How to Present Confidential Content Through a Data Room
A data room is an online platform that allows businesses to conduct due diligence or share documents, as well as organize Q&A sessions in a controlled, secure environment. It’s utilized by a variety of industries and is a vital tool in M&A transactions as well as fundraising, IPOs, joint ventures, and legal proceedings. Data rooms are usually used to store and share large, secure files with multiple parties.
Whether you’re raising funds, trying to expand your market, or simply sharing information with your customers, the content that you share through the data room will differ depending on the stage and on the overall narrative that you are supporting. However, there are general best practices that will assist you in creating a compelling presentation with your data room.
Be careful not to divulge confidential information to people who shouldn’t know about it. This is one of a founder’s “worst fears” and can happen in the event of negligence. For example, if you are trying to raise funds for a Series A round, make sure you don’t share your entire investor data room to those who won’t be interested in investing. This could slow the process down and cause a sour tone.
Check that your platform is accessible and consider using an online data room service that supports PCI-DSS. This is an industry standard that mandates strong security measures, including secure data storage, access control, encrypted transmissions, and regular security tests. It is essential to know who viewed what. Document versioning is the simplest and most effective method of doing this.
