Deal Memo Drafting

Problem

The hardest part of memo drafting is not prose. It is turning incomplete diligence, competing evidence, and meeting fragments into a clean recommendation without hiding the gaps.

Audience

• Primary: investors and diligence teams
• Secondary: operators writing partnership, acquisition, or strategic decision memos

When to Use

• Drafting an IC memo or deal memo from an existing diligence packet
• Turning research, model review, and meeting notes into a single recommendation document
• Producing a first-pass memo that makes open questions and decision risk explicit

When Not to Use

• Raw market mapping without a memo deliverable: use competitive-analysis
• Reviewing a model in isolation: use financial-model-review
• Synthesizing a source set before the memo is ready to draft: use research-synthesis
• Cleaning a transcript or extracting actions: use meeting-synthesis

Required Context

Gather or confirm:

• the memo type: deal, IC, partnership, acquisition, board, or internal decision memo
• the target audience and decision owner
• research findings, market context, and supporting docs
• model review findings if economics matter
• meeting outputs if decision-makers or management conversations matter
• the current state of conviction and the biggest open questions

Process