Most founders think due diligence starts with an investor.

For me, it starts at least two years before that.

A company called me in to get them “exit ready.” The goal? Build the data room, make reports, make everything look good so that the due dilligence goes smoothly. Easy, right?

We did not go near the data room for a year.

First, we had to automate tasks. Then rebuild cost controls from the ground up. Next, we focused on revenue recognition. In the meantime, we swapped manual work for an AI tool and fixed the sales pipeline.

All this took months. The numbers got less confusing, but we still had no year-over-year view. It took two years to have data you could compare. These were all things the team intended to fix “later.”

Here is what I see over and over:

▶️ The real issues in finance are not hiding. They are things everyone already knows, but nobody has the time to fix.

▶️ You cannot fix finance in two months before a deal. You need time, discipline, and year-over-year data.

▶️Exit readiness is not a one-time project. It is how you run finance every day for years.

When you do this early, buyers see a business that is stable and strong. The worst thing is if the data room shows different results depending on where you look. That destroys trust and hurts your valuation. And obviously you want your business the be valued as much as possible, aren't you?

By the time we opened the data room, most of the real work was already finished. The story made sense because we fixed the engine, not just the deck.

Exit readiness starts long before anyone talks about it. For me, 24 months before you talk to an investor.