Due Diligence Checklist: 15 Questions Before You Wire a Cent

Before you wire money into any early-stage deal — equity or token — run it through these fifteen questions. Most diligence failures aren’t from asking the wrong questions; they’re from not asking any of them out loud, because it felt awkward to interrupt the pitch.

Team & structure

1. Who legally owns the IP the company is built on, and is that assignment documented?
2. What’s the founder vesting schedule, and has anyone already vested and left?
3. Is there a full-time technical co-founder, or is the core product outsourced?
4. What’s the current cap table, fully diluted — not just the headline ownership?

Numbers

5. What’s monthly burn, and how many months of runway does this round buy?
6. What’s the actual retention curve, not the logo-retention headline number?
7. Have any prior investors declined to participate in this round, and why?
8. What are the last twelve months of bank statements showing, versus the deck?

Terms & token-specific

9. What’s the valuation cap relative to the last priced round, and is it justified by actual progress?
10. Is this a pre-money or post-money SAFE, and how many other SAFEs are already stacked?
11. If there’s a token, what’s the vesting schedule for team and investor allocations?
12. Has the smart contract (if any) been audited, by whom, and are the findings public?

Judgment calls

13. What would have to be true for this to be a 10x outcome, specifically?
14. What’s the founder’s plan B if the primary go-to-market channel doesn’t work?
15. Would you invest at this price if you’d only just met the team today, with no prior relationship?

Fifteen questions is a floor, not a ceiling. Want a second set of eyes on a specific deal? Send it our way.