Deal Memo Drafting

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

1. Frame the memo.
   • State the decision the memo supports.
   • State the audience and how formal the document should be.
2. Inventory the evidence.
   • Separate confirmed findings, inferences, and unresolved gaps.
3. Build the memo spine.
   • Thesis, market, business, economics, risks, open questions, recommendation.
4. Draft with explicit honesty.
   • If a section is weak because the diligence is weak, say so.
   • Do not quietly fill missing evidence with confident prose.
5. Tighten for decision-readiness.
   • End with what the decision-maker should do, why, and what still needs verification.
6. Optionally use Open Brain.
   • Search for prior deal notes, past meetings, or earlier thesis fragments.
   • Capture the final memo summary or recommendation after the draft is complete.

Evidence and Judgment Rules

• Use the best available evidence from research, model review, and meetings.
• Always distinguish known facts from inference and unresolved gaps.
• Never overstate conviction just to make the memo feel complete.
• If economics are weak or unclear, say the memo should not lean on them heavily.
• Preserve contradictory evidence where it materially changes the recommendation.

Output

Default output:

• thesis or recommendation summary
• market and business summary
• economics or model implications when relevant
• key risks and open questions
• recommendation with explicit confidence and next-step requirements

Works Well With

• competitive-analysis for market and positioning sections
• financial-model-review for economics and downside framing
• research-synthesis for source-backed findings and contradictions
• meeting-synthesis for management, partner, or internal decision input

Notes

• This skill drafts from diligence. It should not pretend to replace diligence.
• A good memo is allowed to say "not ready", "needs more proof", or "do not proceed yet".