I'm considering investing in a deal (so not a searcher in this case) and I'm curious if I'm asking taboo questions. The executive team in the CIM is an independent sponsor and an operator. However, the setup looks odd to me (though I'm admittedly not well educated here).

The sponsor won't own the business — the operator will. And most of the funding (over 80%) is coming from an SBA loan that the operator is taking out.

My read on the situation is that the sponsor is maybe a consultant helping to get the deal closed in exchange for cash and maybe some equity, but won't have much skin in the game post-close (only upside).

Is there anything wrong with asking specific questions about how much personal cash each person is committing to the deal?