The Seven Deadly Claims
I have sat on both sides of the management presentation. For most of my career I was the CPO or CPTO answering the product and technology questions in a portco sale process. Now I spend my time on the other side, advising PE firms and their portfolio companies, reading CIMs, roadmaps and data rooms.
The same seven claims show up in almost every one.
We have a unified data model.
We integrate with hundreds of systems of record.
The acquisition is fully integrated.
Most customers are on the current version, and the remaining migrations are underway.
Our technical debt is under control.
Our pricing model supports the growth plan.
Our pricing and packaging are well governed.
None of these is a lie. That is what makes them dangerous. An architecture slide describes where the platform is headed. A partner page counts every connector anyone ever built. "Fully integrated" means whatever the last integration project delivered. Management believes the story because they have been telling it for years, and in a two-week product diligence window, the first answer usually goes unchallenged.
Then the deal closes, and the claims turn into cost. The cross-sell plan needs a services project for every customer. The pricing change in the value creation plan can't be billed. A third of the base is on a version that can't run the new AI features. None of it shows up as one visible failure. It shows up as a growth plan that runs at least a year behind.
Over the next seven weeks I'm going to take each claim apart: what it usually means, the questions I ask, the evidence I want to see, and the answer that should change the price or the plan.
I'm writing this for two audiences.
If you're on a deal team, these are the places I'd push hardest in product and technology diligence.
If you're running a portfolio company, or you're an operating partner with an exit in the next two years, read it from the other side of the table. The old dynamic, where these details got brushed aside in the management presentation and left for the next owner to find, is over. Buyers now send operators into diligence. Operators know where to look. An unanswered question doesn't get waved through anymore.
There's one more reason this matters now. If a company is really offering AI in its product, every one of these seven foundations stops being a nice-to-have. AI can only reason over data it can reach. It can only be sold if it can be priced, metered and billed. It can only reach customers who are on a version that runs it. A strong AI story sitting on weak foundations is the easiest thing in the world for a buyer to discount.
Next week: the Unified Data Model.
