First meeting documents
Pitch deck: 12–15 slides, sent as a tracked live link (not a PDF). The investor should never receive a static attachment they can forward without your knowledge. One-pager / executive summary: a one-page version of the pitch for investors who want to share with partners before a meeting. Optional but useful. These are the only documents you share before a first meeting. Do not send financials, cap table, or legal documents until there's mutual interest.
Post-first meeting: data room access
Once an investor requests more information, share your data room — not individual files via email. A structured data room signals operational maturity and keeps all documents in one place with access control and audit trail.
Section 01 — Company: Pitch deck (latest version), company overview, product screenshots or demo video. Section 02 — Financials: P&L (actuals and projections), financial model with assumptions, unit economics summary (CAC, LTV, payback, NRR), monthly MRR/ARR tracker. Section 03 — Legal: Certificate of incorporation, shareholder agreements, cap table (fully diluted), SAFE/note agreements, IP assignments. Section 04 — Customers: Anonymised customer list with ARR per customer, 3–5 reference customers willing to take calls, customer testimonials or case studies. Section 05 — Team: Founder CVs, org chart, key hire plan for the next 18 months.
Diligence documents (requested by serious investors)
Financial model: detailed 3-year projection with monthly granularity for year 1, quarterly for years 2–3. Assumptions tab required. Sensitivity analysis for key variables (growth rate, churn, CAC). Cap table: fully diluted, showing all SAFEs, options, warrants, and their conversion terms. Use CAPLINK's cap table tool to ensure accuracy. Customer contracts: 3–5 representative customer contracts (redacted for price if needed). Investors want to understand contract length, cancellation terms, and renewal structure. Technical due diligence prep: architecture diagram, security practices summary, infrastructure overview. Increasingly required at Series A for technical products. Reference list: 5–8 customers and professional references. Pre brief them.
Legal documents needed for closing
Term sheet: sets the economic and governance terms of the round. Sign before legal docs begin. Share Purchase Agreement (SPA): the main investment agreement. Drafted by investor counsel, negotiated by your counsel. Shareholders' Agreement / Investor Rights Agreement: sets board composition, information rights, pro-rata rights, drag-along, and tag-along provisions. Updated Articles of Association / Certificate of Incorporation: reflects new share classes and governance provisions. Option plan documentation: updated to reflect new pool size and any new grants.
Budget $15K–$40K for legal fees at Series A. Use experienced startup counsel — general practice lawyers create problems that cost 10x more to fix later.