Building a Data Room: What Investors Want to See

A data room is a secure online folder for investor due diligence. Having materials ready shows you are organized, respect time, have nothing to hide, and are serious about closing. Essential Folders: Company Overview (pitch deck, executive summary, one-pager, demo), Financials (historical P&L/balance sheet, model, cap table, bank statements, budget), Metrics (dashboard with MRR/ARR/growth/churn, customer list, pipeline, cohorts), Product (roadmap, architecture, IP summary, security/compliance), Team (org chart, founder bios, key hires, agreements), Legal (formation docs, prior financing, material contracts, cap table details), Market (TAM analysis, competitive landscape, research). Platforms include Google Drive, Dropbox, DocSend (tracks viewer behavior), Notion, Carta. Best practices: clear folder hierarchy, consistent naming, permissions control, keep updated, require NDAs, respond to requests within 24 hours. Build before fundraising so you can send links within hours.