For PE deal teams, CFOs, and family office principals: 12 Claude prompts that write the investment committee memo, the bull case, the bear case, and the one line that sinks the deal, with a reconciliation gate that rederives every figure before the memo assembles. Replaces the principal week and the deal team behind every memo.
Never used Claude? It is free and takes 30 seconds to open. Copy the instruction below, paste it into Claude, and it reads this page and walks you through everything, one question at a time.
A short instruction plus a link to this page lands on your clipboard. First copy asks for your email once. That unlocks every button across the whole library.
Free account, no card, 30 seconds. This tab stays open so you can come back.
Open claude.ai ↗Claude reads this page, asks which computer you are on, then guides you step by step until it works. If anything errors, tell Claude what you see, and it fixes it with you.
If you can browse the web, open and read this page in full first, it has the complete guide and every prompt you will run (the vault is under the-vault anchor): https://consultance.ai/library/ic-memo-desk#the-vault . If you cannot open links, tell me and I will paste the page in, do not guess the prompts.
I want to start writing investment committee memos with the IC Memo Desk on my own deal. Walk me through it.
This is NOT a Terminal or coding install. There is no `git clone`, no `npm install`, no command line. It is all inside the Claude app (claude.ai in a browser, the Claude desktop app, or the Claude add-in inside Excel). Treat me like a PE principal, a CFO, or a family office principal who has never touched code.
What I am setting up: a private Claude Project so the prompts in the vault on this page can read my model, my CIM, and my data room, and draft the IC memo, the bull case, the bear case, and the one line that sinks the deal. Nothing installs on my machine. Once set up, I paste a prompt, replace the `{{TOKENS}}` with my real input, and run it. A named human partner reads and signs before any memo reaches committee.
Honest ceiling, tell me this up front: the prompts on this page are about 60 percent of the build. They draft the memo well. Consultance wires the last 40 percent into production, live data off my VDR and model, role based access so the right people see the right memo, an audit trail my LPAC and auditor accept, and multi entity scale so every deal in the fund runs the same reconciled memo. When I hit that wall, the answer is "wire it", not another prompt.
Because my deal data is marks, the model, and management numbers, the data-stays-in-my-tenant point is not optional. Confirm I am on a Team or Enterprise plan before I load anything real.
Walk me through this one step at a time. Wait for me to confirm each step before moving on:
1. Confirm the plan. For real deal data I want a Team or Enterprise plan so my numbers stay in my own tenant. Tell me how to confirm that under my account. If I am on a free plan, tell me I can test the first prompt but real deal work needs the firm tenant.
2. In the left sidebar of claude.ai click "Projects", then "Create Project". Name it for the deal, for example "Project Atlas IC Memo".
3. In Project Knowledge, add what the prompts will use (the data source I pick in prompt 01): the LBO or operating model, the CIM, the data room exports, management accounts, the credit agreement or LPA. If I am using the Claude add-in inside Excel, tell me to keep the model open and skip the upload.
4. In the Project's Custom Instructions box, paste this: "You are an IC memo desk supervised by a named human partner. Every figure in the memo must tie to a source I provide or a named model cell. Never invent a number, a multiple, or a comp. Show the bear case before the bull. Surface the one line that would sink the deal. Do not assemble the final memo until the reconciliation gate reads RECONCILED. Flag every memo for human partner review before it reaches committee."
5. Open a new chat in the Project. Copy prompt 01 (the router) from the vault on this page. Paste it. Answer its questions: deal type, the one decision, where my data lives, deal name, sector, check size, committee date. This configures every later prompt.
6. Pin the model. Use Claude Fable 5 for the judgment prompts: the bull case (03), the bear case (04), the kill line (05), the reconciliation gate (08), and the red-team (11). A lighter model is fine for assembly and formatting. Define the pin: at the top of the chat, or in the model picker, select Fable 5 for those runs.
7. Run 02 through 07 on a deal I already know, so I can compare the memo to one I trust. Replace each `{{TOKEN}}` with my real input.
8. Run prompt 08, the reconciliation gate. This is the one nobody skips. It re-derives every headline figure a second way from my raw inputs and hard-stops on a mismatch. The memo does not assemble (prompt 10) until it reads RECONCILED. Treat any mismatch above my tolerance as a blocking fix.
9. Run 09 (the Q and A war room), 10 (assemble the memo), and 11 (the partner red-team). Before the memo reaches committee, open audit-compliance-overlay.md from the bundle. The recordkeeping and marketing rules apply whether a person or a model drafted the memo.
Rules for walking me through this:
- One step at a time. Tell me exactly what to click and where it is on the Claude page or the Excel ribbon.
- Define jargon once: Project, Project Knowledge, Custom Instructions, add-in, ribbon, model pin, `<review_gate>`, `{{TOKEN}}`, reconciliation gate, kill line, bull case, bear case.
- If the UI looks different (web vs desktop vs the Excel add-in, Team vs Enterprise), give me the variant. Do NOT tell me a step is "not possible". Tell me to look for a "Projects" or "Workspaces" section, a "Custom Instructions" field, an "Add files" upload, or the Claude add-in under the Excel "Home" or "Insert" ribbon. If none exist, fall back to pasting my numbers into a chat and running the prompts there.
- Never tell me to install anything via Terminal. The whole bundle runs from a browser tab, the desktop app, or the Excel add-in.
- Anti-pattern call-outs: if I say "my IT blocked claude.ai", tell me about the Team or Enterprise plan with SSO or the desktop app. If I say "the Claude add-in is not in my Excel", tell me to check the Microsoft 365 admin add-in catalog, or paste my numbers into the web app. If I say "I do not have a paid plan", tell me the free plan tests the first prompt but real deal data needs the firm tenant.
First message: ask me only "What kind of deal is this memo for, a control buyout, growth or minority, private credit, an add-on, or a co-invest or fund commitment? And are you on a Team or Enterprise plan so your deal data stays in your tenant?" Then start with step 1.
When prompt 01 runs cleanly and the rebuilt memo on a deal I trust matches, switch into "DM mode" and ask me which part of the memo eats the most of my week, the bear case, the return work, or the committee Q and A, so I can help wire that one into production first.Grab the whole pack as one file, or tap any prompt below to copy it on its own. Placeholders that look like {{THIS}} get swapped for your own numbers — and if you ran Step 1, Claude fills them in for you.
For PE deal teams, CFOs, and family office principals: 12 Claude prompts that write the investment committee memo, the bull case, the bear case, and the one line that sinks the deal, with a reconciliation gate that rederives every figure before the memo assembles
The setup rail and every prompt above are free and stay free. The cost is your time, and the risk of wiring it wrong on live data.
Back to the prompts ↑The prompts are about 60 percent of the build. We wire the last 40 percent into production: live data off your VDR and model so the memo refreshes when the deal does, role based access so the right people see the right memo and appendix, an audit trail your LPAC and auditor accept, and multi entity scale so every deal in the fund runs the same reconciled memo the same way. Done with you, then handed over so you own it.
Book a build call →Yours to use and adapt inside your firm. The prompts stay in your own Claude tenant. Your deal data is never uploaded to us, stored by us, or seen by us.
Want this wired into your stack instead of running it yourself? That is our AI deal desk and finance automation service.
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IC Memo Bull Bear and Kill Line is a finance and data build in the consultance.ai AI Build Library. For PE deal teams, CFOs, and family office principals: 12 Claude prompts that write the investment committee memo, the bull case, the bear case, and the one line that sinks the deal, with a reconciliation gate that rederives every figure before the memo assembles. Replaces the principal week and the deal team behind every memo. It fits PE deal teams and principals, CFOs and controllers, and family office principals who walk into investment committee and need the memo to survive the room. Setup difficulty is Medium, with 5 plain-English steps.
For PE deal teams, CFOs, and family office principals: 12 Claude prompts that write the investment committee memo, the bull case, the bear case, and the one line that sinks the deal, with a reconciliation gate that rederives every figure before the memo assembles. Replaces the principal week and the deal team behind every memo.
It fits PE deal teams and principals, CFOs and controllers, and family office principals who walk into investment committee and need the memo to survive the room.
Medium to set up — one guided setup instruction covering 5 plain-English steps, plus 12 ready-to-run prompts on the resource page.
The prompts are about 60 percent of the build. We wire the last 40 percent into production: live data off your VDR and model so the memo refreshes when the deal does, role based access so the right people see the right memo and appendix, an audit trail your LPAC and auditor accept, and multi entity scale so every deal in the fund runs the same reconciled memo the same way. Done with you, then handed over so you own it.
Yours to use and adapt inside your firm. The prompts stay in your own Claude tenant. Your deal data is never uploaded to us, stored by us, or seen by us.
IC Memo Bull Bear and Kill Line is the starting point. On a free AI audit we map where it fits your stack and what consultance.ai would build around it.
This build comes from our AI consulting and AI implementation practice — see the full AI in finance guide and how we work with CFO teams.