Example investment analysis
See the Critical Findings Before You Spend an Hour on the Case
DDScore tested a fictional Series A case across a realistic 14 sets of documents. The company is fictional. The analysis framework, scoring logic and report structure are the same ones used in a live DDScore analysis report.
Zero trace · EU servers & GDPR · No training on your data
14Document sets
DOCX + PDFWebsite Launch Plan and FAQ
DOCX + PDFAI Defensibility and Moat Memo
DOCX + PDFCustomer Pipeline and LOIs
DOCX + PDFFounder CVs
PPTX + PDFInvestor Material
DOCX + PDFPricing Sheet
DOCX + PDFShareholders Agreement
DOCX + PDFAgency Prototype Handover and IP Notes
DOCX + PDFBoard Minutes and Use of Funds Appendix
DOCX + PDFData Processing and Compliance Notes
DOCX + PDFGermany Recruitment Targeting Brief
DOCX + PDFMarket Evidence and ICP Research
DOCX + PDFResourcing and Timeline Sensitivity
DOCX + PDFUnit Economics and Cash Flow Appendix
Score Overview
Score, Stage and Confidence in One View
The overall score is a weighted summary of twelve dimension scores. It is a model output based on the submitted materials and on public information. The estimated funding stage places the case against companies at the same stage, which is the difference between a weak case and an early one. The report states its own confidence alongside both.
Bottom 25% of same-stage companies. 5th percentile rank among Series A companies.
Executive Summary
The Findings That Change the Case
A first pass needs the small number of findings that could materially change the assessment. They are separated from the ones that only need tidying.
CRITICAL — unit economics are inverted. CRITICAL — no technical organization exists.
Business Idea
Is the Problem Real, Is the Solution Logic Sound, and Is the Differentiation Defensible?
Thirty-six discovery interviews confirm 6–10 hours of manual work per recruitment campaign, so the pain is real and quantified. The same job is already served by Google Performance Max, Meta Advantage+, LinkedIn Campaign Manager and generic LLMs. The one claimed differentiator, compliance, is contradicted by the company's own targeting brief.
The claimed uniqueness does not survive scrutiny.
Offering
How Mature Is the Product, What Still Has to Be Built, and What Could Delay Delivery?
The five-step workflow is clear and addresses a real pain point. The product behind it is a prototype with no live hosting, no monitoring, no access control and no automated tests. The export step to Google, Meta and LinkedIn is the part that creates the value, and it is planned rather than built.
The demo is an investor-only web app in the agency's cloud.
Team
Can This Team Build the Product, Sell It and Govern the Company?
DDScore maps each role against the operating plan, checks stated experience against available public information and reconciles the founder team with the ownership documents. Here, one person carries both product and sales execution, no technical leadership exists, and shareholders with no documented operating role hold 48% of the company.
No CTO, ML engineer, security lead or DPO. One founder is the product-and-sales bottleneck. Three shareholders with no documented role hold 48%.
Team78% analysis confidence
26Team
Individual profilesHidden in Shared Report
Market
Does the Evidence Support the Market Size and Target Share?, Is the Sizing Built Bottom-Up, and Is the Demand Reachable?
The market thesis is more credible than a generic AI-marketing TAM claim. A EUR 6B+ German display market and 694k average vacancies create genuine recurring campaign workload. The EUR 420M SAM is assumption-based, and the year-5 target implies capturing roughly a quarter of it from a zero base.
The market opportunity is real, but no ability to capture it has been demonstrated.
6 of 18 analysis sections shown
Competitors
Including the Competitors the Material Left Out
A competitive chart drawn by the company is not evidence. The field is rebuilt from current sources. Each entry names the owner and answers the displacement question: why would this customer switch?
Adway, Joveo and SmartDreamers serve the same ICP with live products and integrations. None appear in the deck.
Technology & IP
What Is Owned, What Is Rented, and What Would a Competitor Need to Replicate It?
The architecture is documented honestly, which is unusual and useful. What it documents is an OpenAI API call orchestrated by prompt templates, with no proprietary model, no fine-tuning, no patent and no proprietary data. IP assignment from the external agency completes only after the final invoice is paid.
This is one API swap away from commoditization.
Scalability
What Happens to Cost, Capacity and Delivery When Volume Grows?
Revenue growth is tied linearly to API cost, so every additional customer widens the loss. There is no self-serve onboarding, no automated delivery pipeline and no production infrastructure. Every customer requires manual setup and human compliance review.
Adding customers increases cash burn instead of reducing it.
Legal & Regulatory
What Is the Compliance Exposure, and Who Ends up Carrying It?
The targeting brief contains age-based, family-status proxy and nationality proxy logic that violates German AGG, inside a product positioned on compliance. GDPR groundwork is absent, with no DPIA, no DPA, no lawful-basis review and no retention schedule. EU AI Act classification for recruitment use has not started.
Deploying this would expose the company and its customers to regulatory action.
Exit
What Plausible Outcomes Mean at This Valuation
Each scenario ties its probability to the valuation and explains what the outcome would mean for the investor.
At EUR 43.75M post-money, most realistic exit values return less than invested capital.
Presentation
Is the Narrative Coherent, Are the Facts Consistent, and Which Investor Themes Are Missing?
This is the strongest dimension by a wide margin. The deck covers every standard investor theme and gives explicit negative answers where they are due. Zero customers, negative unit economics, missing roles and a hostile shareholders' agreement are all documented rather than hidden.
This should not be confused with investment quality. The honesty is a positive signal for diligence, not for the company.
Financials
Do the Numbers Hold, and What Happens When the Business Scales?
The company has no recurring revenue or paying customers. Its reported 82% gross margin excludes the largest variable cost in the model, while the cash bridge contains a sign error that materially overstates the funding position. The financial case cannot yet support the proposed valuation or funding ask.
Zero ARR and MRR. EUR 312,000 of reported revenue is one-off consulting revenue.
Unit Economics
Every Customer at Scale Loses Money Before CAC
At one million monthly impressions, the model projects EUR 22,000 in revenue, EUR 4,000 in hosting costs and EUR 150,000 in API costs. That produces a negative EUR 132,000 contribution before customer acquisition costs and operating expenses. The current pricing model makes growth increase the loss.
EUR 22,000 revenue − EUR 4,000 hosting − EUR 150,000 API costs = EUR −132,000 contribution.
Fundability
Is This Round Investable at This Valuation and on These Terms?
The company is seeking EUR 8.75 million at a EUR 35 million pre-money valuation without recurring revenue or paying customers. The proposed round, ownership information and shareholder terms do not yet form a financing case an investor could approve as presented.
EUR 8.75M raise · EUR 35M pre-money · zero paying customers.
Cap Table, Shareholder Agreement and Red Flags
What the Investor Would Actually Be Signing
The deck seeks EUR 8.75 million, while the shareholder agreement limits the financing to EUR 4 million. Three shareholders representing 48% of the company are not documented in the agreement. Full-ratchet protection, broad veto rights and the absence of a complete cap table create material uncertainty around ownership, control and the terms of the investment.
EUR 8.75M in the deck · EUR 4M limit in the shareholder agreement · 48% held by three shareholders not documented in the agreement.
Founder Questions
The Questions the Evidence Still Cannot Answer
Every unresolved contradiction becomes a question for the founder. Edit the list, drop what you do not need and add your own. Send it to yourself or to the company. Nothing is sent until you confirm.
Your cash bridge shows EUR 7,950k ending cash, but the correct calculation yields EUR -1,100k.
A EUR 9.05M sign error that would have passed a normal first read.
Investor follow-upQuestions for the founder team
15 questions1Financials
Your cash bridge shows EUR 7,950k ending cash, but the correct calculation yields EUR -1,100k. What is the actual cash position after the round?
2Financials
API cost is EUR 0.15 per impression-generation while pricing is EUR 0.012-0.019. What changes will reduce API costs by 10x?
3Team
The Product Lead owns product rebuild, sales engineering, demos and pilot onboarding. Who will own each responsibility?
4Team
You have no CTO, ML engineer, security lead or DPO. What happens if a CTO cannot be hired within 90 days of close?
Score Interpretation
What a Score in Each Band Actually Means
Three bands explain each range of the scale. An early-stage case reads lower for structural reasons rather than because it is worse. The report states plainly that individual variance is high.
Scores are statistically indicative inputs, not investment advice. Individual variance is high.
Deck Completeness
Exactly What the Deck Is Missing
Every investor theme is marked Present or Weak. Each row carries the evidence the analysis found and the action to take. These are the sections an investor will ask about that have not been answered.
Traction / Validation — Weak. 36 interviews, 0 paid pilots, 0 ARR. Replace the LOI list with a paid-pilot pipeline; exclude related parties.
Glossary
Written to Be Forwarded
Every specialist term the report uses is defined in plain language at the end. The report can go to a partner, a board member or a founder without a translation layer in between.
Full-ratchet anti-dilution — repricing earlier shares to the lowest later issue price; extremely investor-unfriendly when granted to founders.
Reading toolsGlossary
Term definitions- CAC
- Total cost of acquiring a new customer.
- LTV
- Revenue expected across the customer relationship.
- ARR
- Annualized value of active subscription contracts.
- DPIA
- Assessment of high-risk personal-data processing.
- SHA
- Agreement governing shareholder rights and obligations.
- COGS
- Direct costs of producing or delivering the service.
- Contribution margin
- Revenue minus all variable delivery costs.
- Token cost
- Usage-based fee paid to the AI model provider.
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