How to Write a First-Look Brief on an Acquisition Target

If you're an agent: Set up Valyu and make your first search.

If you're a human: Create an account and get an API key.

MCP onboarding: Connect your agent to https://mcp.valyu.ai/mcp and follow the MCP setup guide for authentication.

What will the brief show?

Suppose you are an associate at a consumer-focused private equity firm. A partner drops a company name into a chat before Monday's pipeline meeting and asks:

What do we actually know about this company, and is it worth a closer look?

A first-look brief answers that on one page. It separates what the record shows from what people have merely repeated, and it ends with the questions to ask next. We tested two companies, because the work differs depending on whether a target files with the SEC: Olipop, a private functional soda brand, and The Vita Coco Company, a listed coconut water brand. These are research examples, and we are not suggesting either company is for sale.

Step 1: decide what the brief must answer

Use the same headings for every company so that your pipeline stays comparable:

• Ownership and funding: who controls it, and what has been raised.
• Products and channels: what it sells, and where.
• Market and competitors: who it competes with, and any recent deals in the category.
• Financial signals: each figure labeled as reported, estimated or unverified, with a date and source.
• Red flags and open questions: litigation, concentration and one-offs, plus what you can't yet answer.

Step 2: run the brief with Valyu

One of the ways to run it is with Valyu connected to Claude or ChatGPT. Follow the chat apps guide to connect it, then use this prompt for a private company:

Use Valyu DeepResearch in fast mode to write a first-look acquisition brief on Olipop, the private US functional soda company. Cover ownership and funding history, products and sales channels, revenue signals, competitors, recent corporate events, regulatory or litigation red flags, and the questions a deal team should ask next. Treat this as a research exercise and do not state or imply the company is for sale. Mark any revenue or valuation figure as reported, estimated or unverified, with its date and source. List what could not be verified. Ask me to confirm before you start.

For a public company, point the prompt at the filings:

Use Valyu DeepResearch in fast mode to write a first-look acquisition brief on The Vita Coco Company (NASDAQ: COCO). Use its latest 10-K and later 10-Q and 8-K filings. Cover ownership, segments and products, revenue and margin trends, customer and supplier concentration, tariff and supply risks, competitors, red flags, and the questions a deal team should ask next. Treat this as a research exercise and do not state or imply the company is for sale. Give the filing date and section for every figure. List what could not be verified. Ask me to confirm before you start.

You can also run it from your own application with the SDK. Install it with pip install valyu for Python or npm install valyu-js for TypeScript, and set VALYU_API_KEY in your server environment. The Python SDK and TypeScript SDK docs cover the options. Both examples send the private company request. For a public company, swap in the query from the second prompt:

from valyu import Valyu
 
client = Valyu()
 
task = client.deepresearch.create(
    query=(
        "Write a first-look acquisition brief on Olipop, the private US functional "
        "soda company. Cover ownership and funding history, products and sales "
        "channels, revenue signals, competitors, recent corporate events, regulatory "
        "or litigation red flags, and the questions a deal team should ask next. "
        "Treat this as a research exercise and do not state or imply the company is "
        "for sale. Mark any revenue or valuation figure as reported, estimated or "
        "unverified, with its date and source. List what could not be verified."
    ),
    mode="fast",
    research_strategy=(
        "Prefer primary sources: company pages, regulator records, SEC filings where "
        "they exist, and named press. Date every fact. Separate reported facts from "
        "estimates and from inference."
    ),
    report_format=(
        "A one-page first-look brief with: company snapshot, ownership and funding, "
        "products and channels, market and competitors, financial signals, red flags, "
        "open diligence questions. Cite every finding and label estimates."
    ),
)
if not task.success or not task.deepresearch_id:
    raise RuntimeError("No task ID returned; inspect the submission before retrying")
 
print("Save this task ID:", task.deepresearch_id)
result = client.deepresearch.wait(
    task.deepresearch_id, poll_interval=5, max_wait_time=900
)
if result.status != "completed":
    raise RuntimeError("Research has not completed")
 
print(result.output)

Check out all of the other integration options here: https://docs.valyu.ai

Step 3: read the private company brief

Private companies publish no audited accounts, so the brief has to piece together a record from filings, press and court documents. We confirmed these Olipop details at the source:

The funding row is the most useful find. Most coverage repeats $50 million, yet the Form D shows almost four times that. They may both be right, because a Form D can include sales by existing holders as well as new money, and it doesn't split the two. So the brief's first open question is how much cash reached the company.

Step 4: read the public company brief

With a public company, the facts are on file, so the skill is spotting what the headline figures hide. We confirmed these in Vita Coco's fiscal 2025 10-K and third-quarter 2026 10-Q:

The margin row changes the read. The 10-Q says the nine-month increase was "primarily due to the recognition of the tariff refunds", along with pricing and lower freight and tariff costs. So use the third quarter's 38.0% as your starting point, not 42.2%.

Step 5: check the brief at its sources

The two reports differed in source quality, and that decides how much checking you need:

• The Vita Coco report cited only SEC filings. Checking it meant opening each filing, and the figures above matched.
• The Olipop report mixed strong and weak sources. It cited 31 sources, from SEC filings and the California Attorney General to blogs, aggregators and Wikipedia. It credited its funding total to a blog summary, so we rebuilt that total from the four Form Ds on EDGAR. They add up to $240,820,696, which matched.
• It marked weak numbers correctly. Market share, gross margin and subscription figures were labeled as estimates or conflicting. It also warned that one legal website presented payout tiers as if the class action had settled, when no settlement exists. Leave those numbers out of your brief.
• Some gaps were real. Neither report could establish full ownership. Olipop files no cap table, and the Vita Coco report didn't read the proxy statement that holds the ownership table, so read that next.

Figure 1. Three headline figures and what sits behind them, using figures as reported.

How should you interpret the findings?

The decision: for Olipop, keep it on the watchlist as the largest independent the report found in its category, but don't put a value on it from public data. For Vita Coco, you can run a first screen now, using the third-quarter margin and treating customer concentration as the main thing to price.

The next action: for Olipop, take the open questions to a banker or an industry contact: new money against secondary sales, current net revenue and margin, and the status of the class action. For Vita Coco, read the proxy for ownership and the 10-Q notes for the Copra earn-out, then compare the margin with other beverage brands.

The outcome: two one-page briefs for Monday's meeting, each with sourced facts, labeled estimates and a short list of questions, so the partner can decide where to spend the team's time.

How to adapt the brief

Keep the headings and change the company and sector. For software, ask about retention and pricing. For industrials, ask about plants and customer contracts. The acquisition screening guide shows how to request a CSV that keeps each claim with its source. To build the list first, see finding acquisition targets from an investment thesis. For debt, see researching capital structure and covenants.

FAQ

What is a first-look brief in private equity?

It's a short screening document on a possible target, written from public information before any contact with the company. It helps a team decide whether to spend more time, and it comes well before full due diligence.

How do you research a private company's finances?

Start with what is on the record: Form D filings, court and regulator records, and on-the-record statements. Then add named press, and label everything else as an estimate. Expect gaps, because private companies don't have to publish accounts.

What is a Form D, and what does it tell you?

It's an SEC notice of a private securities offering. It shows the amount sold, the number of investors, the date of first sale and the people related to the issuer. It doesn't give financial statements or a valuation.

Why not use the most recent gross margin in a public filing?

You can, as long as you read how it was reached. Compare the quarter with the year to date, look for refunds, gains and acquisitions, and quote management's explanation.

How do I judge the sources in a report?

Rank them: filings and court records first, then company statements, then named journalists, then aggregators and blogs. If a key number rests on the bottom tier, find it higher up or mark it as unverified.

Which DeepResearch mode should I use?

Fast mode gave us a good first look for each company. For a company you plan to pursue, try a deeper mode and check the pricing first.

Build a first-look brief your team can trust

Use the same headings every time, label every figure and check the ones that matter. Give your agents access to Valyu, read the Valyu docs, explore the private equity documentation, or review the SEC filings API comparison.