The teaser is the first thing a buyer sees and often the only thing they read before deciding whether to sign an NDA. It filters the entire process. A strong business with a weak teaser generates fewer signed NDAs than an average business framed for the right buyer.
This checklist covers what a teaser must answer, what it must not reveal, and the failures that quietly cost a process buyers. It assumes nothing about which tools or advisors you use.
What it has to answer in the first ten lines
- What the business does, in one sentence a non-specialist can repeat.
- Which market it serves, and why that market is worth a buyer’s time.
- Size: revenue and adjusted EBITDA, with the period stated.
- The growth profile, and whether it came from volume, price, or acquisition.
- Why this business is different from the other three teasers on the buyer’s desk this week.
If a partner scanning fifteen teasers cannot answer “does this fit my mandate” within ten lines, the document has failed regardless of what follows.
What must not be in it
- The company name, or any combination of facts that identifies it.
- Customer names, or a customer list specific enough to reverse-engineer.
- Precise location where the sector is small enough for that to identify the seller.
- Named management, or biographies detailed enough to search.
- Screenshots, product images, or logos carrying identifying marks.
- Exact figures where a range protects anonymity without weakening the story.
Test the anonymisation by handing the teaser to someone who knows the sector and asking them to name the company. If they can, revise it.
The financial summary
- Three years of history plus the current year, clearly labelled actual, forecast or run-rate.
- Adjusted EBITDA with the basis of adjustment stated, even briefly.
- Consistency with the IM. A buyer who signs the NDA will compare the two documents, and any gap between them becomes a question about your credibility rather than the company’s.
- No metric that cannot be supported in diligence.
Framing the risks you cannot hide
Certain facts will surface immediately after the NDA. Customer concentration, owner dependence, a recent margin decline, and the reason for the sale are the four that buyers look for first. The teaser does not need to detail them, but the IM that follows must, and the framing should be consistent between the two. A risk you frame is a risk you control. A risk the buyer discovers is a risk that moves the price.
Common failures
- Written as a compressed IM: every metric included, nothing chosen.
- Leads with company history rather than with the investment case.
- Anonymised so heavily the business becomes unrecognisable and uninteresting.
- Financial summary inconsistent with the model or the IM.
- No clear next step or contact protocol for an interested buyer.
- Sent to a buyer list built after the teaser, rather than shaped alongside it.
Final checks before it goes out
- One page, or two at the absolute maximum.
- Readable on a phone, because that is where it will first be opened.
- Every number traceable to a source document you can produce on request.
- Reviewed by someone who has not worked on the mandate, for both anonymity and clarity.
- Consistent with the IM already drafted or in progress.