The decision you are actually making

Whether to write the cheque, and on what conditions.

The people around you at that moment are your lawyer, your bank, and the sponsor. Counsel will read the documents. The bank will tell you what it distributes. The sponsor will tell you the story. Nobody in that room is being paid to give you an independent commercial verdict on the fund itself.

That is what this is.

What I do

Scored diligence, not a memo. The commitment goes through a fixed set of dimensions and gates so the answer is comparable to the next one, rather than a feeling written up well.

The structure, read honestly. First-time funds, blind-pool components, related-party arrangements where the sponsor, the operator and the deal-sourcer are the same entity, hedge-fund fee and liquidity terms, startup rounds priced on the last raise rather than the business. These are not disqualifying. They are pricing questions, and they need naming.

A verdict you can act on. Proceed, conditional proceed, or decline, with the conditions written as a checklist rather than a caveat.

NINE DIMENSIONS, THREE GATES GATE 1 · FACTS ON THE GROUND Flagship-asset traction Fundraise momentum Sponsor financial health GATE 2 · THE PAPER Fund terms Governance Related-party structure GATE 3 · THE THESIS Competitive position Team credibility Exit story vs market multiples each dimension scored, with an argument each dimension scored, with an argument each dimension scored, with an argument The verdict: proceed · conditional proceed · decline, with the conditions written as a checklist
The method as it ran on the 2026 fund commitment below: nine dimensions scored across three gates, ending in a verdict the investor could act on.

What you get

The record

A family office fund commitment, 2026

A seven-figure commitment to a first-time private equity fund raised by an established operating group in its sector. The profile required structure: a large blind-pool component, a related-party arrangement in which the sponsor, the operator and the deal-sourcer are the same entity, and a well-capitalised competitor already active in the same strategy. I put it through scored diligence: nine dimensions across three gates. The verdict was a conditional proceed, with four information gaps named explicitly and each one closing before capital could move. The remaining diligence became a checklist. Read the case.

An early-stage deep-tech co-investment, 2026

A round closing under time pressure. The brief called the valuation what it was: aggressive relative to the business today, and named who should not invest. Modest base case, asymmetric upside if the thesis plays out. Written to be argued with. Read the case.

Before 2025, on the corporate side

As Managing Director and Partner at a prior advisory firm, I led the buy-side commercial due diligence for a leading Asia-focused private equity fund's acquisition, mapping the target's growth roadmap to its commercial upside under bear, base and upside scenarios. The deal closed. That is diligence on an operating company rather than on a fund, and it was delivered under a different roof, but it is where the method comes from.

The public evidence

APAC Go-to-Market Country Intelligence scores 22 Asia-Pacific markets from public data, free to download and reuse with attribution. It will not tell you whether a fund's terms are fair. It will tell you whether the market story in the deck survives contact with public data.

How the first conversation works

Send the materials behind the decision. I will arrive at the 30-minute conversation with a written first view: three things I can already see, and the one question a first phase would have to answer. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so on the call. The person on the call is the person doing the work.

After the call, if it is a fit: a diagnostic sprint. Two to three weeks, one question. You leave with a one-page verdict and a go or no-go on anything further. How an engagement actually runs.

Ready to discuss your situation?

The best first step is a short conversation.