Start with four facts.
You do not need a data room, internal credentials or a long discovery call. Four facts are enough for the scope / conflict check and to determine whether the 72-hour public-source benchmark fits the decision.
One target agreement family · up to 5–7 defensible verified primary comparables, or an explicit finding that fewer clean same-role peers exist · economics / exit normalization · currentness and realized-outcome controls · source ledger · one revision.
What happens next
We verify the target, agreement family, intended decision use and whether the public record is sufficient for a bounded engagement. If it is not a fit, the research clock does not start.
The reply confirms accepted scope, source boundary, start timestamp, delivery deadline and start / payment logistics. The 72-hour clock is tied to that confirmed start, not to the first inbound email.
Executed agreement, amendments / restatements, latest issuer disclosure and termination state are reconciled before a peer comparison is built.
Delivery separates target economics, comparable logic, non-comparability, term / exit, later accruals / payments / settlements / disputes and unknowns. One revision is included.
What you receive
A concise first-page finding written for review by Board, finance, procurement or counsel.
Original agreement, amendments, current state and later outcome evidence remain versioned.
Role, denominator, payment medium, minimums, equity / warrants, term and exit are normalized before comparison.
Material claims are source-linked; unresolved facts and weak comparables are stated rather than filled by assumption.
When the standard scope is not a fit
- the decision depends mainly on confidential documents that are not public;
- the requested output is a legal, fairness, fiduciary, accounting or investment opinion;
- the request asks us to recommend retaining, replacing or terminating a provider;
- multiple unrelated agreement families cannot be bounded inside the founding scope;
- the public record is too thin to support a defensible peer set.
In those cases the engagement is declined or separately scoped rather than padded with weak evidence.
Before you start
Review the actual sample memo structure, the provider-side benchmark or the full engagement terms.
Start with four factsPublic-source factual research only. No legal, fairness, fiduciary, accounting or investment opinion.