Business Diligence

Hard Questions. Hard Sources. Compliant and Discreet.

Researcher-led business diligence for nuanced, contested situations — sources recruited for the question, interviews led by senior researchers, findings synthesized into a structured read. Pre-LOI through underwriting.

What this is

Not another expert call.

Expert networks sell access: a panel, a screener, and calls your analyst runs and synthesizes. A Heron engagement is a conducted investigation — we design the sample, source the people, lead the interviews, and deliver the answer. The same discipline behind the management and public records practices that have long defined the Blue Heron brand, applied to the business itself.

Expert networks
A Heron engagement
A self-selected panel — whoever signed up to take calls.
Sources recruited for the question, including people who aren't on any panel.
Interview quality depends on whoever runs the call.
Senior researchers leading complex, high-impact conversations.
Every screener starts from zero.
Two decades and 80,000+ interviews of context.
Hours of transcripts — synthesis is your job.
A structured report, organized around the questions scoped.
A screener blast can signal your interest.
Your interest is never signaled to the target or the market.
Private equity

Pre-LOI screening and confirmatory diligence on a target — before capital is committed.

Underwriting

Evidence the investment committee can rely on when the model meets the market.

Fundamental equity

Thesis work on public names — testing what the filings alone can't tell you.

What we investigate

Customers, competitors, channel, and market structure.

Structured, ethically sourced interviews with operators, customers, competitors, and senior executives across global markets — organized around the questions the investment actually turns on.

Customers

How buyers choose, what they pay for, and whether they would buy again.

Competitors

How rivals position against the target, and where the pressure is coming from.

Channel

How the product actually reaches the market — the partners and incentives behind the volume.

Market structure

Where power sits — concentration, switching costs, and the dynamics that set pricing.

Combined engagements

Business diligence is strongest in combination.

Add AI-led interviews when the question needs breadth — twenty to a hundred customers, channel partners, or competitors, in hours. Pair it with management diligence on the same company — one engagement covering the business and the people who run it. Add public records diligence for the record behind both.

How it runs

A researcher-led engagement, end to end.

01
Scoping

We define the questions the investment turns on — together, before any calls are made.

02
Sourcing

Curated, vetted source networks built around the target's market.

03
Interviews

Senior researchers leading complex, high-impact conversations.

04
Synthesis

Findings synthesized into a structured report built for the decision at hand.

The deliverable

Interview findings synthesized into a structured report — organized around the questions scoped at the start.

Our compliance framework →
Business Diligence Report · Illustrative
Market & Customer Assessment — Target Company
FINDING: Customers validate the product. Pricing power sits with the channel — margin durability is the deal issue.
Customers · Competitors · Channel · Market structure · interview record attached

Illustrative engagement - composite reflects typical scope, not a specific client.

Proof

Two decades of investment-grade rigor.

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Years of investment-grade rigor
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Interviews conducted
What clients say

“I'd rate the quality of Blue Heron's research a 10/10. The process was smooth and beneficial. I'd happily recommend Blue Heron to a friend or colleague.”

Associate, Private Equity Fund

“Your work has added some plot twists that are definitely interesting and worth having unearthed.”

Associate, Private Equity Fund
Compliance

Compliant and discreet, by design.

Former SEC regulator involvement

A former SEC regulator is involved in our compliance processes.

Post-call review, before delivery

Every interview is reviewed before it reaches you — AI-assisted screening for MNPI, anonymization and defamation, followed by a read by the compliance team and a formal escalation path for anything sensitive. Nothing is delivered until that review is satisfied. On an expert-network call the client hears the content live; here the review sits between the interview and the client. Researchers are also trained on MNPI protocols before their first interview, and compliance is built into scoping, sourcing and interview design.

Documented and reviewable

Every interview is recorded, transcribed, archived, and tagged. Our methodology is transparent and fully documented, ready for review by compliance teams and investment committees.

Confidential by default

Engagements are confidential. Work is structured so your interest is never signaled to the target or the market.

Business Due Diligence

Hard questions deserve hard sources.

Bring us the target or the thesis. We'll bring the people who know.

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Prefer email? sales@heron-intelligence.com