FounderFold: the layer on top
- Find candidate deals
- Generate value creation strategies
AI models: they do the analysis, and they’re built in
Private equity deal flow software. “The memo’s there. Where’s what was said in committee?”
FounderFold is the layer on top of AI models: private equity deal flow software that finds candidate deals and generates value creation strategies for portfolio companies. What the committee decided stays here.
Early access is by invitation.
On top of the analysis you already do with AI models
FounderFold for private equity is a layer on top of AI models for a firm: it takes candidate deals from screening to close with a reason at every step, and generates value creation strategies for portfolio companies, with their figures and board reports. The models analyze; FounderFold keeps the decision. The AI is already built in. It is not investment advice.
FounderFold: the layer on top
Find candidate deals
The Explorer searches for companies that fit your criteria, with each fact’s source. Teasers and lists get added, one at a time or in bulk, when your license allows it, and each deal moves through stages with its reason.
Generate value creation strategies
At close, the company becomes a running project: improvement plan, milestones and figures the team follows every week, and a report for its board.
AI models: they do the analysis, and they’re built in
What is private equity deal flow?
Private equity deal flow is the stream of companies a firm reviews before it buys one: the teasers, the first analyses, the due diligence and the committee decisions. Managed well, every company that stops keeps the reason it stopped, and the firm can see where its best deals come from.
You’ve heard this at your firm
“Why did we stop this deal?”
Something decided three months ago is back at committee, and nobody remembers the reason.
“The memo’s there. Where’s what was said in committee?”
Thirty pages of analysis and not one line on why the vote was no.
“The 100-day plan stayed in a PowerPoint.”
By day 140 nobody knows which milestone was met or who owned it.
“Every portfolio company reports in its own Excel.”
Comparing two companies takes an afternoon and a phone call.
“Can we show the auditor how we use AI?”
Everyone uses their own, and what was decided with it isn’t on any shared record.
AI models already write your memo. FounderFold keeps what the committee decided.
| AI models | AI models + FounderFold | |
|---|---|---|
| Screening, due diligence and memo | Screening, due diligence checklists and IC memos, including through dedicated plugins. | When you add the deal’s record, you note what comes out of them under “What you already know”, with its link. |
| Market data | Connectors to market databases, with the vendor’s subscription. | What you note when you add a record stays with its link. With no link, it’s marked “Not checked”. |
| Value creation plan | Drafts of the 100-day plan, EBITDA bridge and KPI tracking. | The company comes in as a running project: stage, milestones, starting figures and goal. “Review the project” leaves alerts with the exact quote. |
| The committee’s decision | Their outputs are drafts that a person reviews and approves. | That approval gets kept: who decided, when and why, in History. Records are never deleted. |
| Explaining AI use | Enterprise plans include audit logs of usage. | Agents don’t decide: they propose, and the Explorer leaves what it finds as “New, undecided”. A person confirms every closure in “Confirm and save”, and shows who confirmed it. |
| The firm’s board | They write presentations from what you give them. | The Board view calculates the PDF from the records, without AI, and “All portfolios” compares funds or strategies. |
Indicative comparison with features offered by some AI models and general assistants as of October 30, 2026; they vary by provider and plan, and change quickly. The column with FounderFold only lists what already works in the panel.
Early access is by invitation.
An uncomfortable question
Think of the last deal you voted down. If the seller comes back at a different price, what do you say?
- What made you stop?
- Was it the price, or something else?
- Does whoever looks at it now know?
How FounderFold runs a private equity portfolio
Evaluation stages for every deal
Screening, first analysis, due diligence, committee and close, each with its decision, its date and the reason that applied.
Points to check against your thesis
Write the firm’s criteria and reasons to discard once. The agents return points to check against them; they never say whether to invest. It is not investment advice.
Each company bought as a running project
After the close, add the company with “Add a running project” at the stage it has reached, with its starting figures.
A value creation plan you can follow
A guided diagnosis becomes an improvement plan of experiments, new lines and child projects, each with an owner and a deadline.
Figures that measure the plan
Record the figures management reports. They measure milestones and kill criteria, so the board sees early what is on track and what is not.
Reports for the board and the partners
The Board view, the board report and custom reports, calculated from the records, for each company and for the whole portfolio.
A mid-market firm closes one deal and plans its first hundred days
Illustrative data — Fictional company, ideas and figures, shown for illustration only.
Vellmoor Partners, a fictional mid-market private equity firm with a deal team of eight and five portfolio companies.
Screen the year’s deals
Of 120 companies reviewed, 104 stop at screening with the reason that applied: a sector outside the thesis, the size or the price expectations.
Analyse the rest
The other 16 go to first analysis and 4 reach due diligence. For each one, the agents return points to check against the firm’s criteria.
Decide at the committee
Two stop in due diligence and two reach the committee. The partners approve one and stop the other, and both reasons stay in the record.
Add the company
After the close, the company enters as a running project at its Consolidation stage, with revenue, margin and headcount.
Plan the first hundred days
The diagnosis becomes an improvement plan with three experiments and one child project, each with its owner, its deadline and the figure that measures it.
A year later the firm can show why 119 companies were not bought, and the board follows the plan of the one that was, from the same records.
Keep every deal and every value creation plan on one record.
Early access is by invitation.
How a private equity firm starts, in four steps
Describe the firm
Its sectors, its ticket size and the reasons it stops a deal. FounderFold proposes the stages and the rubric.
Bring the deals in
The companies under review, one by one or in bulk. Import your company lists, including exports from databases such as SABI or Orbis, when your license allows it.
Add the companies you own
Each one as a running project, with its starting figures.
Follow the plans
The weekly review for the deal team and the board report for each company.
Halden MutualNew lines 2027Board report · Q3 2026Weighted value per year rose to €3.1M; two decisions need the board.
- Weighted value per year
- €3.1Mbetween €1.4M and €5.6M
- Recurring revenue
- €7,000a month; 1 of 4 projects with data
- Ideas discarded this quarter
- 57Top reason: competition
Decisions requested
- Pass the gate for Event cancellation for small venues (Exploration → Pilot).
- Decide on the kill criterion on “Watch” for Landlord rent guarantee.
Cutoff Sep 30, 2026 · Portfolio New lines 2027 · Page 3 of 24
Why private equity knowledge leaks away
Every deal teaches the firm something about a sector, a price or a management team. Most of it stays in a deal folder that nobody opens again.
Screening that cannot be compared
Each associate screens in their own spreadsheet, so the firm cannot see why it said no to two hundred companies last year.
Plans that live in slides
The value creation plan is approved at the close and then followed in decks rebuilt every quarter by hand.
Boards that see figures late
Management reports arrive in their own format, and a missed milestone reaches the board when it is already a problem.
A buyout, from screening to value creation, for example
Stages of your own for a deal that becomes a portfolio company. Each one ends with a person’s decision and its reason.
Projects by stage
Lifecycle: new business line in an existing company · Halden Mutual
Illustrative data — Fictional company, ideas and figures, shown for illustration only.- Milestone done
- In progress
- Pending
- Gate
- No risk
- Watch
- Triggered
- Value creation plan milestone
- Gross margin from 31% to 35% within 18 months of the close Example milestone. Illustrative data.
What a private equity firm can do with it
Deal screening
Every company reviewed through the same stages, with the reason it stopped.
Due diligence follow-up
Points to check against the firm’s criteria for each deal, kept in the deal’s record.
Investment committee
The deals that reach the committee, with their evidence and the decision of the partners.
Value creation plan
A diagnosis and an improvement plan for each company bought, with owners and deadlines.
Board reporting
The board report and custom reports for each company and for the whole portfolio.
What a private equity firm gets
A memory of every deal
The reasons the firm said no stay in the record, so the next deal team starts from them.
Comparable screening
Every deal judged on the same criteria, whoever reads it first.
A plan the board can follow
Milestones, owners and figures for each company, in one view.
Less time building decks
The board report comes from the records, every month, without rebuilding it.
Read next
Questions private equity firms ask about FounderFold
Does FounderFold tell us whether to buy a company?
With third-party deals, the agents return points to check against your own thesis; they never say whether to invest. It is not investment advice. The partners decide, and the reason is recorded.
Can the management teams of our companies work in it?
Yes. Give a management team access to its company’s portfolio as editors: they record the figures and follow the plan, and they see only their own company.
Can we add companies we already own?
Yes. Add each one as a running project at the stage it has reached, with its starting figures, one by one or from a spreadsheet.
Can we keep our fund administration and return models?
Yes. FounderFold holds the deals, the value creation plans and the decisions, with the figures that measure each plan, next to the tools you use for fund administration and return models.
An AI model already writes my memo, with my market data. Why do I want this?
Because the memo is only the start. What comes next stays here: why it was decided, what happened to that deal and how the plan of the company you bought is going, on one record.
Do I have to connect or pay separately for an AI model?
No. The AI comes with your FounderFold membership, with a monthly AI limit in plain sight, and there’s nothing to connect. If you already use a model, keep using it for your own work.
We already have a deal flow CRM. Does this replace it?
It doesn’t need to. Your CRM keeps the relationships and contacts. FounderFold keeps the committee’s decisions and the follow-up after the purchase, next to it.
What do we show compliance?
That agents don’t decide: they propose, and the Explorer leaves what it finds as “New, undecided”. That a person confirms every closure and that each organization sees only its own portfolios. History says who decided what, when and why.
Can each fund or strategy have its own portfolio?
Yes. Keep one portfolio per fund, strategy or sector, each with its own criteria, and see them side by side in “All portfolios”.
How does a private equity firm get access, and what does it cost?
For private equity firms, FounderFold is in early access by invitation, and pricing is not published. Request access with a few lines about your firm and its portfolio. FounderFold is software and does not provide investment services.
Is our data used to train AI models?
No. FounderFold uses AI under commercial terms in which, by default, inputs and outputs are not used to train models. Each request carries only your organization’s data.
Who decides at a firm using FounderFold
The partners decide, and each decision stays on record with its evidence. The agents return points to check against your criteria and never say whether to invest. FounderFold is software: it is not investment advice and it does not provide investment services.
Private equity or search fund?
A private equity firm runs many deals and several portfolio companies at once, with a deal team and a committee. A search fund is one or two people looking for a single company to buy and run.
Keep every deal and every value creation plan on one record.
Early access is by invitation.
Tell us who you are and what you want to solve. If it is a fit, we create your organization and send the owner an invitation.Leave your details and we’ll email you when the Founder membership opens. Nothing to pay now.Leave your details if you are interested in deal analysis and we will email you about it. Signing up does not give you access to any service or commit you to anything.
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We have sent you an email to confirm your address. Until you confirm it, your request does not count and we do not handle it; if you do not confirm it within 7 days, we delete it. The link lasts 72 hours: if it does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder or send the form again.We have sent you an email to confirm your address. Until you confirm it, your request does not count and we do not handle it; if you do not confirm it within 7 days, we delete it. The link lasts 72 hours: if it does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder or send the form again. Once you confirm, we will only email you when the Founder membership opens, unless you ticked the news box or the design partner program box.We have sent you an email to confirm your address. Until you confirm it, your request does not count and we do not handle it; if you do not confirm it within 7 days, we delete it. The link lasts 72 hours: if it does not arrive within a few minutes, check your spam folder or send the form again. Once you confirm, we will only email you about deal analysis, and about your case only if you described it, unless you ticked the news box.