Funded before the Big Four could start
A mining technology company had a funding deadline and a three-week wait for its first choice of adviser. It closed the round on the day that firm was scheduled to begin work.
The situation
A technology company serving the mining sector needed a pro forma forecast and valuation to close its next funding round. The investor deadlines were fixed.
A major consulting firm quoted roughly five times our fee and needed close to three weeks before it could put anyone on the work. The company did not have three weeks. Missing the window meant recutting burn assumptions and putting pipeline opportunities at risk.
What we did
The CEO called on a Friday. Historical financials and the company’s working assumptions came over the same day.
We spent the weekend validating those assumptions and building out the forecast, and had a draft with the CEO by Sunday evening. The board and its advisers reviewed it during the week. Final deliverable inside seven days.
How it held up
The company took the forecast into discussions with its underwriters and funding group. No revisions were requested. The technical accounting behind the numbers held, and the feedback was positive.
The outcome
Funding closed at one-fifth of the quoted fee.
The round completed on the same day the competing firm had been scheduled to start. The company kept its deadline, its burn assumptions, and its pipeline.
Why it matters
Speed is usually sold as a trade against rigor. What this company needed was work that would survive an underwriter’s questions, delivered before its window closed.
Those two things stop competing when senior people do the work themselves. Most of the three-week mobilization a large firm quotes is spent assembling a team, not analyzing a business.