When a profile is worth commissioning
Profile the person when the relationship is hard to exit: a co-founder, a board member, an investor, a strategic partner, a distributor who will own your market presence, an executive hire with the keys. The test is reversibility. Anything you can unwind in a month can be learned by working together; anything contractual deserves research first.
The same logic covers companies: the customer about to become forty percent of revenue, the vendor about to hold your data, the acquirer breathing charm. Concentration is exposure, and exposure justifies research.
What a good executive profile contains
A useful profile is verification plus pattern: the claimed history checked against the public record, the ventures that are quietly absent from the bio, litigation and regulatory traces, how previous partnerships ended, and what former colleagues say in public. The pattern matters more than any single fact; people repeat their previous deals.
It should read as evidence with sources, not gossip. Two pages that say "verified, with these three flags worth a conversation" serve a decision; a dossier of speculation serves nobody.
Deal scans before commitments
A deal scan applies the same discipline to an opportunity: is the market claim true, is the counterparty solvent and reputable, what happened in their last three similar deals, what does the structure actually pay under realistic cases rather than the pitch case. An afternoon of structured scepticism, before signature, is the cheapest insurance an operator can buy.
Write the findings down even when they are clean. The scan that cleared a deal becomes the baseline when terms change later.
The ethical and legal lines
Stay on public and consented ground: public records, press, filings, professional networks, references offered and checked. No pretexting, no paying for private data, and mind fair-credit and privacy rules when research touches hiring decisions. The point is the pattern in what is legitimately visible, and it is almost always enough.
Tell counterparties you do diligence as a habit. Serious ones expect it; the reaction of the others is itself a data point.
Profiles and deal scans, researched for you
VelorStrategy’s Intelligence Reports include the Executive Profile Report at $249, the Deal & Opportunity Scan at $249, and the Orbit Report at $249 for mapping the network around a person or company, each delivered in 48 hours by practitioners working public sources.
Keep the reports with the matter itself in the Legal Desk, where contracts and diligence records belong together.
Frequently asked questions
When should I research a business partner or executive?
Whenever the relationship is hard to exit: co-founders, investors, board members, strategic partners, key hires, or any company about to hold concentration risk over your revenue or data. Reversible relationships can be learned by working together; contractual ones deserve research first.
What is in an executive profile report?
Verified history against the public record, ventures absent from the bio, litigation and regulatory traces, how past partnerships ended, and sourced public commentary, presented as evidence with flags worth a conversation.
Is this kind of research legal and ethical?
On public and consented sources, yes: public records, press, filings, professional networks and offered references. No pretexting or private-data purchases, and hiring-related research must respect fair-credit and privacy rules.