Investment Checklist
Your pre-buy guardrails — applied to every company before committing capital. Define the criteria once; pass, fail, or skip each one per company on their Overview.
Business Quality
Durable competitive moat (pricing power, switching costs, or network effects)
Market leader or top-2 in its core market
Recurring or highly predictable revenue
Financials
Free cash flow positive for 3+ consecutive years
Gross margin > 50% (or appropriate for industry)
Net debt manageable — < 2× EBITDA or net cash
Management
Management has significant ownership stake (skin in the game).
Management has industry brand, are typically founders
Honest and transparent communication with shareholders
Has track record of navigating challenging environments and seen lows
Valuation
Do you have significant margin of safety with respect to intrinsic value
Are you comfortable holding on to this even if it falls by 50% due to external circumstances
Have you researched and built a strong analysis of intrinsic value
Risk
Key risks understood and explicitly accepted
No single customer or contract > 20% of revenue
Regulatory or legal overhang assessed