The work is in that middle step. Exit memos describe a company as it was on the day the fund left, and the people, the systems and sometimes the legal entity have moved since.
What did the exit change, and what did it leave alone?
The exit ended the fund's rights, not the company's eligibility. It also put a date on everything in the fund's files.
| What the fund had before the exit | What it has now | What that means for a referral |
|---|---|---|
| A board or observer seat | Usually none | A former director asks as an outsider, not from inside the boardroom |
| Information rights and monthly reporting | Ended, or limited to whatever the documents say survives | Headcount, systems and owners in your files are only as current as the last report |
| Copies of board decks and data-room files | Still on the fund's drive | A copy is not a right; U.S. copyright law treats owning a copy and owning the copyright as different things (17 U.S.C. § 202) |
| A founder-CEO you spoke to every month | A relationship that may no longer reach the CEO | The founder may have left, or may now report to a buyer's CEO |
Two things the exit does not change: the published fit tests, and the rule that the CEO authorizes a licensing discussion. The size test counts full-time employees at peak, contractors excluded, so a business that shrank after the sale can still pass if it once had 50 or more full-time staff and the records from those years still exist.
Who is the operating entity, and who controls it today?
Find the legal entity that holds the records today, then the person or company that controls it. Both are often different from what the exit memo says.
| Exit route | Where the records usually sit afterward | Who decides today | First evidence to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Secondary sale, company still independent | The same company | Its CEO, under new major shareholders | The company's own leadership page or announcement, dated |
| Sale to a strategic buyer, kept as a subsidiary | The acquired company, now owned by the buyer | The buyer's CEO, who decides for the acquired company | The buyer's announcement; for a public buyer, its Form 8-K |
| Merger into the buyer | The surviving entity | The buyer's CEO | The merger announcement and the entity's current registration status |
| Asset sale, seller entity wound down | The buyer, for records listed as purchased assets | The buyer's CEO, or nobody if the records were left behind and destroyed | What the founder or former director knows about the asset schedule |
| Recapitalization by a private equity firm | The same company | Its CEO, often newly appointed | The sponsor's announcement and the company's leadership page |
| Founder left, company continues | The same company | The current CEO, not the founder | The company's leadership page |
The purchase agreement decides where records go, and a former owner keeps no licensing rights unless it reserved them; who owns company data after an acquisition covers each structure.
Public buyers often report acquisitions on Form 8-K, whose Item 2.01 covers the completion of an acquisition, generally within four business days. The SEC's Financial Reporting Manual ties that report to acquisitions above a significance threshold, so a small company bought by a large one may never appear. A missing 8-K proves nothing.
The current-control verification checklist
Seven checks, in order. Each needs dated evidence; anything undated, or ownership facts older than 12 months, counts as unknown (our working rule, not a program requirement).
| # | Check | Evidence that counts | Does not count | Stop or route if |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The entity that holds the records is identified | A dated announcement, the buyer's filing or the company's own site naming the entity | The exit memo; the fund's CRM | The entity was dissolved and nobody can say where the records went |
| 2 | Today's controller is known | An announcement or filing from the last 12 months, or the company's own confirmation | A news story from the year of the exit | Control is split 50/50, under a court order or in bankruptcy, where the CEO alone may not be enough |
| 3 | Today's CEO is named | The company's leadership page or the CEO's own confirmation | The founder's title in your files | Nobody can name the CEO |
| 4 | Someone can ask that CEO and be heard | A named relationship owner who agrees to ask | "We know them" with no name attached | The only path runs around the CEO |
| 5 | The company still passes the fit facts | A peak of 50+ full-time employees, records that document its operating history, the right to license them, an eligible location | Funding history, brand, growth | Any fit fact fails |
| 6 | Nobody has introduced it already | The company says it has no application or relationship with SourceX | Silence | It already applied, has a relationship or was introduced |
| 7 | What you share is yours to share | Public facts, or facts the current CEO gives you for this purpose | Board materials and reports received under information rights | The introduction only works by using confidential fund material |
Seven passes: the relationship owner asks, and you submit only after the CEO says yes. Any unknown: park the row with a recheck date. Any stop: do not introduce, and record what would change the answer. Check 6 is a courtesy; SourceX checks its own records before inviting a company, and one it already knew is not credited to a later partner.
The portfolio company screening workbook covers the fit columns; this checklist adds whether the fund's picture of the company is still true.
Two decisions on the checklist (Illustrative)
Illustrative. Generic companies, invented facts, no outcomes implied.
Case A, introduce: a claims-services firm sold to a group. The fund exited a 160-person claims-services firm in 2023, selling it to a services group backed by a private equity firm. The group's announcement names the firm as a subsidiary, the group's own site names the CEO who now decides for it, and the founder still runs the firm day to day (checks 1 to 3). The partner who held the board seat speaks to her quarterly and agrees to ask (4). The firm has 160 full-time staff and eleven years of its own claim files in one system (5), no earlier contact with SourceX (6), and the ask uses only what she says on the call (7). She wants the conversation and takes it to the group's CEO, whose yes is the one the introduction waits for. A parent and its subsidiaries count as one company for the reward cap, as the subsidiary cap guide shows.
Case B, rejected: the founder with an old export. The fund exited a 70-person logistics software company in 2020 through an asset sale: the buyer took the contracts, codebase and support archive, and the selling entity was dissolved. The founder, now an angel investor, offers to "bring the data" from exports he kept. Checks 1 to 3 point to the buyer and its CEO. Check 4 fails, since nobody at the fund knows that CEO, and check 7 fails, since the founder's copies carry no right to license what the buyer bought. Rejected, with a note to restart at check 4 if a path to the buyer's CEO appears, because an introduction that CEO never heard about would usually not be a fit.
Mandate, language and history questions
A clean checklist means "fit to introduce", never "accepted". SourceX applies the criteria of a specific program rather than one universal minimum, checks relevance to its current data needs in review, and allows that an exited company missing one program's criteria could still suit a later program.
Language and location matter after cross-border exits, because group systems can change what the records are and where they are held. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 70% of the data is in English.
History is the quiet risk. Buyers often move an acquired company onto group systems and archive or switch off the old ones; a dated migration or deletion is real urgency, a quarter-end is not. Ask, through the relationship owner, whether the older systems still exist and who administers them, and keep questions descriptive: record type, rough count, span of years, system, administrator. The program never needs a partner to export, upload or describe confidential records.
What to say after each checklist result on an exited company
Say what you know, what you do not and who decides. Never tell a relationship owner or a CEO that the company qualifies.
| Checklist result | What you do | What you say |
|---|---|---|
| All seven pass | The relationship owner asks; submit only after the CEO says yes | "It meets the published screening facts. SourceX decides in its own review." |
| One or more unknown | Park the row with the missing fact and a recheck date | "We don't know who controls it today, so nothing goes out until we do." |
| Split control, court order or bankruptcy | Do not submit as an ordinary introduction; record who would have to agree | "This needs more than the CEO's yes, so we're holding it." |
| A fit fact fails | Reject and record the condition that would change it | "It doesn't meet the size test today. We'll look again if that changes." |
| Already applied or introduced | Stop | "SourceX already knows the company, so a later introduction isn't credited." |
Leave out payout estimates: SourceX has not published typical payouts or conversion rates. Introducing through a sponsor or directly to the CEO weighs the approach, and someone referred my company shows what the company sees next.
Where this checklist can mislead you
- Stale evidence. Leadership pages lag reality, which is why check 3 accepts the CEO's own confirmation.
- Missing filings. Only acquisitions above a significance threshold require an 8-K report, so silence in the filings is not evidence of independence.
- Rights. An asset sale can leave the brand with one owner and the records with another, and copies held by founders or funds carry no rights.
- Demand. SourceX checks relevance in review, and requirements differ by program. A row that passes all seven checks can still be declined today.
- Relationship cost. Asking a former founder to approach a buyer's CEO spends goodwill, and no data on how they respond has been published.
Method note. The checklist rests on the screening and attribution rules SourceX publishes, read on 2026-10-26 from its who-qualifies page and from Version 2026-10-22.2, since replaced by version 2026-11-04 of the terms, with evidence types from SEC disclosure requirements and U.S. copyright law. It does not measure demand, record quality or payout, it has not been tested on a cohort of exited companies, and no acceptance figures are published. The company-side view is in SourceX's portfolio licensing scenario; the fund side starts at the overview for venture platform teams.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
When an exited company passes all seven checks and today's CEO wants the conversation, register for a partner link, confirm the row against who qualifies and read the program terms; whoever submits signs the SourceX Channel Partner Agreement first.
Referring an exited company and evaluating SourceX as an investment are unrelated decisions; readers interested in the second can request investor materials through the SourceX investor overview.
This article is for information only and is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy securities. Any offering by SourceX is made only to verified accredited investors through its offering documents.