Due Diligence Checklists › Marketplace › Growth / Pre-IPO
Marketplace Startup Investment Checklist: Growth / Pre-IPO Stage (2026)
This checklist covers 23 due diligence items for Marketplace startups at the Growth / Pre-IPO stage. Each item has been validated against institutional investor practice. DDR automates the majority of these checks from a single pitch deck PDF upload.
23 checklist items · 4 red flags automatically detected · See a sample DDR report
Growth / Pre-IPO Requirements
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$10M+ ARR with clear path to $100M+
✓
Profitability or credible path to profitability within 24 months
✓
Category leadership: top 1–2 in defined market
✓
CFO and board ready for public market scrutiny
✓
Revenue quality: multi-year contracts, low churn, high NRR
✓
Institutional governance: audit committee, independent board majority
Marketplace Sector
✓
Liquidity metrics verified by category and geography
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Take rate trend confirmed and stable
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Bypass rate estimated through user interviews and transaction audit
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Network effect evidence documented in cohort analysis
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Worker classification legal opinion obtained
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Key supplier concentration: top 10 suppliers < 20% of GMV
Deep Dive
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Measure true liquidity: percentage of listings that result in transactions by category
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Check bypass rate: survey samples of buyers/sellers about off-platform behavior
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Review take rate trend: has it been stable, rising, or declining?
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Assess network effect evidence in cohort and geographic data
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Interview both supply and demand side users independently
Regulatory
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Verify: Worker classification: gig economy platforms face ongoing IRS and state scrutiny on contractor vs. employee
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Verify: Antitrust: dominant marketplaces face regulatory scrutiny on self-preferencing and exclusivity
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Verify: Consumer protection: transaction guarantees, fraud liability, and dispute resolution obligations
OSINT Signals
✓
Check: App Store / Play Store downloads and ratings trend
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Check: Supply-side community forums (Reddit, Discord) for sentiment
✓
Check: Google Trends for marketplace brand and category terms
DDR AUTOMATES THIS CHECKLIST
Upload a Marketplace startup pitch deck and DDR automatically completes 16+ of these 23 checklist items — sourcing data from 13 OSINT signals, benchmarking against 3 comparable companies, and detecting all 4 critical red flags.
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