Tool 18 · the lab · Read: Ch. 13–15 — Sourcing & evaluation

Live deal evaluation worksheet

Walk a single live deal through the cohort's six-step evaluation: what it does → market → competitors → round → traction → verdict. Outputs a Go / Watch / Pass with a pre-filled IC memo scaffold you can paste into Tool 08.

Company name

Sector / vertical

Stage

Round size ($M)

Pre-money valuation ($M)

Lead / co-investors

Cohort vertical

Founder name (for emails)

Step 1

What does it do?

One sentence. If it can't be said in one sentence, that's the first flag.

Clarity score (1–5)

Step 2

TAM / SAM / SOM

Sanity rule: SAM must be smaller than TAM, SOM smaller than SAM. We'll check.

TAM ($B)

SAM ($B)

SOM ($B, 5-yr realistic)

Market growth rate (%/yr)

Step 3

Competitors & differentiation

Moat strength (1–5)

Step 4

Raise & valuation logic

Pricing reasonableness (1–5)

Step 5

Traction

ARR / revenue ($M)

MoM growth (%)

Net retention (%)

Logos / customers

Step 6

Founder background

Founder quality (1–5)

IC memo scaffold

Auto-built from your inputs. Paste into Tool 08 (IC Memo Builder) for full revision.

Run "Score & build memo" to generate the scaffold.

Cohort emails

Drafts a theoretical pass email and a follow-up outreach email — directly serves the weekly cohort goal of "draft a pass email + handle lingering questions".

Press "Draft pass email" or "Draft follow-up email" to generate.