How it works
From your thesis to your system.
Start with a conversation, test a free pilot on past deals, then agree a paid build if it’s useful to your team.
The core workflow
Screen the submissions. Flag the fit.
Submitted decks and supporting materials are assessed against your criteria. Potential matches reach partners with a short memo, supporting sources and questions to resolve.
Partners can also use Enki to question the findings before a founder meeting.
The process
Pilot. Evaluate. Build. Refine.
- 01
Define the pilot.
Tell us how you screen today and where your team spends the most time. We’ll agree your criteria, a small set of past deals and success measures for a free proof of concept.
- 02
Evaluate together.
Use a small selection of past deals your team advanced and passed on. Assess the reasoning, the gaps surfaced and the time saved. Historical agreement shows alignment, not who was right.
- 03
Build into your workflow.
If the pilot proves useful, agree a separate paid build. Its features, deployment and support are scoped before work begins.
- 04
Refine with feedback.
Record where partners disagree and why. Check refinements against past deals, with ongoing support agreed for your system.
What you receive
A clear next step, with the reasoning behind it.
01
A fit assessment
See which opportunities warrant a conversation, which need more evidence and which fall outside your mandate.
02
A researched report
Founder claims, supporting evidence and unverified assumptions clearly separated, with sources your team can follow.
03
The next questions
What remains unresolved and which answers could change the view.
Optional / Full build
See what’s changed since your last read.
Compare reported progress with earlier milestones, identify changed assumptions and see what still needs verification.
Optional / Paid build
A helpful response, even when you pass
A voice agent can talk founders through fund-approved feedback: why the opportunity falls outside your criteria, what needs clearer evidence and what to address before their next pitch.
Founders leave with a clearer explanation and practical next steps, helping preserve the relationship even when you pass. Internal partner notes and confidential investment reasoning stay private.
Scoped separately for a paid build, with no promise of funding or reconsideration.
Common questions
Before we start.
Who is this for?
Investment teams with recurring deal flow and a defined mandate: venture funds, angel groups, syndicates, accelerators and family offices.
Couldn’t we build this ourselves with an LLM?
A quick prototype can summarize a deck. A dependable screening system needs experienced engineers to translate your criteria, test its conclusions and maintain it as your process changes. The pilot lets your team judge the results on familiar deals.
How is it priced?
The pilot is free and limited in scope. If you proceed, we agree a commercial model around your needs: a custom build, an ongoing licence, or a combination of both. Pricing reflects the scope, support and any ownership or exclusivity requirements.
What does the free pilot include?
A limited proof of concept using your criteria and a small, agreed set of documents. We produce example screening memos with supporting sources so you can assess the fit, reasoning and usefulness. Integrations, automated intake, production deployment and voice agents for partners or founders are outside the free pilot.
How is confidential material handled?
Before work begins, we agree who can access your materials, which AI providers process them and how long they are kept. Your fund’s information is not shared with other clients without your permission. See Privacy & Confidentiality for details.
Does this replace diligence?
It provides a researched starting point. Your team makes the investment decision; legal, financial and other specialist diligence remain separate.
The exclusions and sustainability requirements we’ve built at Ardabelle are critical to both our value creation and to our reporting transparency. Rigor and speed are typically a trade-off. With this AI tool, we get both.
Cara Kennedy-Cuomo
Founding Partner, Ardabelle Capital
Where does screening slow your team down?
Tell us how you assess deals today. We’ll agree a focused free pilot to test whether Deal Read can help.