Diligence Meeting Prep
Workflow
Step 1: Meeting Context
Ask the user for:
- Meeting type: Management presentation, expert call, customer reference, advisor check-in, site visit
- Attendees: Who from the target or third party
- Topic focus: Full overview, or specific workstream (financial, commercial, operational, clinical/regulatory, tech)
- What you already know: Prior meetings, CIM, data room findings
- Key concerns: Specific issues to probe
Step 2: Generate Question List
Organize by priority and topic. Structure depends on meeting type:
Management Presentation
Business Overview (warm-up)
- Walk us through the founding story and key milestones
- How do you describe the business to someone unfamiliar with the space?
- What are you most proud of? What would you do differently?
Revenue & Growth
- Walk us through revenue by customer/payor/segment/geography
- What's driving growth? Price vs. volume vs. new customers/patients
- Sales cycle and win rate trends
- Biggest growth opportunities in the next 3-5 years
Competitive Positioning
- Who do you lose deals to and why?
- What's your moat? How defensible is it?
- How do customers/referrers evaluate you vs. alternatives?
Operations & Team
- Org chart — who are the key people?
- What roles are you hiring for? Hardest to fill (e.g. RNs, MAs, physicians)?
- What keeps you up at night operationally?
Financial Deep-Dive
- Margin bridge — what's changed and why?
- One-time or non-recurring items
- Capex — maintenance vs. growth, de novo vs. same-store
- Working capital seasonality
Forward Look
- Walk us through the budget/plan for next year
- Assumptions you're most/least confident in
- What would need to go right/wrong to materially beat/miss plan
Expert Network Call
- How do you view [company]'s positioning in the market?
- Secular trends driving this space (for healthcare: site-of-service shifts, value-based care, reimbursement changes)
- Strongest competitors and why
- Risks an investor should be aware of
- If you were buying this business, what would you diligence most carefully?
Customer Reference Call
- How did you find [company] and why did you choose them?
- What alternatives did you evaluate?
- What do they do well? Where could they improve?
- Likelihood to renew/expand? What would change that?
- If they raised prices 10-20%, how would you react?
Step 3: Benchmarks & Context
For each key topic, provide:
- Industry growth rates and margin profiles
- Comparable company metrics (if comps analysis exists in session)
- Data points from the CIM or data room warranting follow-up
- Discrepancies between data sources to clarify
Step 4: Red Flags to Probe
- Inconsistencies in CIM or financials
- Customer/payor concentration or churn signals
- Management team gaps or recent departures
- Unusual accounting treatments
- Missing data room items
Step 5: Output
One-page meeting prep doc:
- Meeting logistics: Who, when, where, duration
- Objectives: Top 3 things to learn
- Question list: Prioritized, grouped by topic (star the must-asks)
- Benchmarks: Key numbers to reference
- Red flags: Specific items to probe
- Follow-up items: What to request after the meeting
Important Notes
- Lead with open-ended questions — let management talk, then follow up on specifics
- Don't lead the witness — ask neutral questions
- Take notes on body language and confidence levels, not just answers
- Always end with: "What haven't we asked about that we should?"
- Keep the list to 15-20 max — you won't get through more in 60-90 min