Hiring senior executives at a startup.
Strong executive candidates run their own diligence on a startup before accepting: runway, cap table, board dynamics, metrics and how their equity fits in. A small candidate room, opened under NDA late in the process, answers those questions in a controlled way and shows how the company is run.
Executive hiring room
- 01 Company overview
- 02 Financial summary
- 03 Board materials
- 04 Equity
- 05 Role
- 06 Offer
- 07 Team and culture
How it works for a startup.
When hiring a CFO, CRO, VP of Engineering or another senior leader, founders often reach a point where the candidate asks for real numbers. They want to see burn and runway, the latest board deck, the cap table summary, investor terms that affect common stock, and sometimes customer and pipeline data. Executive recruiters often coordinate this step.
The offer itself has details that need care: option grant size and exercise price, vesting, acceleration on change of control, severance and title. Candidates will compare the grant against the fully diluted share count and preference stack, so they need enough data to value it.
Because finalists may join a competitor if the hire falls through, share only what the decision needs, under NDA, with watermarks and access that ends when the process does.
Top 10 data rooms for this job.
Our five measures, re-weighted for executive hiring. Places 11 to 17 are listed below the cards.
- Setup speed 21%
- Investor experience 20%
- Access control 29%
- Diligence tools 12%
- Startup pricing 19%
- 1 9.1/10First-rate
- $149 monthly
- 14-day free trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- SOC 2 (hosting)
- 2 8.2/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 9/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 3 8.2/10Strong pick
- $250 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- SOC 2
- 4 8.1/10Strong pick
- $55 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 9/12 feature checks
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- HIPAA
- 5 8.1/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 7/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- 6 7.9/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 10/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 7 7.9/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- 8 7.7/10Good option
- $299 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 7/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- 9 7.6/10Good option
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 10 7.6/10Good option
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
Show places 11 to 17
- SmartRoom 7.5
- DealRoom 7.5
- Onehub 7.3
- Digify 7.2
- ShareVault 7.0
- DocSend 6.9
- Venue by DFIN 6.5
Folder index.
A starting structure for this room. Rename folders to fit your company and keep the numbers.
Latest investor deck, strategy memo, org chart.
Recent monthly financials, burn, runway, budget.
Selected recent board decks, with sensitive sections removed.
Fully diluted share count, preference summary, option pool, latest 409A value.
Role description, success measures for the first year, reporting lines.
Offer letter draft, equity terms, benefits summary, acceleration and severance terms.
Handbook, team bios, leadership principles.
Data for the role: pipeline for a CRO, systems overview for a CTO, finance stack for a CFO.
Need every file by stage? Use the startup data room checklist.
Must-have features.
| Provider | NDA e-signing | Dynamic watermarks | View-only and download control | Viewer activity log |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellty | ||||
| iDeals | ||||
| SecureDocs | ||||
| Citrix ShareFile | ||||
| Firmex | ||||
| Datasite | ||||
| Ansarada | ||||
| CapLinked | ||||
| Drooms | ||||
| Intralinks |
- NDA e-signing
- Investors sign the NDA or click-through terms before the room opens.
- Dynamic watermarks
- Stamps the viewer email and the time across every page, so a forwarded screenshot points back to its source.
- View-only and download control
- Set each file to view only, print or download, and change it later without resending anything.
- Viewer activity log
- Shows which investor opened which file, for how long and when, and exports the record.
Set up the room in 6 steps.
- 1
Decide when to open the room
Open it for one or two finalists only, after references and before the offer.
- 2
Require an NDA
Have the candidate accept an NDA before the first file opens.
- 3
Prepare an equity summary
Show the fully diluted count, preference stack in plain terms and the current 409A value, so the candidate can value the grant.
- 4
Trim board materials
Share recent board decks with items about other personnel or confidential negotiations removed.
- 5
Sign the offer in the room
Send the offer letter and equity documents for e-signature and file signed copies.
- 6
Close access
Remove access as soon as the candidate accepts, declines or leaves the process.
Common mistakes.
- Sending the full board deck by email to several finalists.
- Offering a grant without explaining the fully diluted count, so the candidate cannot value it.
- Leaving candidate access open months after the process ended.
- Promising equity in an offer before the board approves the grant.