THE DIRECT ANSWER
Growth diligence tests whether a company's acquisition engine, customer journey, measurement and operating team can support the growth thesis. Start with public signals to identify questions. Use authorised account and customer evidence to test economics. Record every material finding with its source, uncertainty and the decision it affects.
01
Draw the evidence boundary before the review
An outside-in review can inspect the website, offer, search presence, public advertising and enquiry path. It can identify inconsistent messages, broken journeys and questions for management. It cannot establish the target's spend, customer acquisition cost, conversion performance, margin or return on advertising.
Agree the decision the work must inform. A pre-exclusivity screen and an account-backed diligence review have different evidence. Label untested management statements as management statements. Keep estimates, platform reports and reconciled company records distinct.
| Layer | Useful evidence | Main limit |
|---|---|---|
| Public review | Offer, visible search presence, public ads and customer journey. | No proof of commercial performance. |
| Account review | Channel settings, reported outcomes and historical changes. | Reports depend on definitions, tracking and attribution. |
| Customer and finance review | Customer quality, revenue, costs and retention by agreed cohort. | Missing identifiers or inconsistent periods can prevent reconciliation. |
| Operating review | Owners, capacity, partner dependencies and execution records. | Interviews need supporting evidence and a real operating example. |
02
Ask five questions about the growth engine
For each question, request the strongest available evidence and log what remains unknown. A good finding states the consequence. For example, account ownership held by an outside partner creates a handover dependency that needs a named resolution before a channel change.
- Demand: which customer needs and markets support the thesis, and which assumptions rely on unverified estimates?
- Acquisition: how concentrated is new-customer flow across channels, campaigns, partners and locations?
- Conversion: where do prospects drop out between interest, enquiry, qualification and purchase?
- Measurement: can the company trace a sample of outcomes back to customer records and reconcile costs?
- Operations: who can run the work, what capacity is available, and what changes when a partner or key person leaves?
03
Send a focused data request
Ask for an agreed historical period that covers the relevant sales cycle and seasonality. More files do not fix incompatible definitions. First test a small sample end to end. Expand the review after the join between marketing, customer and finance records works.
| Request | Purpose | Common reconciliation check |
|---|---|---|
| Channel exports and change history | Understand reported demand and management changes. | Use consistent dates, currencies, account boundaries and outcome definitions. |
| CRM or order cohorts | Follow enquiries to actual customer outcomes. | Identify duplicate, lost, existing and new customers separately. |
| Finance cost and revenue records | Check channel economics against company records. | Separate media, partner fees, delivery costs and collected revenue. |
| Contracts and access register | Identify dependency and handover requirements. | Confirm who controls accounts, assets, data exports and renewal decisions. |
| Operating process and capacity | Check whether growth can be served. | Compare the written process with a recent real enquiry and its handoffs. |
04
Do not turn channel credit into a growth forecast
Google Analytics describes attribution as assigning credit along the customer journey. That credit is one input to diligence. Also test whether customer outcomes reconcile, whether other business changes affected demand, and whether the proposed plan has the capacity and owners it needs.
Keep a base case and an unproven opportunity separate. Record what evidence would change confidence. Avoid adding assumed channel improvements together when the same customer journey appears in more than one report.
05
Write findings the deal and operating teams can both use
Close with the evidence-backed findings, unresolved questions and a short operating agenda. Preserve the distinction between a visible issue, its proposed remedy and a proven improvement. The investment team remains responsible for underwriting and the investment decision.
| Field | Example entry |
|---|---|
| Observation | The sample of web enquiries lacks a consistent final outcome. |
| Evidence and limit | Specified records and dates reviewed; remaining channels untested. |
| Thesis implication | The review cannot yet establish the quality of acquired demand. |
| Next request | Reconcile the sample with customer and sales records. |
| Post-close action | Assign an outcome owner and test one complete enquiry journey. |
| Decision owner | Deal lead owns the investment decision; operating lead owns the repair plan. |
PUT THE GUIDE TO WORK
Bring the target and the growth questions.
Tenth's Growth Diligence service examines five parts of the commercial engine. Phase 0 provides a public-information starting point before deeper access.
Explore Growth DiligenceAbout this guide: Tenth provides growth management and AI engineering for private equity firms and their portfolio companies. The checklists are editorial recommendations. Adapt them to the company's evidence and agreed responsibilities. Send a correction or discuss the work.