Don’t Show Up Empty-Handed: Your Lender Meeting Checklist
If you’re preparing for a lender meeting with just a pitch deck, remember: Lenders aren’t investing in your potential. To get a deal on the table, they have to believe in your ability to pay them back. In most cases, that means your story and team will be secondary to your market traction and the numbers you share in the data room.
Unfortunately, many companies lose access to capital because they were unprepared, not because they were unqualified for funding. Analysis from Funding Xchange revealed that among 7,000 businesses declined for bank funding over an 18-month period, about half had readily fixable issues that, if addressed, could have turned the “no” they received into a “yes.”
Simply put, effective preparation plays a major role in securing debt capital. Getting your company’s financial information ready in advance will set you up to walk into your lender meeting with a clear, well-organized data room. You’ll be able to demonstrate operational rigor, earn credibility, and see faster deal timelines with better terms.
If your team needs to get lender-ready, start with this checklist.
1. Financial Statements (Last 2–3 Years + YTD)
Your lender will want to see your full historical financials, which typically includes your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. Your team should make sure these are up to date (with year-to-date numbers), formatted clearly, and aligned with industry standards such as GAAP.
What lenders are looking for:
Revenue and gross margin trends over time
Consistency or volatility in operating expenses
Cash burn and runway patterns
Signs of poor financial hygiene
Some teams wait until due diligence to clean up these reports. However, this approach can cost you momentum. Bring clear, accurate, and consistent financials to each lender meeting to position your growth-stage company as a borrower capable of successfully managing and repaying capital.
2. 12–24 Month Forecast
Your forecast should include a forward-looking profit and loss (P&L) statement with key categories broken out.
At a minimum, be sure to include:
Revenue: Broken out by product, business line, or customer cohort
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): Direct labor, hosting, fulfillment, materials, etc.
Operating Expenses: Detailed by function (Sales & Marketing, R&D, G&A)
To strengthen your case, you can also highlight:
Headcount assumptions
Burn rate and runway projections
Debt service coverage and repayment timeline
It’s important for your forecast to show how debt will accelerate your growth without compromising your ability to repay. A lender meeting is an opportunity to prove that your model is realistic and that your forecast matches your use-of-funds plans.
3. Bank Statements + Working Capital Reports
In addition to your forecast and financials, lenders will look closely at your liquidity and cash flow management. Be prepared to provide:
Most recent 2–3 months of bank statements
Accounts Receivable (A/R) aging reports
Accounts Payable (A/P) aging reports
Lenders use these to evaluate your working capital cycle, short-term obligations, and how efficiently you’re managing inflows and outflows. For companies pursuing asset-backed loans or working capital facilities, this data is critical to the underwriting process.
4. KPI Dashboard
You don’t need a complicated dashboard, but you do need a firm grip on your most important business metrics and what they mean.
Services: Revenue per head, utilization, customer retention
This part of the lender meeting is your chance to show you understand the real drivers of your business. If you’ve just optimized key metrics or recently hit efficiency milestones, highlight those improvements.
5. Business Plan or Investor Deck
While a lender meeting isn’t the same as an equity pitch, you’ll still want to share a concise deck or one-pager. This helps the lender quickly understand your:
Market position and customer base
Business model and revenue strategy
Go-to-market plans and growth outlook
Competitive advantage and risks
Just make sure the story in your deck matches your financials. If your strategy is all about expansions that aren’t reflected in your forecasts, it could raise red flags.
6. Cap Table + Investor Summary
Bring a current cap table and a brief investor summary. Lenders will want to know:
Whether there’s sufficient equity cushion under the debt
If you have investors who can support follow-on growth
Whether your board and investors are aligned on the debt strategy
Investor alignment and governance clarity can make lenders more comfortable with the deal.
7. Legal and Governance Documents
In this area, expect to provide:
Articles of incorporation
Bylaws and shareholder agreements
Key customer and vendor contracts
Existing debt documents or loan agreements
If you’re raising secured debt, your lender meeting might also involve a review of IP assignments, collateral terms, or other agreements that affect financial obligations. Even if they’re not required, having these documents sends the message that you’re ready for diligence.
8. Team Bios or Org Chart
This doesn’t need to be extensive. In short, lenders want to know who’s running the business and whether the leadership structure supports your growth plans.
Here are the details they’ll want to see:
A short org chart or list of key leaders
Brief bios outlining relevant experience, particularly around capital, operations, and finance
9. Use-of-Funds Breakdown
This is a commonly overlooked component of the typical lender meeting, but it’s also one of the most important.
Avoid saying that your team is “raising to fund growth.” Instead, be specific:
$1.5M for Q4 inventory (include vendor estimates if possible)
$1M to hire 5 GTM team members (with roles or timing outlined)
$500k to refinance existing debt
The more clearly you can tie debt to specific initiatives and show how those initiatives support repayment, the easier it will be for lenders to underwrite the transaction.
Pro Tips for Execution
Set up a Virtual Data Room
Dropbox, Google Drive, or a secure investor portal can all work. Regardless of your chosen system, keep it clean and logically organized.
Label Files Clearly and Use Version Control
File names with a consistent, repeatable structure like “2024_YTD_PnL.pdf” are far better than “final_v6_MAYBE_updated.xlsx.”
Align Your Materials and Message
Inconsistencies across your materials can hurt credibility. Before your next lender meeting, make sure to check everything twice.
Final Thoughts
A lender meeting is an important financial conversation that can reveal your company’s operational maturity. Unfortunately, it’s surprisingly common for successful companies to be declined due to a lack of preparation.
At 5th Line, we help growth-stage companies get their financials on track. If you’re preparing for a lender meeting and want to make sure you’re showing up strong, we can help.
Whether you need to clean up outdated financials or package metrics for your next lender meeting, connect with 5th Line to learn how we can support your team through the debt financing process.