What an operator sees in a data room that a banker misses

Employment contracts tell you where the knowledge sits. If three people hold every customer relationship and none of them are on retention terms, the buyer has bought a risk, not a business.

Support tickets tell you whether the product works. Churn tells you afterwards.

Purchase orders and supplier terms tell you what the working capital cycle will do under growth. A company that grows into a cash crisis looks identical on a P&L to one that grows into cash generation.

Having run a company under pressure changes what you open first. We open the operating files, then the accounts. That is the whole difference.