product own?
  • What happens if model costs fall?
  • What happens if incumbents add the feature?
  • Is this a product, platform, or feature?

Evidence to request

  • Evaluation methodology.
  • Data-rights documentation.
  • Customer workflow map.
  • Model-cost assumptions.
  • Security and privacy review.
  • Before/after productivity or accuracy evidence.

Positive signals

  • Owns a hard workflow.
  • Clear evaluation metrics.
  • Defensible data access.
  • Can operate under customer security constraints.

Warning signs

  • Wrapper with no data rights.
  • No evaluation discipline.
  • Margin story ignores inference and support costs.
  • Product disappears when incumbent adds a feature.
AI & Data Infrastructure sector page AI database sector
Sector Checklist 5 of 13

Defense-tech / dual-use diligence

Clarifies mission ownership, field validation, procurement realism, export constraints, sustainment load, and commercial reinforcement.

Questions to ask

  • Is the product genuinely dual-use or just defense-adjacent branding?
  • Who is the mission owner?
  • Is there field validation?
  • Is there a procurement pathway?
  • Is there a commercial market independent of government demand?
  • Are there export-control or classified-customer constraints?
  • What integration, sustainment, and support burden exists?
  • Could strategic customers become blockers rather than accelerators?

Evidence to request

  • Field-test notes.
  • Pilot or procurement documents.
  • Export-control assessment.
  • Commercial customer evidence.
  • Integration and sustainment plan.
  • End-user restrictions.

Positive signals

  • Mission owner can describe the pain.
  • Commercial and government use cases reinforce each other.
  • The product has realistic support economics.

Warning signs

  • Prototype depends on heroic procurement assumptions.
  • No commercial buyer.
  • Strategic customer demands exclusivity or control.
Defense sector page Risk Center
Sector Checklist 6 of 13

Infrastructure and resilience-tech diligence

Turns resilience language into operating metrics, integration requirements, reliability proof, support economics, and normal-time buyers.

Questions to ask

  • Which dependency, bottleneck, or failure mode does this reduce?
  • Who operates the system today?
  • What must integrate for deployment?
  • What field evidence proves reliability?
  • What happens during crisis conditions?
  • Who pays in normal times?
  • What service and maintenance burden exists?

Evidence to request

  • Field deployments.
  • Uptime data.
  • Integration requirements.
  • Customer ROI model.
  • Component supply-chain map.
  • Crisis-mode operating assumptions.

Positive signals

  • Measurable continuity gain.
  • Commercial buyer exists without crisis funding.
  • Deployment model is repeatable and supportable.

Warning signs

  • Strategic language without operating metric.
  • Hardware economics are unclear.
  • Customer cannot move from pilot to paid deployment.
Defense sector page Dependency Atlas
Market proof Checklist 7 of 13

Commercial traction and customer diligence

Distinguishes signed revenue, renewal quality, expansion evidence, buyer ownership, pipeline realism, and customer concentration.

Questions to ask

  • Who signed, who uses, who renews, and who pays?
  • What is recurring versus services revenue?
  • What is the sales cycle?
  • What proof exists that customers expand?
  • What churn or non-renewal risk exists?
  • What pipeline is committed versus speculative?

Evidence to request

  • Contracts or order forms where available.
  • Cohort data.
  • Pipeline detail.
  • Customer references.
  • Gross margin and service-load analysis.
  • Security/procurement review status.

Positive signals

  • Budget owner confirms urgency.
  • Deployment expands after initial use.
  • Revenue quality is not mostly one-off services.

Warning signs

  • Pipeline described as revenue.
  • Founder cannot separate user enthusiasm from budget ownership.
  • One customer dominates the company.
How Investing Works Glossary
Risk Checklist 8 of 13

Regulatory, export-control, and geopolitical diligence

Surfaces counsel questions around controls, sanctions, privacy, procurement, restricted parties, end users, and data movement.

Questions to ask

  • Could CFIUS, ITAR, EAR, sanctions, KYC/AML, privacy, procurement, or classified-customer rules matter?
  • Are any customers, investors, suppliers, or end users restricted?
  • What data crosses borders?
  • What licenses or approvals could delay revenue?
  • What reputational issues could affect partners?

Evidence to request

  • Counsel memo or issue list.
  • Customer and investor screening process.
  • Data-flow map.
  • Export classification where applicable.
  • Privacy and security controls.
  • Procurement constraints.

Positive signals

  • Company knows which regimes could apply and has counsel engaged.
  • Sensitive customers and data flows are mapped.
  • Sales plan respects compliance timelines.

Warning signs

  • Dismisses export controls or sanctions as irrelevant without analysis.
  • Unclear end users.
  • No data privacy or security process.
Regulatory & Risk Center CFIUS glossary entry
Financing Checklist 9 of 13

Follow-on financing and cap table diligence

Frames capital need, valuation, preferences, notes, pro rata, reserves, insider support, and what happens in a weak next round.

Questions to ask

  • How much capital is required to reach the next credible milestone?
  • Who has pro rata rights?
  • What liquidation preference exists?
  • Are there SAFEs, notes, CLAs, or side letters?
  • What option pool is needed?
  • Who leads the next round if the current insider base does not?
  • What happens in a bridge or down round?

Evidence to request

  • Cap table.
  • Financing documents.
  • Use-of-funds model.
  • Runway plan.
  • Existing investor list.
  • Option pool and hiring plan.

Positive signals

  • Clean cap table.
  • Credible reserves.
  • Milestones match capital needs.
  • Existing investors can support or explain limits.

Warning signs

  • Stacked preferences.
  • Too many small notes or SAFEs.
  • No reserve plan.
  • Valuation detached from evidence.
SAFE glossary entry How Investing Works
Deal access Checklist 10 of 13

Syndicate / SPV diligence

Evaluates lead quality, allocation source, fees, rights, reserves, reporting, conflicts, follow-on handling, and adverse selection.

Questions to ask

  • Who is the lead?
  • How did the lead get allocation?
  • What fees and carry apply?
  • What information rights exist?
  • Who handles follow-on?
  • Are there reserves?
  • What reporting will investors receive?
  • Does the SPV have conflicts?
  • What happens if the company raises an insider round?
  • What happens if the company fails?

Evidence to request

  • Lead track record and role in the round.
  • SPV documents and fee/carry schedule.
  • Information-rights summary.
  • Follow-on and reserve policy.
  • Conflict disclosures.
  • Reporting sample or cadence.

Positive signals

  • Lead explains allocation quality clearly.
  • Fees and carry are transparent.
  • Information rights and reporting are specific.
  • Follow-on process is not improvised after the round.

Warning signs

  • Unclear allocation source.
  • High fee stack with weak rights.
  • No reporting commitment.
  • No plan for insider rounds or company failure.
Investor Options Regulatory & Risk Center
Fund diligence Checklist 11 of 13

Israeli VC fund diligence

Focuses LP review on manager edge, fund size, stage discipline, reserves, realized DPI, attribution, terms, and reporting.

Questions to ask

  • What is the manager's sourcing edge?
  • What is the fund size and stage focus?
  • What reserves strategy exists?
  • What is the track record by realized DPI, not only TVPI?
  • What sector/geography concentration exists?
  • How does the manager support U.S. go-to-market?
  • How are defense/dual-use regulatory issues handled?
  • What fees, carry, recycling, and reporting terms apply?

Evidence to request

  • Track record with realized DPI and unrealized TVPI separated.
  • Portfolio construction model.
  • Reserve policy.
  • LP reporting sample.
  • Team attribution and partner history.
  • Regulatory and dual-use issue process.

Positive signals

  • Clear sourcing edge.
  • Fund size matches stage strategy.
  • Reserves are disciplined.
  • Manager can explain losses and DPI, not only markups.

Warning signs

  • Strategy drift.
  • Weak reserves.
  • Track record presented only as gross TVPI.
  • No differentiated access or portfolio support evidence.
Investor Pathways Investor Options
Public markets Checklist 12 of 13

Public-market Israeli tech exposure

Keeps public-company research separate from startup exposure by checking filings, segment linkage, liquidity, valuation, and theme fit.

Questions to ask

  • What part of revenue is actually Israel-linked?
  • Is the company a mature global business rather than startup exposure?
  • What filings and risk factors matter?
  • What sector/theme is being underwritten?
  • How liquid is the security?
  • What valuation assumptions matter?

Evidence to request

  • Recent public filings.
  • Segment and geography disclosures.
  • Revenue and customer concentration data.
  • Risk factor review.
  • Liquidity and market-cap context.
  • Comparable public-company set.

Positive signals

  • Theme exposure is specific and verifiable.
  • Filings support the business model and risk view.
  • Liquidity and valuation assumptions are explicit.

Warning signs

  • Treating public-company exposure as a private-startup proxy.
  • Relying on headline Israeli origin without revenue or risk linkage.
  • Ignoring valuation, liquidity, and broad-market correlation.
Market Pulse Risk Center
Scoping Checklist 13 of 13

Scoped research support

Defines the decision, missing evidence, research path, available materials, timeline, and where outside advisers are needed.

Questions to ask

  • What decision needs to be made?
  • What evidence is missing?
  • What is the timeline?
  • Is this company, sector, fund, or public-market research?
  • What legal/tax/compliance issues require outside advisers?

Evidence to request

  • Decision memo or short scope.
  • Company, fund, sector, or public-market materials available for review.
  • Timeline and desired deliverable.
  • Known legal, tax, compliance, export-control, or confidentiality issues.
  • List of questions already answered and still open.

Positive signals

  • Decision is concrete.
  • Materials are organized.
  • Scope separates research questions from legal/tax/investment advice.
  • Timeline is realistic.

Warning signs

  • No clear decision owner.
  • Confidential information sent before engagement terms.
  • Expectation of investment recommendation, deal placement, or legal advice.
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