Questions and answers
Frequently asked questions
The service, the evidence standard, and the decisions that remain with your deal team.
Start with the question that matters to your mandate. These answers describe the research service and platform; the engagement scope records the requirements agreed for your firm.
The service
What is Docket?
Docket is an origination research firm and platform for private equity firms. It researches companies against your acquisition criteria, retains the evidence behind accepted answers, and keeps unresolved questions visible. Your team can run the platform directly or choose managed delivery.
Who is the service for?
Docket serves private equity firms and their deal teams and operating partners. The starting point is an acquisition mandate: what a company must do, where it must operate, and which questions determine whether it deserves further investigation.
Do we bring a target list?
You can bring an existing spreadsheet or ask Docket to build a list around the mandate. Both approaches start with clear company identities and screening boundaries. A name on the starting list is a candidate for research, not an assertion that it qualifies.
How do self-serve and managed differ?
Self-serve lets your team manage the list, criteria, research runs, and results in the platform. Managed delivery adds a dedicated analyst, daily written reporting, and weekly criteria review. Both use Triage, Scout, and Audit. Delivery options and pricing appear on the engagement page.
Does Docket advise on investments or represent sellers?
Docket is not a broker-dealer or M&A adviser and does not represent either side of a transaction. Research and scoring help organize an investigation. Your team remains responsible for diligence, valuation, negotiations, and investment decisions; a research score is not investment advice.
Research and evidence
What do the three agents do?
Triage resolves identity and checks disqualifiers first. Scout collects typed answers supported by verbatim quotations from retained pages. Audit reviews those retained materials with every fetch tool denied, settles contradictions, strikes unquotable findings, and leaves gaps visibly open.
Can the research follow our own criteria?
Yes. Your criteria become the agents' questions, with fixed answer lists and defined evidence requirements. Disqualifying conditions are separated from scoring preferences. The criteria workshop clarifies what each question means so the same standard can be applied across the target list.
What supports an accepted answer?
An accepted research field needs a verbatim quotation from a retained source page. The record connects the typed answer with its evidence and dates. A quotation supports what the source says; it does not make the source infallible or remove the need for diligence.
What happens when an answer is not public?
The gap stays visible. The agents do not turn a missing revenue figure or an unclear ownership statement into an invented answer. Your team can use the open question to plan a direct conversation, request additional evidence, or decide that the uncertainty prevents qualification.
How are conflicting sources handled?
Audit reviews contradictions using the material already retained, with fetching denied. It checks whether the quotations support the recorded values and strikes unsupported findings. Where the retained evidence cannot settle the question, the uncertainty remains visible rather than being hidden inside a summary.
What does a company score mean?
A score reflects your screening rules and the evidence collected against them. It helps prioritize review within the mandate. It is not a valuation, an estimate of investment returns, or a substitute for examining the supporting answers and the questions that remain unresolved.
Data and confidentiality
Is our docket separate from other clients?
Each client's docket is a separate database. Target lists and criteria are treated as confidential client information. Before a mandate starts, discuss the access, retention, and review requirements your firm needs so those requirements can be addressed in the engagement scope.
Who owns the data?
The client owns its data. Client dockets are not pooled or resold. Your target list and the criteria that organize it remain client information even when the underlying company facts come from public sources. See the trust page for handling details and review questions.
Can we export or leave the platform?
You can export to CSV or Excel at any time. At offboarding, export what your team needs and request deletion at termination if required. Discuss the applicable retention and deletion process as part of the engagement rather than assuming a particular deletion timetable.
Which model providers and subprocessors are used?
Ask us for the current list of subprocessors and their data terms. Review those terms against your firm's requirements before submitting client material. Security and data-handling questionnaires are answered on request, including questions about the processing and retention requirements relevant to your proposed mandate.
Does research bypass restricted sources?
No. The research described here uses public information without bypassing logins, paywalls, or technical restrictions. Robots directives and source terms are respected. If an important answer is unavailable through permitted public sources, that limitation belongs in the record as an open question.
Outreach
Is outreach required?
No. Email, LinkedIn, and phone outreach are optional on every plan. You can use Docket for research and export the results for your own team. Choosing a research engagement does not by itself authorize any company to be contacted.
Who approves targets and messages?
The client approves the messaging and each target before contact. Research qualification is separate from permission to approach a company. Existing relationships and exclusions should be reviewed before outreach, so a company that fits the mandate is not contacted against your instructions.
Can we exclude existing relationships?
Yes. Exclusion lists are honoured. Provide existing relationships and other companies that should not be contacted before outreach is prepared, and flag changes when they arise. A target's fit with the acquisition criteria does not override an exclusion or replace client approval.
How is outreach compliance considered?
The outreach review considers the channel, recipient geography, and applicable requirements, including CAN-SPAM, CASL, GDPR, and UK PECR where relevant. Messaging approval and sender authentication do not by themselves establish permission to contact someone. Read the outreach compliance guide and agree the scope before contact.
What happens when a target wants a conversation?
Where outreach produces a qualified conversation, the handover includes a brief connecting the company to the mandate and identifying open questions. Your deal team takes the relationship forward. Research and outreach do not guarantee a response, a meeting, or a transaction.
Commercial
What are the first ten free targets for?
The first ten targets let your team inspect the research method against its own criteria. Review the typed answers, quotations, and gaps, then refine the questions before expanding the work. Send a list and criteria, or describe the list you need built, through the contact page.
Where can we find pricing?
The engagement page contains the plan descriptions and current pricing component. Self-serve, managed, and enterprise arrangements differ in how the work is operated and coordinated. Discuss the mandate, expected research needs, and delivery preference before deciding which arrangement fits your team.
Can we inspect the platform first?
Yes. The platform page links to the live demonstration workspace and explains the record, evidence, scoring, and research runs. Demo data is illustrative. You can also request a platform walkthrough to focus the discussion on the questions and review process relevant to your mandate.
What should an initial enquiry include?
Describe your firm, mandate, geography, size preferences, starting list, key criteria, desired channels, delivery mode, and timeline. Leave undecided fields open. Do not send material non-public information or confidential deal documents in unsolicited email; discuss the handling requirements first through the contact page.
For the sequence of work and plan details, see how an engagement works. Review trust and data handling before sharing client material, and outreach compliance before agreeing contact channels. To inspect the product, open the live demo; for a mandate-specific question, contact Docket.
Send us ten targets. We research them for free.
A target list and your acquisition criteria are enough. You get back company records with scores, the evidence behind every field, and the questions the public record could not answer.