The guide

How this works

One folder in, six steps, four documents out. Every step is below, what it is for and what to do on it, with a picture of the screen you will be looking at. The same words sit under each step as you go, so you never have to come back here.

Back to the start

The shape of it

Four moves. Everything else is detail.

Start

Three boxes and a code from your email.

Your folder

Everything you already have, tidy or not.

We read it

Against what your kind of business needs.

Your list

What is missing, item by item, and who adds it.

What this isWhat your package still needs, before an investor is the one who tells you.

What this is notNot an approval, and not the deep diligence a funder does later.

Your pitch package

These four documents are what a funder expects, and the whole application is about them.

Teaser

One or two pages that let an investor decide, in ninety seconds, whether to ask for more.

One to two pages.

Pitch deck

The case for the deal, in slides. What it is, who pays, what it costs, what it returns, and what could go wrong.

Fifteen to twenty-five slides.

Information memorandum

The full written account of the transaction, with the detail an analyst needs to build their own view.

Thirty to eighty pages, usually.

Financial model

The working spreadsheet behind every number in the other three. Formulas, not a printout.

A live Excel file with its calculations intact.

Home, and the six steps

Home always brings you back. Go to any step, in any order, as often as you like. Do your folder second: everything after it gets easier because of it.

The home page, with the project at the top, one button to carry on, and a tile for each of the six steps — Home. Your project, one button onward, and where every step stands.

0Getting inNo account and no password

You need an email address you can open now, one project, and whatever files you already have. No account and no password.
Fill in the project name, the company name and your email, then press the button. We email you a six digit code and nothing opens until you type it back.
The next screen shows a reference and an access code. Write them down. They are shown once, they are how you get back in, and nobody here can read them back to you.
One application is one project. A second project for the same company is simply started again from this page, and gets its own reference.

The first screen, with boxes for the project name, the company name and an email address — The first screen. Three boxes and one button.

The check your email screen, with one box for the six digit code — One box, six digits, then Continue.

The screen showing a reference and an access code on a dark panel — Shown once. Write them down before you press the button.

1Company infoName and contact

Your project name, your company name, your email and your reference. The two names can be changed here.
Your email address is shown and cannot be changed. It is what proved this application is yours and what your folder was shared to. If it is wrong, tell us rather than starting again.
Start another project is for a second transaction at the same company. It gives you a new reference and does not touch this one.

The company info step, with the names, the address and the reference — Your names and your reference. The address is shown and not editable.

2Your folderUpload it and we read it

One folder in Google Drive with everything you have about this project. We read it. We never change it.
No link yet? Press Create a folder for me and we make one and share it to your email. You do not need a Google account to upload into it.
Put in whatever you have, however rough. A contract, a study, a spreadsheet, a deck. Anything at all is more useful than nothing, and this step is what everything after it is built on.
Then press Run the check. On a large folder it takes a few minutes and it keeps going while you wait; the page refreshes itself. When it is done it lists every file we read, and names any we could not open, which is about us and not about your file.
Run the check again whenever you add something. Nothing you have already answered is lost by running it again.

The folder step, with the three ways to get a folder side by side — Three ways in. If you have no link, we make the folder and share it.

What is in your folder, listing every file that was read by name — After the check: every file we opened, by name.

3Business typeSector and type

This one answer selects everything that follows: every requirement, every question, and the shape of the financial model. It is the most important click in the application.
We suggest a shortlist from the words in your own files, and we show you the words we matched and the file they came from, so you can judge whether our guess is worth anything.
Nothing is ticked in advance and we never choose for you. The full list is on the same screen underneath, by sector and industry. If our shortlist is wrong, ignore it.
Pick the one that describes what you do, not what you own. If two look close, pick either. You can change it later, and if an answer no longer applies to the new type we tell you which.

The business type step, with the shortlist above the full list by sector and industry — We shortlist from your own files. You always pick.

4Project infoAbout this transaction

About twenty questions on this transaction: how it earns, who the parties are, where it is, what stage it is at, what currency.
Where your folder answered a question on its face we have filled that answer in, and each one shows the file and the line it came from. It is our reading, not your statement, until you save it.
Nothing is recorded until you press Save. Read what we filled in, change anything wrong, then save.
A question marked with a star has to be answered before you can submit. The rest can wait.
The counter under the heading counts what is on the screen in front of you, which is why it moves as you type.

The project info step, with the answered count and the first question — About twenty questions. The ones we filled in show where they came from.

5Pitch documentsThe gaps, and who closes them

This is the page the whole application is for, and it has four parts in order.
First, where each of the four documents stands and which file we took for it. If we guessed wrong, change it in the drop down and press the button; one press saves it and reads your folder again.
Second, under each document, every single thing it must carry, not only what is missing. Each line says where it stands, and where a line is only partly there the missing parts are named in words.
Two of the states are about us rather than about you: not checked means we have not built that check yet, and ours means Ways fills it in and you are never asked for it.
Third, one question under each document: who adds what is missing. You write it and upload it again, or Ways writes it and asks you for the figures we cannot get from your folder. You are never asked whether you have a document; our read answers that.
Fourth, once all four are answered, the full list of everything missing, with an offer to email it to you, and a form for each document you asked us to write.

One document with every line it must carry and a label beside each saying where that line stands — Every line a document must carry, and where each one stands.

A table of the four documents, each with the file we read for it, what happens next and how complete its content is — Where each of the four stands, and which file we took for it.

The one question under each document, with two choices, we will add it ourselves or Ways adds it for us — One question under each document. Click again to clear it.

The list of everything missing, grouped by document, with who adds each item — Once all four are answered: the full list, and the same list by email.

6Review and submitSend it to Ways

Everything in one place before anything is sent: where each document stands, every answer you gave, who adds what, and your folder.
If something is wrong, the step it came from is one click away.
If a required figure is still blank there is no Submit button. The page names the form and gives you one button to it. That is the only thing that stops you.
Submitting does not lock anything. Your folder stays live, you can keep working, and you can submit again. We see every submission.

The review and submit step, with everything in one place — Everything in one place before anything is sent.

What the labels mean

On the pitch documents step, every single thing each document must carry is listed, and each line carries one of these.

in your folderWe found it.

only partlySome of what this line asks for is there and some is not. The missing parts are named.

not foundWe looked through everything in your folder and it is not there.

not checkedWe have not built the check for this line yet. This one is ours, not yours.

oursWays fills this in from our own templates. You are never asked for it.

nothing to check it against yetYour folder does not yet hold the document this line belongs to.

3 of those are about us rather than about you. If your folder is nearly empty most lines will read nothing to check it against yet, and that is honest: we have not decided anything about your project.

Filling in a form

The same rules on every form, every time.

Money is typed in whole units. Type 42000000, not 42 million. The separators appear as you type and a letter in a number box is refused.
A currency is always picked from a list, never typed.
Anything that can be worked out is worked out for you as you type. Do not type a total or a gross profit; what you type there is ignored.
A list of things with amounts is a table, with its total at the bottom.
Where there is a set of answers to choose from, there is always an honest not sure. Use it. It is a real answer and better than a guess.
Save goes forward, to the next form that still needs something, and after the last one to the next step.

Words we use

Any term on these pages that is not everyday English is in the glossary, reachable from the top of every page.

The glossary, with a term and its explanation — Any word you have not met is in the glossary, from every page.

Back to the start Glossary