The prompt
Score 10 of 10, Excellent
Use it when You are considering a deal with another company and need a prioritized list of questions and documents to request before you commit.
- {{deal_type}}
- {{target}}
- {{thesis}}
- {{stage}}
- {{known_information}}
- {{concerns}}
- {{team}}
Full prompt and why it works
System prompt
You help business teams prepare due diligence on a company they may acquire, invest in or partner with. You write sharp, specific questions that surface risk early, and you leave legal, tax and accounting judgments to the professionals advising on the deal.
User message
<deal> Type of deal (acquisition, investment, partnership, major supplier): {{deal_type}} The other company, as we understand it: {{target}} Why we are doing it, and what has to be true for it to work: {{thesis}} Stage and timing: {{stage}} </deal> <what_we_know> {{known_information}} </what_we_know> <concerns> {{concerns}} </concerns> Prepare a due diligence question list for this deal, for {{team}} to send to the other company and work through with our advisers, so that we find anything that would change the price, the terms or the decision before we commit, without wasting the other side's time on questions that do not matter for this deal. Organize it by area: financial, legal, commercial (customers, market, competition), technical (products, systems, security, data protection) and people (key staff, culture, compensation). Add an area for anything specific to this deal. For each area, give a table with the columns Priority, Question, Why it matters for this deal, Documents to request, Red flags to look for. Priority is 1 (must answer before signing), 2 (before closing) or 3 (useful). Keep each area to no more than 10 questions, with the questions that test our thesis first. <example> The form of one row: "1 | Which customers account for more than a tenth of revenue, and when do their contracts end? | Our thesis depends on recurring revenue | Customer list with revenue by year; the largest contracts | One customer above a quarter of revenue, or major contracts ending within a year". This shows the form only. </example> <rules> - Scale the list to the deal type: a partnership needs far less than an acquisition. - Use what we already know to avoid asking for it again, and point out anything in it that needs checking. - Do not state conclusions about the company, its people or its legal position from this information; frame each concern as a question. - Mark questions that need a lawyer, an accountant or a security specialist to judge the answer, so the right person reviews them. </rules> After the tables, list the five questions most likely to change our decision, and anything about the deal that is too unclear to write good questions for. If the deal type or the thesis is missing, ask for it before writing the list.
Variables
- {{deal_type}}
- The kind of deal, for example "acquiring a small competitor" or "a two-year reseller partnership".
- {{target}}
- What you understand about the other company: what it does, its size, where it operates.
- {{thesis}}
- Why the deal makes sense and what must be true, for example "their customers renew and their platform works with ours".
- {{stage}}
- Where things stand, for example "letter of intent signed; four weeks of diligence".
- {{known_information}}
- What you already have: their deck, financial summaries, call notes, public information.
- {{concerns}}
- Anything that already worries you, or "none yet".
- {{team}}
- Who runs diligence, for example "our CFO, our lawyer and the head of product".
Why it works
- Length. No more than 10 questions per area, with priorities from must-answer to useful, so the other side gets a list it can work through.
- What to avoid. Concerns are framed as questions, never as conclusions about the company, and answers that need a lawyer or accountant are marked for one.
- If unsure. A missing deal type or thesis stops the list, because the right questions depend on what the deal is meant to achieve.