Private Equity & Financial Sponsors
Due Diligence Researchin Days, Not Months.
AI-powered primary research that moves at deal speed. From pre-LOI market sizing to post-close customer VOC.
Final ReportAdvanced Therapy CDMO Landscape
What we do
Research engagements for every stageof the investment lifecycle.
From pre-LOI market sizing through post-close portfolio VOC — one platform, one research team, one cost structure. Every engagement is strategist-led and delivered in one to two weeks. HoverTap any card to see the thesis outcome.
01
Pre-LOIThesis validation & market sizing
02
DiligenceCommercial due diligence & competitive
03
Post-CloseWin/loss, pricing, value creation research
04
PortfolioVOC, NPS, brand tracking, exit prep
Pre-LOI
Market sizing & demand validation
Validate market size, growth vectors, and investment intent with budget — directly from the decision-makers writing checks. Beats syndicated reports on freshness, depth, and conviction.
Thesis Impact
2 of 4 verticals viable
Adjacent expansion thesis revised before the wrong bet was made.Cabinets and closets clear the integration-interest bar; stairs and upholstery don’t — sequencing the platform’s real lanes of growth.
CDD
Customer VOC & retention risk
The primary research component every commercial due diligence requires: customer loyalty, churn triggers, pricing power, and share-of-wallet dynamics — sourced from the buyers themselves.
Thesis Impact
Majority flag price as switch trigger
Category leadership intact, but pricing is the only retention lever. Category-leading NPS holds versus competitors, yet a majority — including promoters — cite cost as the renewal hesitation, far ahead of any feature gap.
CDD / Growth
Competitive positioning & share of wallet
Where the target actually wins and loses. Share-of-wallet by segment, attribute preferences vs. competitors, and the expansion lanes worth funding — mapped across decision-maker interviews.
Thesis Impact
3 consolidation threats
Purpose-built moat is real — but three platforms could absorb the category. Bundled platforms, ERP, and EDI incumbents each pull majority consolidation likelihood; data accuracy wins, simplicity competes.
Post-Deal
Win/loss analysis
Why deals close — and why they don’t. Research across won, lost, and never-considered accounts reveals the retention levers, switching triggers, and the playbook for converting lost ground.
Thesis Impact
Notable share see role risk
Lead position holds — but the warehouse layer is closing in. Category-leading NPS leadership intact, yet a notable share of current users see warehouses moving upstack as a structural threat to the platform’s standalone role.
Portco / Growth
Pricing & willingness-to-pay
Elasticity, packaging, and headroom research to quantify how much buyers will pay — and what triggers downgrade. Directly funds margin-expansion theses and pricing-driven value creation plans.
Thesis Impact
Majority would switch on PM bundle
The bigger threat isn’t the incumbent — it’s a PM platform with a GL bolted on. A vast majority of users still escape to spreadsheets; a majority would switch outright if their PM tool added accounting.
Portfolio
Portfolio VOC, NPS & tracking
Continuous customer health research across the portfolio: NPS, product feedback, brand tracking, churn early-warning. Value creation research from month one — included in the license, not a separate engagement.
Thesis Impact
Wide NPS gap
Churn is a profile problem, not a product problem. Current users hold a strong NPS; churned accounts post a deeply negative NPS. The narrow satisfaction gap reveals a deployment-fit ceiling, not weak fundamentals.
Your engagement isn’t on this list?
Segmentation, concept testing, M&A strategy, brand tracking, win/loss analysis, NPS, pricing studies, expert interviews, voice-of-employee, and any custom methodology a deal team needs — all supported under one license.
How it works
AI scale. Human judgment. Ten days.
AI handles the scale. Senior researchers steer the strategy.
- Day 0Kick-offAIDrafts the research brief from your thesisResearcherSenior researcher leads a 45-min intake call
- Day 1–2Design + recruitAIBuilds the guide and screener; sources verified experts from premium panelsResearcherReviews the study and vets the panel
- Day 3–5FieldAIRuns mixed-method interviews in parallelResearcherMonitors quality, flags and reruns
- Day 6–8AnalyzeAIRuns cross-tabs, thematic, sentiment, MaxDiffResearcherValidates findings, builds the narrative
- Day 10ReportAIDrafts the IC-ready deck and workbookResearcherCurates the final, ships to the deal team
Selected work
Research that moved
the investment thesis.
Every engagement below shipped to a deal team in under two weeks. Methodology, sample, and thesis impact disclosed — client names held confidential.
Tech & Cyber
Private EquityN=67
Mobile App Security Diligence
Mobile is the channel. Security is the budget line. The platform's moat clears across four regions.
Industrial
Private EquityN=169
Single-Use Polymer Components Diligence
Regulatory filings lock revenue in, the low-cost-region threat sits at price not quality, and the moat holds.
Industrial
Private EquityN=47
Enterprise Supply Chain Software Diligence
Purpose-built advantage holds, but consolidation risk runs three ways: GPO, ERP, and AI.
Industrial
Private EquityN=20
Specialty Chemicals Target Diligence
Market readiness for advanced acid waste recovery, validated at the fab level.
Vertical SaaS
Private EquityN=46
Legal Virtual Staffing Diligence
Reliable provider in a cost-led market, with a narrow window to become strategic before AI commoditizes the seat.
Healthcare
Private EquityN=247
Vascular Access Product Evaluation
A multi-SKU vascular access portfolio, five markets, one adoption ceiling set by procurement friction.
How it compares
One partner replacesthe research stack.
Most PE research runs through two vendor categories — top-tier strategy consultants and legacy market research firms. UserCue delivers what both promised — faster, and at a fraction of the cost.
Research partner
AI-scaled, researcher-led primary research
Consulting
Tier-1 Advisory
McKinsey · Bain · BCG
Legacy MR
Traditional Research
Ipsos · Kantar · Gartner
Cost Per Engagement
Typical cost per study
A fraction of the cost
$150K–$300K+
$80K–$200K
Speed & Scale
Time to delivery
1–2 weeks
4–6 weeks
6–12+ weeks
Typical sample size
50–1,000+
15–30
40–100
Concurrent studies
Options depending on license
1
1
Methodology & Rigor
AI-moderated interviews at scale
24/7, asynchronous
Not supported
!Limited pilots
Dedicated senior researcher
No junior handoffs
Partner + team
!Manager + analysts
Real-time QC during fielding
Live AI flags
Post-hoc
Post-hoc
Portfolio company coverage
Included in license
Separate
Separate
One conversation replaces a procurement cycle with two vendors.
UserCue is built for deal teams who don’t have six weeks. Fastest way to understand whether it fits your firm’s cadence is a 30-minute briefing.
The research economics
A single CDD workstream costs
$150K–$300K+ and takes 4–6 weeks.
$150K–$300K+
Typical CDD workstream
vs.
10×
More studies for the same budget
UserCue pricing is custom to your firm’s deal volume and scope. Every conversation starts with understanding your current research spend and decision cadence. Three ways to work with us:
First engagement
Pilot Study
$30K flat fee
One full-scale research study, end-to-end. Validate the fit with your deal team before committing to a broader engagement.
Study design, fielding, analysis, IC-ready report
Researcher-led from kick-off to readout
$30K flat fee + honoraria/CPI as pass-throughs · credited toward a license
For firm-wide deployment
Enterprise License
Unlimited on-demand research across deal teams and portfolio companies. One predictable structure — no per-project procurement.
Dedicated research leads, end-to-end
All methodologies included — qual, quant, mixed
Full lifecycle: pre-LOI → CDD → portco → exit
Zero per-project fees
For variable deal flow
Project Bundle
Pre-purchased research credits for teams not yet ready for a full license. No concurrency limits — flex across deal teams and portfolios as needs arise.
Per-study rate scales with volume
12-month validity
All methodologies and researcher support included
Most of our partners start with a pilot study to validate fit with one active deal, then move to a license once their deal teams are live. Every conversation starts with understanding your firm — not selling a tier.
Insightful, actionable, and exactly what we were looking for. The research gave us learnings we couldn’t have gotten any other way — and it was on our desk before the IC.
Operations Lead
Global PE Firm · Industrial Diligence
Ready to move at
deal speed?
30 minutes. We’ll walk you through our research process, show you a real deliverable from your sector, and map out exactly how we’d approach your next deal.
No commitment required. Pilot studies validate fit before any license conversation.