How to run your Pre-LOI Investment Analysis in 1 hour

December 30, 2025

by a professional from IESE Business School in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Pre-LOI investment analysis typically takes 5 to 10 hours spread over 2 to 3 days. In this article, we'll demonstrate how you can run this in less than 1 hour while deepening your analysis and generating more insights to increase upside, mitigate risks, optimize your deal structure and negotiate better. Executive Summary You can complete your Pre-LOI Investment Analysis within 1 hour by reducing your "Build Time" and "Analysis Time" by 90%: Build Time: use our Pre-LOI Search Fund LBO which covers 90% of what you'll need for a Pre-LOI deal review (see download link at end of post) Analysis Time: use the Fontics Excel plug-in which cuts investment analysis in Excel by 90% (read along for applications specific to Search Funds) We break down the indicative time split to complete your review within 1 hour [30 mins]: Extract key deal terms [10 mins]: Update Pre-LOI LBO [5 mins]: Identify main drivers [5 mins]: Run scenarios [5 mins]: Optimize deal structure [5 mins]: Get indicative deal direction [i.e. to proceed or not] Note: this article assumes some basic understanding of Finance and Excel Read the full piece here (7 mins read) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fontics_how-to-run-your-search-fund-pre-loi-investment-activity-7411740634446786560-xy6l (includes the link to the Pre-LOI LBO model and 6 screenshots)

Reply by a professional
from IESE Business School in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Thanks Ted. Fontics focuses specifically on the investment model analysis, and this article is specifically on the Pre-LOI analysis. It is self-service i.e. you install the Excel add-in and run your analysis with your existing models. Valuable for IB, PE, Search Funds, Real Estate, Credit, Advisory etc. We provided a Pre-LOI LBO model as a way to give back to the community. The template covers up to 90% of the Pre-LOI investment analysis for most deals. [PS: you do not need the template to use Fontics, as Fontics integrates with any Excel model instantly] The real magic of Fontics is how quickly you can find the main drivers of returns or risks, run scenarios, sensitivity, what-if analysis etc and optimize your deal structure (i.e. finding the right balance of debt, seller notes, earn-out etc) or company economics (revenue growth, capex, wc, depr., etc). Most tasks that take hours in Excel can now be completed in minutes... and Fontics does not use AI (i.e. no hallucinations). For you specifically [and your clients], you can speed up the investment analysis portion of the LOI (cuts the time by up to 90%) and free up time for everything else. Happy to chat 1:1 to provide a deeper dive on what is possible.

Reply by a professional
from University of Southern California in North Palm Beach, FL, USA

For decades, I've specialized in preparing searchers and then training and coaching them through pre-LOI due diligence. How can your service help me and my clients, specifically?

+2 more replies.

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