During my time at Blackstone, one frustration with commercial due diligence was how difficult it could be to get behind the findings. We would receive a 200-page deck, but understanding where a particular finding came from could require several emails and days of waiting. Even then, an explanation from the consulting team was not the same as seeing the underlying evidence ourselves.
For financial data, we are used to a different standard. Tools like Capital IQ and FactSet allowed us to trace numbers back to the original filings. I wanted that same transparency in commercial diligence. When a finding matters to an investment decision, you should be able to see what supports it.
That expectation shaped how we built DiligenceSquared.
A stronger basis for trust
Commercial due diligence findings can materially influence how a deal is underwritten. Customer satisfaction is high. Pricing upside is high. The market is growing. But is a conclusion supported by two anecdotes or a consistent pattern across 40 interviews? And what evidence points in the other direction?
On the DiligenceSquared platform, clients can click directly from a slide or analysis to the underlying evidence. They can see where a number came from, read what a customer actually said, and assess the context. They can also ask our AI research agent questions and receive answers with references to the relevant sources.
That creates a fundamentally different basis for trust, particularly when AI is involved in the research. Clients can verify the findings, understand their limitations, and decide how much weight to put on them.
Making the full picture visible
Transparency also raises the standard for the research itself. A clear narrative is valuable, but investors need to understand the evidence that complicates it.
As my co-founder Soren explains, drawing on his experience at BCG:
“In consulting, there is a strong emphasis on turning complex research into a clear set of takeaways. In that process, findings that do not fit neatly into the narrative can receive less attention or disappear from the final report. Those findings may still matter to the investor. Giving clients access to the underlying evidence sets a higher standard: the conclusions need to hold up against the full research.”
We built our platform around that principle. Clients can examine both the evidence supporting a conclusion and the exceptions that might change how they interpret it. That visibility makes our work more accountable and gives deal teams a fuller basis for investment judgment.
Go deeper where it matters
Consider a customer analysis showing a high Net Promoter Score, but a few detractors. The overall result is positive, yet those dissatisfied customers may hold information that matters to the investment case.
On our platform, you can click into their responses and read exactly what they said, in context. Were their concerns about pricing, service quality, or missing functionality? Were they isolated experiences, or did other customers raise similar issues?
The deal team can explore those questions directly. An associate can independently investigate a concern. A partner’s challenge can be addressed by opening the supporting evidence. In an investment committee discussion, the team can answer a question about an underlying datapoint immediately, with the source available to inspect.
This changes how commercial diligence is consumed and used to underwrite deals. Deal teams can test the conclusions, investigate the exceptions, and go as deep as the investment decision requires.
The source is never more than one click away.
See it in action
If you’d like to see traceability in action, you can apply for access to the platform.