A scrollytelling investment memo.
Fourteen chapters across five acts — from customer truth to capital decision.
01 · Act I · Why
The Customer
Who exactly buys, why now, and what they would pay if the product simply existed. We anchor the entire memo to a single ICP and a job-to-be-done.
ICPmid-market head of finance, 200–2,000 FTEJTBDclose month-end faster than the calendar can punish meWTP~$24k/yr at the seat-of-pants stage
Insight — willingness-to-pay tracks pain frequency, not company size. [autoresearch:cust-001]
02 · Act I · Why
The Problem
Quantify the pain in dollars, hours, or incidents. The status quo is the real competitor.
status_quo_cost = hours_lost × fully_loaded_rate + error_rate × incident_cost
Status-quo cost for the ICP averages $1.2M/yr. [autoresearch:prob-014]
03 · Act I · Why
The Solution
The wedge: the one defensible insight the team has that the rest of the market does not.
Annotated product flow lives here — input → inference → audit-ready output, with one human checkpoint.
04 · Act II · What
The Company
Founding story, thesis pin, stage, ask. Two lines, no fluff.
Stage: Series A · Ask: $12M at $60M post · Use of funds: GTM (60%), R&D (30%), G&A (10%).
05 · Act II · What
The Market
TAM/SAM/SOM with sourced numbers, segmentation, growth rate.
TAM $48B · SAM $9.2B · SOM $640M · CAGR 17%
Segmentation: 62% mid-market, 28% enterprise, 10% upper SMB. [autoresearch:mkt-022]
06 · Act II · What
The Competition
Direct, indirect, and substitutes (including the spreadsheet).
2×2 positioning: depth-of-automation × audit-readiness. The wedge sits in the upper-right quadrant; legacy ERP add-ons sit lower-left.
07 · Act III · Who
The Team
Seven-axis radar: domain fit, prior exits, technical depth, GTM, grit, coachability, equity alignment.
domain_fit █████ 5/5
prior_exits ████· 4/5
technical_depth █████ 5/5
gtm ███·· 3/5
grit ████· 4/5
coachability ████· 4/5
equity_alignment █████ 5/5
08 · Act IV · How
The Traction
ARR, retention, NDR, burn multiple, payback.
ARR $4.6M (+138% YoY)
NDR 128%
GRR 94%
BurnMx 0.9
Payback 11 mo
09 · Act IV · How
The Moat
Layered defensibility — data, network, regulatory, brand, switching cost.
Strongest layer: proprietary labeled audit data accumulated since 2023.
10 · Act IV · How
The Macro
Rates, inflation, capital flows, sector cycle.
Fed funds 4.50% (FRED, 2026-04)
CPI YoY 2.7% (BLS)
VC dry powder $312B (PitchBook 2026Q1)
Rate cuts expected H2 2026 — mid-market software multiples directionally compressed but stabilizing. [autoresearch:macro-007]
11 · Act IV · How
The Micro
Unit economics derived from the data room, formulas locked.
CAC $14,200
LTV $186,000
LTV/CAC 13.1×
GM% 82%
Payback 11 mo
12 · Act IV · How
The Geopolitics
Supply chain, sanctions, data residency, tariffs.
No OFAC/EU exposure. Data residency: US-East primary, EU-West for GDPR cohort. Tariff exposure: nil (pure SaaS).
13 · Act V · So-what
The Risks
Heatmap across market, team, tech, regulatory, financial, exit.
market ●●○○○ low
team ●●○○○ low
tech ●●●○○ med
regulatory ●●○○○ low
financial ●●●○○ med
exit ●●●○○ med
14 · Act V · So-what
The Verdict
Composite score and recommendation.
Score 8.2 / 10 · Recommendation: INVEST
Lead the round at proposed terms; reserve 1.5× for follow-on.