Diligence that scales
with deal size.
Most small teams don't need Kroll. But most of them deserve more than a Google search before signing a vendor contract, accepting an investor, or onboarding a key partner. Sentinel is the middle that didn't exist.
No card. No signup. About 90 seconds per Quick Vet.
Either you can't afford diligence — or you can afford too much of it.
Small teams hit a wall around the first material counterparty deal. The decision is too important for a Google search, but a traditional DD firm engagement is typically quoted in the mid-five-figures and runs two-to-six weeks — which makes no sense for a $200K vendor agreement.
So most teams skip it. They sign, they hope, and most of the time it works out. Until it doesn't, and the cost of the mistake — a vendor that disappears, an investor with hidden litigation, a partner whose principals are under SEC investigation — is far more than the diligence would have been.
Sentinel is the missing rung on the ladder. Standard DD reports run 4–8 pages, complete in a few minutes, cost $399 a month for 25 of them. Same primary-record discipline as the big firms. None of the retainer.
Four moments
it pays for itself.
Vendor vetting before SOC 2 / DPA signing
Before a vendor touches your customer data, run a Standard DD on the company and its principals. Surface litigation, security incidents, ownership concerns.
First investor / advisor due diligence
An angel wants in. A potential advisor offers their network for equity. Both deserve a structured background check before the cap table moves.
Strategic partnership pre-MOU
A larger company wants to white-label your product or co-sell. Run them through Standard DD before signing the term sheet.
Acquirer or acquihirer outreach
Cold outreach from a buyer. Vet the entity, the deal team, and recent activity before letting them into the data room.
Standard DD · $399 / month
Twenty-five Standard reports per month. 4–8 pages each. Multi-lens analysis (devil's advocate, regulator, counterparty), behavioral consistency checks, ranked red flags, recommended next steps. Right-sized for a 5–25 person team running real-money decisions.
Not a chatbot.
An analyst with a method.
The moat isn’t the data sources — those are public records anyone can pay for. It’s the discipline the agent applies to them. Four habits that separate Sentinel from a search wrapper.
What it actually looks like.
A redacted excerpt from a Standard DD on a prospective acquisition target.
Executive Summary
VERDICT — Proceed with Conditions. Subject entity is operational, properly formed, and revenue-generating. Two material red flags warrant indemnification carve-outs in the SPA before close.Top Red Flags
▸ [VERIFIED] Pending Delaware Chancery suit (C.A. No. 2025-████) — fiduciary duty claim filed Jan 2026 by minority LP. Material to deal value.▸ [REPORTED] Founding partner referenced in 2023 FT investigation re: undisclosed related-party transaction at prior firm. Not independently confirmed.▸ [REPORTED] Two senior departures in last 6 months — pattern, not single event.Positive Signals
▸ [VERIFIED] Clean across OFAC, UK HMT, EU consolidated, UN sanctions.▸ [VERIFIED] No PEP exposure on principals (3 individuals screened).▸ [VERIFIED] Audited financials available — Big-4 reviewer, clean opinion FY24.Confidence
Overall: High (84%) — primary records accessible, ownership chain mapped to UBO. Limiting factor: one offshore vehicle (Cayman) with restricted disclosure.Recommended Next Steps
1. Counsel review of C.A. No. 2025-████ filings before LOI2. Direct reference call w/ 2 of 3 departing seniors3. Cayman UBO walk-through via local counsel_Depth scales to stakes.
Not the other way around.
A bouncer doesn’t need a 60-page institutional report. A $50M acquisition isn’t safe with a one-pager. Sentinel listens for the decision behind the request and calibrates accordingly.
- §Verdict-first summary
- §Top 3 signals — red, amber, green
- §Confidence rating
- §One concrete next step
- §Structured executive brief
- §Findings by category
- §Ranked red flags + positives
- §Recommended diligence path
- §Structured brief +
- §Deep narrative + timeline
- §Jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction
- §UBO mapping · litigation · media
- §Risk matrix · open leads
- §Bring your own data feeds
The questions
we hear most.
How is this different from hiring an investigator on Upwork?+
An investigator gives you one report on one subject and disappears. Sentinel is a structured, repeatable workflow — the same agent applies the same rubric to every subject, you can compare reports across counterparties, and the cost is fixed. It's infrastructure, not a one-off.
Will Sentinel reports hold up if our lawyer reviews them?+
Every report cites primary public records and labels each claim by evidentiary weight. Counsel can verify any source directly. Sentinel doesn't replace legal review — it's the structured pre-counsel briefing that gets you to the right questions faster, with the documentation already attached.
What if we hit our 25 reports in two weeks?+
Top-up packs are $399 for 25 more, no friction. If you're consistently hitting the cap, Institutional ($1,499/mo, 100 reports) is built for that volume.
Vet the deal before
the term sheet. The first Quick Vet is free and takes 90 seconds. If the depth fits, Standard DD is the same workflow scaled up.