Investors require a lot of facts to make an informed decision on investing in your startup. The more information they have, the quicker they can go through it and reach an informed decision. You must have all the important documents in your data area before you begin talking to investors (or as early as you can).

In addition to the key investment documents you’ll need for any due diligence, founders should include their most recent investor presentation, basic financials for past performance and projections, cap table, and company organization/formation documentation (including business certificates, articles of incorporation, tax information, etc.). These documents should be readily available in the investor data room to allow investors to quickly and effectively assemble a memo or have conversations with their business partners, which may lead to an offer.

A deal attribution analysis is a important document to include in your investor data rooms. This shows how well your team has invested in other startups and will convince potential LPs you’re capable of making sound investments. You might want to include additional information such as intellectual property information, contracts with suppliers and customers, market research, and much more.

You can add documents to your data room at any time, but it’s important that you only allow access to an investor who is serious about committing to the terms sheet. If you give an investor access to look at these guys your data room before they’re ready, it could slow the process down and could cause investors to reconsider investing.