Strategic Options Review
Strategic Options Review helps the founder or programme team critically review raise, scale, partner, licence, sell, wind down or continue choices. Within Exit, M&A & Strategic Options, it turns a broad or uncertain area of the venture into a concrete Bertie work product that can be reviewed, improved and reused. The task is intentionally discrete: it should produce a specific artefact, decision, evidence item or risk signal rather than general learning notes.
Critically test the quality, consistency and readiness of Strategic Options Review. The objective is to remove ambiguity around raise, scale, partner, licence, sell, wind down or continue choices, give the founder a decision-ready output, and make it clear whether the venture should progress, repeat the task with stronger evidence, escalate to expert support, or move into a linked stage.
Bertie or a programme manager assigns Strategic Options Review when the venture needs a decision-ready output for this group. Typical triggers include group-gate reviews, evidence gaps identified by the co-pilot or founder request.
company status; financials; customer contracts; IP/product assets; strategic objectives; existing artefact to review; specific context for raise, scale, partner, licence, sell, wind down or continue choices.
The founder compiles all current financial models, cap table details, market valuation benchmarks, and operational metrics into a consolidated review pack. This process aggregates existing strategic artefacts, previous board minutes, and market signals into a single source of truth for evaluation.
ObjectiveCompiling this documentation establishes an uncompromising baseline of the venture's true performance and strategic positioning. It ensures the strategic options review is grounded in verified operational data rather than optimistic speculation.
What's expectedThe founder produces a structured data-room folder containing audited financial figures, runway projections, active cap table details, and preliminary strategic interest logs. Every piece of documentation must be verified against current bank statements and legal commitments.
Open action arrow_forwardConsultant stress-test · 5 questions- 1.What evidence proves that the financial metrics and runway figures provided reflect true cash realities rather than best-case forecasts?
- 2.How did you ensure that all informal founder commitments and cap table side-letters are captured in this evidence pack?
- 3.Why did you assume these specific historical performance metrics are sufficient to evaluate future strategic optionality?
- 4.Where are the critical gaps in your current data room that an institutional buyer or investor would flag immediately?
- 5.How does the completeness of this baseline documentation compare to market expectations for a venture at your current stage?
- A data-room asset titled Strategic Options Review
- A review note with a verdict, evidence gaps, risks, recommended corrections and a clear continue / repeat / escalate decision
- It should update the venture DNA with specific evidence or decisions about raise, scale, partner, licence, sell, wind down or continue choices, create a visible milestone in the founder journey, and generate one or more recommended next tasks
Bertie co-pilot analyses strategic options, maps acquirers or licensing paths, identifies diligence gaps and recommends preparation or closure actions. For this task, it should focus on raise, scale, partner, licence, sell, wind down or continue choices, prompt the founder for missing inputs, draft or improve the output, flag weak assumptions, and record the result back into the relevant data-room section.
A mentor or evaluator can review the output at the group gate. Programme managers can require an advisor checkpoint before Bertie moves the venture forward.