Case study · SaaS
An $11m Series A, with no change to terms in diligence.
A freight software company whose numbers didn’t match. We rebuilt ARR from billing data, built the data room in six weeks and closed an $11m Series A.
Results
$11m
Series A, terms unchanged through diligence
Source: closing memo, Mar 2026
6 weeks
to a complete data room of 84 documents
Source: data room index, Dec 2025
118%
net revenue retention, measured by cohort
Source: ARR bridge, Dec 2025
Mara made us restate two numbers before any investor saw them. It cost us a weekend and saved the round.
Asha Pemberton
Co-founder and CEO, Tidewell
Client
Tidewell
Industry
SaaS
Stage
Series A
Team size
46
Engagement
Fundraise sprint · 6 weeks, then Fractional CFO · 4 days/month
The challenge
Tidewell sells invoice and payment software to freight forwarders. In November 2025 it had 46 people and planned to start its Series A in January.
The deck said $4.6m of annual recurring revenue. The billing system said $4.1m. The gap was signed contracts that weren’t live yet. Net revenue retention was quoted as 131%, from a formula nobody could reproduce. Investors would find both in the first week of diligence.
What we did
We ran the six-week sprint. I rebuilt ARR from billing data with a monthly bridge: new, expansion, contraction and churn. Measured by annual cohort, net revenue retention was 118%. The deck changed to $4.1m live plus $0.5m contracted, with go-live dates.
Then I built a three-scenario model, an 84-document data room with a numbered index, and a Q&A tracker. Asha and I ran two mock diligence sessions before her first investor meeting.
Outcome
Tidewell signed a term sheet in week seven of the process and closed an $11m Series A in March 2026, led by a New York fund. Diligence found nothing the investors hadn’t already seen, so the terms didn’t change.
I stayed on as fractional CFO, four days a month.
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