Hockystick
Every deal leaves a record that holds.
A deal room, a diligence checklist, and a term sheet that all point to the same reference number.
Every object carries a reference number with a check digit. Read one aloud and a mistake shows immediately.
Closing / Pipeline
What holds together
A close is not a handshake and a wire transfer. It is six confirmed steps, and neither party can skip ahead.
Each step needs the last one done first. The platform enforces the order — not just in what the screen shows, but in what the server will accept, regardless of what either party’s browser sends.
Most steps need both parties to act. Signing happens off the platform; so does payment. What the platform holds is the record of each confirmation — the sequence, the timestamps, and the fact that both sides agreed.
The closing pipeline
| Gate | What happens | Confirmed by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Legal counsel | Either party may bring counsel in, or both agree to proceed without | Both parties |
| 2 · Agreement | The closing agreement is accepted | Both parties, independently |
| 3 · Platform fee | The fee for this close is set and confirmed | Founder sets it, the paying party confirms |
| 4 · Signing | Each party uploads their own signed copy | Both parties, separately |
| 5 · Investment payment | Funds move directly between the parties; the platform records proof and confirmation | Investor uploads proof, founder confirms |
| 6 · Close | Both parties confirm delivery. The room becomes a permanent, read-only record | Both parties, independently |
Funds and signatures move directly between the two parties. The platform records each confirmation — it never holds money or signs on anyone's behalf.
Founder / Control
For the founder side
The deploying side opens the room. The founder controls what it contains.
One profile, one document vault, built once and reused across every room a founder opens. Nothing is shared with an investor before the founder grants access, and every grant is logged.
There is no fee until a raise on the Direct tier reaches its first close.
What a founder controls
| Control | Set by | Visible to |
|---|---|---|
| Document access | Founder, per room | Investor, after NDA |
| Financial detail | Founder, per disclosure | Investor, after founder grants it |
| Team member records | Founder | Investor, only inside an open room |
| Counsel access at closing | Either party | Counsel — term summary and agreement only |
A lawyer invited at closing sees the term summary and the agreement. They do not see earlier diligence or negotiation history.
Product / Term sheet
Seeing it work
A term doesn’t move from proposed to finalized because one side declared it so. Each term carries its own status — proposed, countered, accepted by one side, or locked once both sides agree on the same value.
The room below shows all four states on one screen, mid-negotiation.
Term negotiation · Specimen. Company, investor, and figures are placeholder data, reserved for this purpose and never a real negotiation.
Method / Provenance
Why the mechanisms aren’t ours
None of this is a new invention. Each piece is adapted from a practice that has been tested for decades in a different part of finance.
We are naming the source deliberately. A mechanism with a checkable origin does not ask to be trusted — it asks to be checked.
Where the mechanisms come from
| Mechanism | Origin |
|---|---|
| Single-notice diligence | Documentary credit examination — UCP 600 |
| The conditions register | Secured lending practice |
| The evidence ladder | Insurance underwriting practice |
| Soft-circle tracking | Syndicate practice |
| The check digit | ISO 7064 MOD 97-10 — the IBAN algorithm |
We adopt established process and name its source. Each of these is checkable against its own standard.
Position / Exclusions
What we refuse to build
Some features are the standard shape for this category and we will not build them.
We do not score, rank, or match. We do not tell you who to fund or who should fund you — that judgment belongs to the two parties in the room, not to us.
What we do not build
| We do not build | Why |
|---|---|
| Matching or recommendation | The judgment belongs to the parties, not to an algorithm |
| Readiness scores | An invented number is not evidence |
| Verification badges | We record what a party asserts; we do not certify it |
| Escrow or custody | We are not a bank, broker, or custodian |
| A social feed | Nothing here is content |
Each of these is a deliberate decision, not a missing feature.