Commercial Thesis Review
A Commercial Thesis Review is an early, independent commercial opinion on a B2B SaaS acquisition or investment target, formed before the seller opens anything. We read the information you already hold, and what the company shows publicly, with over a decade of SaaS commercial operations behind the reading, and tell you whether the case survives first contact, what to test next and whether the target is worth an exclusivity period. It runs in 4 to 6 weeks.
No seller access needed. It runs on the information you already hold and on public and inferable signal, before you have a seat at the table.
What’s involved
- The seller’s case, read against what normal looks like in this segment. Which headline claims are plausible, which are the kind that usually break once tested, and what would have to be true for the thesis to hold.
- The real competitive set. The categories of vendor a buyer in this space actually evaluates, rather than the 3 logos on the market slide, and where this product is likely to win and lose.
- Pricing position. Where this sits against the nearest alternatives, how the model charges, and whether there is room in the price that nobody has taken.
- Commercial engine signals. The shape of the go-to-market motion, how the sales team is built, and how much of the selling appears to depend on the founder.
- Our commercial opinion on what can be seen before the seller opens anything: the opportunities and risks, the confidence behind each finding, and whether the target is worth an exclusivity period.
- The questions to put to the seller in exclusivity, each with who at the company can answer it and what evidence would settle it. If you proceed, they become the brief for a Commercial Assessment.
- Delivered in the format agreed before the work starts: HTML report pages, a presentation for your investment committee, or both.
Who this is for
A Review is the right first spend when you are early and unsigned.
- You have a teaser or an information pack and no standing to ask the seller for anything yet.
- Your deal team has its own view of the case and wants an experienced commercial read alongside it before the expensive workstreams start.
- You are deciding whether this target is worth an exclusivity period, and the exclusivity itself is the expensive part.
- You are one of several bidders and want an independent commercial read before you price.
- You are screening 2 or 3 targets in the same category and need them assessed on the same basis.
- Your investment committee will not release diligence budget without something written in front of it.
What it costs
- Fee
- from EUR 25,000
- Duration
- 4 to 6 weeks
Fixed fee and fixed timeline. Fees are never contingent on a transaction closing, because the entire value of this work is that it has no stake in the answer. Before work starts, we agree the concrete scope of the engagement with you: the timeline, the deliverables and their format, and the number of key meetings and interviews.
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