--- type: "nimble-use-case" name: "due-diligence" description: "Nimble's due diligence agent researches any company on the live web before an investment, acquisition or onboarding decision. It reads SEC filings, company registries, sanctions lists, court records, the press and reviews, then returns a verdict, the key facts, and dated findings and red flags, each linked to its source." use_when: "A sourced first read on a company before an investment, a stock position, an acquisition or onboarding a counterparty." not_for: "Audited financials or data room material, live prices or consensus estimates, a sanctions/PEP screening of record, legal opinions." price_per_agent_run: { low: 0.025, medium: 0.1, high: 0.5 } updated: "2026-11-10" --- # AI web research agent for company due diligence (Nimble) Nimble's due diligence agent researches any company on the live web before an investment, acquisition or onboarding decision. It reads SEC filings, company registries, sanctions lists, court records, the press and reviews, then returns a verdict, the key facts, and dated findings and red flags, each linked to its source. - Human page: https://www.nimbleway.com/use-cases/finance/due-diligence - Interactive demo: https://www.nimbleway.com/demos/due-diligence - Skill for agents: https://docs.nimbleway.com/skills/due-diligence/SKILL.md - Docs: https://docs.nimbleway.com/nimble-sdk/web-search-agents/overview ## 1. Choose this when - You need a sourced first read on a company before a meeting, a term sheet, an acquisition or onboarding a partner. - The company is private, or the facts you need sit outside its filings: press, court and regulator records, registries, reviews. - You want every claim dated and linked, with company claims kept apart from press reports and estimates. - You want the same sections every time, returned as JSON your agent, spreadsheet or pipeline can read. ## 2. Use something else when - You need audited financials, contracts or data room material. Public sources do not have them. - You need live prices, consensus estimates or trading signals. Use a market data provider. - You need a sanctions or PEP screening of record, or a legal opinion. Use it to prepare that work, not replace it. ## 3. Decisions and sections Each section is one Web Search Agent run with its own instruction and output schema. Runs go in parallel. - Venture investment (VC associates and partners): investment view and deal snapshot, then traction, team & founders, funding & cap table, market & competitors, red flags. - Public equity research (equity analysts and portfolio managers): research view and snapshot, then catalyst calendar, results vs guidance, insider & ownership moves, legal & regulatory, news flow. - Private equity & M&A (PE deal teams and corporate development): acquisition view and target snapshot, then business quality, customers & concentration, management depth, liabilities, ownership & deal history. - Counterparty & compliance (compliance, risk and partnerships teams): screening result and entity, then registry & entities, officers & owners, sanctions & pep, adverse media. ## 4. Minimal request ```bash AGENT_ID=wsa_1860807f82af40f1a0b833a5b278e571 # Nimble's due diligence agent curl -X POST "https://sdk.nimbleway.com/v2/agents/$AGENT_ID/runs" \ --header "Authorization: Bearer $NIMBLE_API_KEY" \ --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \ --data '{"input":"Write a due diligence memo on Rippling (rippling.com)","effort":"high"}' # poll until is_active is false, then read the result curl "https://sdk.nimbleway.com/v2/agents/$AGENT_ID/runs/$RUN_ID" --header "Authorization: Bearer $NIMBLE_API_KEY" curl "https://sdk.nimbleway.com/v2/agents/$AGENT_ID/runs/$RUN_ID/result" --header "Authorization: Bearer $NIMBLE_API_KEY" ``` Each finding is `{ claim, date, source_url }`. Per-claim confidence is in `output.trust.claims` (path, confidence, reasoning, citations). ## 5. Use it from an agent Paste this into Claude, ChatGPT, Codex, Cursor or Grok: ```text Be my due diligence assistant using Nimble. Follow https://docs.nimbleway.com/skills/due-diligence/SKILL.md. ``` The full skill is in section 8 below. - Frameworks: `@nimble-way/mastra`, `langchain-nimble`, `@nimble-way/ai-sdk`, `llama-index-tools-nimble`, `nimble_python`, `@nimble-way/nimble-js`. ## 6. Track record 155 of 155 recorded demo runs returned an answer (2026-11-09 to 2026-11-10, 5 companies). - General due diligence: 40 runs, 100% answered, median 57 seconds, median 16 findings. - Venture investment: 30 runs, 100% answered, median 2.6 minutes, median 24 findings. - Public equity research: 30 runs, 100% answered, median 2.6 minutes, median 18 findings. - Private equity & M&A: 30 runs, 100% answered, median 2.6 minutes, median 26 findings. - Counterparty & compliance: 25 runs, 100% answered, median 3.9 minutes, median 18 findings. ## 7. Example runs ### Rippling: venture investment (recorded 2026-11-09) Question: Is Rippling worth a meeting before its next round? Run record: 6 agent runs in parallel, low effort, 62 seconds, 106 pages read, 81 findings from 41 websites, cost $0.20. Investment view: Rippling is worth taking the meeting: a category-leading workforce-management platform at ~$1B ARR growing ~78% YoY, with top-tier investor backing and a $16.8B Series G mark. It is one of the most valuable private software companies. The decision hinges on growth durability, the path to profitability after ~$2.44B raised, and defensibility against ADP/Workday/Gusto/Deel — plus the outcome of its Deel litigation. - ARR / revenue: ~$1B ARR as of Q1/Q2 2026 — company-stated (CEO Parker Conrad on X, per GetLatka) and press-confirmed; up from ~$850M at end-2025 - Growth: ~78% YoY ARR growth as of March 2026 (press-reported; consistent with the company-stated $1B ARR milestone) - Last round: Series G, $450M, May 2025, at a $16.8B valuation - Valuation: $16.8B at the May 2025 Series G (priced round); secondary-market implied value ~$19.0B as of Nov 8, 2026 (StockAnalysis/Clarity estimate) - Lead investors: Series G participation: Elad Gil, Sands Capital, GIC, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Baillie Gifford, Y Combinator (per company announcement/press); historical backers include Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Founders Fund, Greenoaks, Bedrock - Headcount: 5,000 employees as of November 2025 (GetLatka), up from 3,630 in September 2024; a separate aggregator index estimates ~7,900 (undated) #### Traction Rippling is a fast-scaling, heavily funded private workforce-management company: CEO Parker Conrad stated in April 2026 that ARR crossed $1B growing 78% YoY, and Sacra independently estimates $1B in annualized revenue as of March 2026 (up from ~$850M at end-2025). It serves 20,000+ customers (May 2025, up from ~15,000 in 2023) including Y Combinator, and is expanding aggressively into AI-native products (Data Cloud, AI Spend Console, AI Governance, Helpdesk) and global markets. Headcount roughly tripled from ~250 (2018) to ~3,900-7,900 today depending on the measure, with observed professional profiles up 18.7% YoY. - Red flag: Revenue-figure inconsistency: CNBC reported Rippling crossed $1B in ARR in 2025, while CEO Parker Conrad said in April 2026 that ARR crossed $1B; the company's own profile lists annual revenue at ~$550.5M. (2026) https://corpdigest.com/company/rippling/financials - Red flag: Active litigation with competitor Deel: Rippling sued Deel alleging corporate espionage, trade-secret misappropriation, and RICO violations; Deel has filed a countersuit. https://sacra.com/c/rippling - CEO Parker Conrad stated Rippling crossed $1B in ARR and revenue was growing 78% year over year (company claim, via X). (2026-04) https://getlatka.com/companies/rippling - Sacra estimates $1B in annualized revenue as of March 2026, up from ~$850M at end of 2025, growing 78% year-over-year (estimate). (2026-03) https://sacra.com/c/rippling - Reported annual recurring revenue of more than $350M at end of 2023 (The Information). (2023) https://corpdigest.com/company/rippling/financials - Estimated annualized revenue of ~$570M as of May 2025 (GetLatka/Sacra estimate). (2025-05) https://sacra.com/c/rippling #### Team & founders Rippling is founder-led by Parker Conrad, who has been CEO since the company's 2016 founding; Conrad previously co-founded SigFig and Zenefits, where he resigned in 2016 amid a compliance scandal and later paid an SEC fine. Co-founder Prasanna Sankar served as CTO until 2020 before leaving to start another venture. The current C-suite includes COO Matt MacInnis, CFO Adam Swiecicki, CTO Albert Strasheim, CPO Eisar Lipkovitz, and CRO Matt Plank; the board comprises Conrad, Sankar, Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid, and Napoleon Ta. - Red flag: Parker Conrad resigned as Zenefits CEO in February 2016 after the company was found to have used unlicensed brokers to sell health insurance in multiple states; in October 2017 he agreed to pay an SEC fine to settle charges of misleading investors about regulatory compliance. (2016-02-08) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Conrad - Parker Conrad (born 1980, Harvard AB in Chemistry, 2003) co-founded SigFig (launched 2007, left 2012), Zenefits (launched September 2012; CEO until resigning in February 2016 amid an insurance-licensing compliance scandal, settling SEC charges with a fine in October 2017), and Rippling in 2016, where he has been CEO since. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parker_Conrad - Prasanna Sankar, Rippling's co-founder and founding CTO (2016-2020), is an NIT Trichy graduate and competitive programmer who worked at Google and Zenefits; he stepped away from day-to-day operations in 2020 and later founded AI software-engineering startup Vorflux. https://corpdigest.com/company/rippling/founders - Current executive team: Parker Conrad (Co-Founder & CEO), Matt MacInnis (COO, former CEO of Inkling), Adam Swiecicki (CFO), Albert Strasheim (CTO & SVP Engineering), Eisar Lipkovitz (CPO), Matt Plank (CRO), Vanessa Wu (General Counsel), Adil Syed (SVP, GM of Startups & Head of IR), Stephanie Ho (SVP Customer Experience), Brad Armstrong (SVP Business Development & Corporate Development), Darcy MacKay (SVP HR & Client Services), Brandon Camhi (VP Marketing), and Mike Leary (VP Global Talent Acquisition). https://craft.co/rippling/executives - Rippling has 4 board members/advisors (Crunchbase): co-founders Parker Conrad and Prasanna Sankar, Kleiner Perkins partner Mamoon Hamid, and Napoleon Ta. https://crunchbase.com/organization/rippling/profiles_and_contacts #### Funding & cap table Rippling has raised roughly $1.8–1.9B in primary equity across eight priced rounds since 2017 (aggregator estimates), culminating in a $450M Series G in May 2025 at a $16.8B valuation. Every round was a step-up except the March 2023 Series E, which was flat at the $11.25B Series D valuation, and the company runs recurring employee tender offers (up to $590M in 2024 and $200M in 2025). Secondary-market marks around $48–50/share imply roughly $16.1–16.2B, near but slightly below the Series G price, and no new priced round has closed since May 2025 (~18 months). - Red flag: Series E (March 2023) was a flat round: $500M raised at the same $11.25B valuation as the May 2022 Series D, with no step-up — a cap-table signal that valuation growth paused for roughly a year. (2023-03-13) https://rippling.com/blog/rippling-raises-500m-in-series-e-funding - Red flag: Secondary-market marks have traded slightly below the last primary round: the $49.98/share mark (Aug 2026) implies $16.15B, about 3.9% below the $16.8B Series G price. (2026-08-05) https://secondaryflow.io/company/rippling - Rippling's earliest priced financing was a seed round of approximately $7M in March 2017 (GetLatka lists a $7M seed; Stock Analysis lists a 'Series A-1' at a $181.4M valuation on Mar 14, 2017). (2017-03-14) https://getlatka.com/companies/rippling - Series A: $45M raised, led by Kleiner Perkins, at a $318.83M valuation (April 3, 2019). (2019-04-03) https://stockanalysis.com/private/rippling/valuation/ - Series B: $145M raised at a $1.4B valuation (August 2020); Accountio lists Founders Fund as lead investor. (2020-08-04) https://stockanalysis.com/private/rippling/valuation/ - Series C: $250M raised at a $6.5B valuation (October 2021), led by Sequoia Capital (Global Equities/Global Growth). (2021-10-21) https://stockanalysis.com/private/rippling/valuation/ #### Market & competitors Rippling is the leading private 'all-in-one' workforce-management platform unifying HR, IT, and finance; it is growing fast (ARR climbed from $570M in May 2025 to over $1B by April 2026, +78% YoY) and is well-capitalized after a $450M Series G at a $16.8B valuation (May 2025). Its closest venture-scale competitors are Deel, Gusto, and BambooHR, with Workday and Paylocity as larger public incumbents. Rippling differentiates on a single system of record spanning HR + IT + finance with AI-driven automation, but it holds only ~0.5% of the HRMS market (6sense) and is entangled in active trade-secret litigation with Deel and Runlayer. - Red flag: Rippling sued competitor Deel in federal district court, alleging Deel 'cultivated a spy' to orchestrate corporate trade-secret theft. (2026-03-17) https://distillintelligence.com/news/rippling - Red flag: AI cybersecurity startup Runlayer sued Rippling in Manhattan for allegedly stealing trade secrets; Rippling counter-sued Runlayer (Aug 2026). (2026-07-27) https://distillintelligence.com/news/rippling - Red flag: Rippling withdrew its MCP Gateway lawsuits and launched a rival product amid ongoing legal disputes (Aug 2026). (2026-08-20) https://compete.news/company/rippling - Rippling's ARR reached $570M in May 2025 (+81% growth) with 20,000+ customers; it raised a $450M Series G at a $16.8B valuation, including a $200M tender offer, and Y Combinator (an early backer) is a customer. (2025-05-12) https://arr.club/signal/rippling-arr-hits-570m - Rippling surpassed $1B ARR with 78% YoY growth (April 2026), then added over $150M in net new ARR in Q3 2026 driven by Rippling AI (reported Nov 9, 2026). (2026-04-15) https://arr.club/signal/rippling-arr-hits-570m - Rippling's latest funding round is a Series G of $450M (June 2025); indexed total funding is $2.44B, and the company itself states it has raised $1.2B from Kleiner Perkins, Founders Fund, Sequoia, Greenoaks, and Bedrock. (2025-06-09) https://rippling.com/ - Indexed Rippling annual revenue is ~$550.5M; workforce ~7,889; HQ San Francisco; founded 2016. https://rippling.com/ #### Red flags Rippling's most material red flags for a venture investor are legal and governance-related. It is mid-litigation in a high-stakes corporate espionage suit with rival Deel, where Deel's counterclaims allege Rippling itself copied competitor documents, coordinated with another competitor, and may have facilitated payments into Russia in potential violation of sanctions; founder-CEO Parker Conrad carries a prior regulatory ouster from Zenefits and faces unconfirmed allegations of freezing out a co-founder. Its last-round valuation ($16.8B, May 2025) has since been marked down to an estimated $14.72B, and customer reviews show recurring complaints on setup, support, and payroll errors, though no company-confirmed data breach was found. - Red flag: Rippling (People Center, Inc.) is in active litigation with rival Deel over its March 2025 corporate espionage suit; on September 25, 2026 a federal judge in the Northern District of California denied Deel's motion to strike, refused to reopen the court's earlier decision letting Rippling's claims proceed, and ordered Deel's most serious counterclaims into arbitration, leaving the case active in discovery. (2026-09-25) https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-ctr-v-deel-1134669675 - Red flag: Deel's counterclaims allege Rippling itself stole Deel's proprietary information: a Rippling Competitive Intelligence Manager used a fake business account (Quandary Insights) to generate at least 20 Deel employment agreements and download/screen-capture at least 57 proprietary Deel documents, and that Rippling coordinated with competitor Globalization Partners to access Deel's system in almost exactly the same way. (2026-09-25) https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-ctr-v-deel-1134669675 - Red flag: Deel's counterclaim alleges former Rippling employee Keith O'Brien repeatedly disclosed concerns that Rippling was violating Russian sanctions by facilitating payments into Russia, and that Rippling then orchestrated a 'honeypot' operation to identify O'Brien as the source of the leak. (2026-09-25) https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-ctr-v-deel-1134669675 - Red flag: Founder-CEO Parker Conrad founded Rippling after resigning from Zenefits, which he founded and led until the company came under investigation for regulatory noncompliance and he departed; Deel's counterclaim alleges Conrad founded Rippling in part as a 'revenge' vehicle against those who supported his removal from Zenefits. (2026-09-25) https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-ctr-v-deel-1134669675 - Rippling is a Delaware corporation doing business as People Center, Inc., with principal place of business in San Francisco; its CEO is Parker Conrad. https://case-law.vlex.com/vid/people-ctr-v-deel-1134669675 - Rippling closed a $450 million round at a $16.8 billion valuation in May 2025, per CNBC, and was tracking near $1 billion annualized revenue by March 2026 per industry estimates. (2026-09-26) https://startupfortune.com/deel-suffers-fresh-legal-setbacks-in-rippling-corporate-spying-case - Deel filed a defamation suit against Rippling in Delaware, and some of Deel's false-advertising counterclaims against Rippling survived the September 2026 order even as larger counterclaims were sent to arbitration. (2026-09-26) https://startupfortune.com/deel-suffers-fresh-legal-setbacks-in-rippling-corporate-spying-case - Rippling hired attorney Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, known for representing Elon Musk and Jay-Z, to run its case against Deel. (2026-09-26) https://startupfortune.com/deel-suffers-fresh-legal-setbacks-in-rippling-corporate-spying-case ### Nvidia: public equity research (recorded 2026-11-09) Question: What could move Nvidia stock in the next six months? Run record: 6 agent runs in parallel, low effort, 76 seconds, 147 pages read, 96 findings from 34 websites, cost $0.21. Research view: NVIDIA is executing at an extraordinary pace: Q2 FY2027 revenue rose 106% YoY to $96.2B and the company guided Q3 to ~$108B, with the Vera Rubin platform ramping to full production across major cloud partners. The central risk is the escalating U.S.-China export-control regime, which NVIDIA already strips out of its outlook by assuming zero Data Center compute revenue from China. With a ~$4.5 trillion market cap, the stock prices in sustained double-digit sequential growth; the Q3 print on Nov 17, 2026 is the key near-term catalyst. - Ticker: NASDAQ: NVDA - Market cap: $4.51 trillion as of November 6, 2026 (share price $186.64), the 2nd most valuable company globally. - Last quarter: Q2 FY2027 (ended July 26, 2026; reported Aug 26, 2026): revenue $96.2B, up 18% QoQ and 106% YoY; GAAP EPS $2.46 and non-GAAP EPS $2.22; GAAP gross margin 75.0%; Data Center revenue $89.0B, up 117% YoY. Revenue beat the Q1-provided Q2 guidance of $91.0B ±2%, and non-GAAP EPS of $2.22 rose from Q1's $1.87. - Guidance: Q3 FY2027 outlook (issued Aug 26, 2026): revenue guided to $108.0B ±2%, up sequentially from Q2's $96.2B actual (effectively raised); GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin guided to 74.0% ±50bps (down from Q2's 75.0%); GAAP/non-GAAP operating expenses ~$9.2B/~$9.0B. NVIDIA is not assuming any Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook. - Next earnings: November 17, 2026 (estimated, after market close). - Key catalyst: Q3 FY2027 earnings report, estimated Tuesday, November 17, 2026 after market close — the key test of whether NVIDIA delivers on its ~$108B revenue guide amid the Vera Rubin ramp. - Key risk: U.S.-China export controls: Washington has banned exports of NVIDIA's most advanced chips (e.g., GB300) to China and is weighing closing the remote-compute-access loophole — the Remote Access Security Act (RASA) passed the House in January and is pending in the Senate — while Chinese AI firms already access NVIDIA compute via Southeast Asia data centers. NVIDIA already assumes zero Data Center compute revenue from China in its outlook. #### Catalyst calendar Over the next six months NVIDIA's most important dated catalysts are the Q3 FY2027 earnings report on November 17, 2026 (street consensus of $2.47 EPS on $108.98B revenue), two flagship GTC events — Washington D.C. (Nov 30–Dec 3, 2026) and San Jose (March 15–18, 2027) — and rumored RTX 50-series mid-cycle refreshes at CES in January 2027. On the regulatory side, key policy deadlines land in spring 2027: BIS's temporary foundry-to-approved-designer authorization runs through March 31, 2027, and the UAE G42/Core42 approved-entity authorization has an April 6, 2027 sunset. The main open legal exposures are the cryptomining securities class action (jury trial set for September 2027) and China's SAMR probe into Mellanox-condition compliance. - Red flag: The 2018 cryptomining securities class action is certified (March 2026) with a jury trial set for September 2027; NVIDIA has accrued no liability because loss is 'reasonably possible' but not 'probable'. (2027-09) https://bestech.org/regulatory-enforcements/nvidia-enforcement.html - Red flag: China's SAMR antimonopoly probe into NVIDIA's compliance with the conditions attached to the 2020 Mellanox approval remains open, with no final penalty located. https://bestech.org/regulatory-enforcements/nvidia-enforcement.html - NVIDIA is scheduled to report Q3 FY2027 earnings after the close on November 17, 2026; consensus expects EPS of USD 2.47 and revenue of USD 108.98B. (2026-11-17) https://theta.md/earnings/nvda/q3-2027 - NVIDIA GTC Washington, D.C. runs November 30–December 3 (2026), a flagship NVIDIA AI conference. (2026-11-30) https://nvidia.com/gtc - RTX 5080 Super, RTX 5070 Ti Super and RTX 5070 Super mid-cycle refreshes are rumored for CES 2027 in January 2027 (24GB/18GB GDDR7, +50% memory); not officially announced by NVIDIA. (2027-01) https://thegpuradar.com/launch-calendar - NVIDIA GTC 2027 returns to San Jose on March 15–18, 2027. (2027-03-15) https://nvidia.com/gtc #### Results vs guidance NVIDIA's results accelerated sharply across the last four reported quarters: revenue rose from $46.7B in Q2 FY26 to a record $96.2B in Q2 FY27 (up 106% YoY), with Data Center contributing ~90%+ of revenue and gross margins holding at or near 75%. Each recent quarter beat management's own guidance — Q2 FY27 revenue of $96.2B came in roughly $5B above the $91B guide and above analyst consensus — and NVIDIA has raised its quarterly revenue guide sequentially each quarter, to $108B for Q3 FY27. Two caveats: non-GAAP figures are no longer directly comparable because NVIDIA began including stock-based compensation in Q1 FY27, and guidance consistently excludes China data-center compute revenue. - Red flag: NVIDIA changed its non-GAAP definition beginning Q1 FY2027 to include stock-based compensation expense, so non-GAAP margins and EPS from Q1 FY2027 onward are not directly comparable to earlier quarters. (2026-02-25) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2026 - Red flag: NVIDIA's guidance repeatedly excludes China data-center compute revenue due to export controls; in Q2 FY2026 there were no H20 sales to China, with NVIDIA benefiting from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory. (2025-08-27) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2026 - Q2 FY2026 revenue was $46.7 billion, up 6% from Q1 and up 56% year over year (quarter ended July 27, 2025). (2025-08-27) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2026 - Q2 FY2026 Data Center revenue was $41.1 billion, up 5% sequentially and up 56% year over year; Gaming revenue was $4.3 billion, up 14% sequentially and up 49% year over year. (2025-08-27) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2026 - Q2 FY2026 GAAP gross margin was 72.4% and non-GAAP 72.7%; GAAP diluted EPS was $1.08 and non-GAAP $1.05. There were no H20 sales to China; NVIDIA benefited from a $180 million release of previously reserved H20 inventory. (2025-08-27) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2026 - Q2 FY2026 guidance for Q3 FY2026: revenue of $54.0 billion plus or minus 2%, GAAP gross margin 73.3% and non-GAAP 73.5% plus or minus 50 bp (no H20 shipments to China assumed). (2025-08-27) https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-second-quarter-fiscal-2026 #### Insider & ownership moves Over the past 12 months NVIDIA insiders have been consistent sellers — zero open-market purchases against 31 sales worth ~$1.9B — led by director Mark Stevens (~$1.4B, including a record ~$411M single-week disposition). The board added $150B to the buyback program in September 2026 (raising remaining authorization to $235B), and diluted shares outstanding fell ~1% YoY, so there is no net dilution and no activist 13D stake. Institutional 13F flows split: Tepper added, Loeb exited entirely, and Soros opened put hedges. - Red flag: Sustained heavy insider selling: ~$1.9B net sold by insiders over 12 months, with director Mark Stevens alone accounting for roughly $1.4B; his record ~$411M single-week sale was executed without a pre-announced 10b5-1 trading plan, and he stated plans to sell more. (2026-09-02) https://protos.com/nvidia-director-mark-stevens-sold-a-record-411m-of-stock - Red flag: Every NVIDIA insider transaction in the last 12 months was a sale — 0 open-market purchases versus 31 sales — a one-directional net-selling signal across officers and directors. (2026-09-23) https://trabud.com/insider-trading/NVDA - NVIDIA's board authorized a $150 billion increase to its share repurchase program on September 28, 2026, raising the remaining total authorization to $235 billion — the largest share repurchase authorization increase in history — expected to be executed through fiscal year 2028. (2026-09-28) https://investor.nvidia.com/news/press-release-details/2026/NVIDIA-Announces-a-150-Billion-Share-Repurchase-Authorization-Increase/default.aspx - In the last 12 months NVIDIA insiders reported 0 open-market purchases ($0) and 31 sales totaling $1.9B — net selling of $1.9B. (2026-09-23) https://trabud.com/insider-trading/NVDA - Director Mark Stevens sold 1,848,501 shares at a weighted average price of $222.26, netting approximately $411 million across three days — the largest single insider NVIDIA stock sale by dollar value — disclosed on one Form 4 via his Third Millennium Trust without noting a predetermined trading plan. (2026-09-02) https://protos.com/nvidia-director-mark-stevens-sold-a-record-411m-of-stock - Mark Stevens was Q3 2026's top insider seller, disposing of 4.24 million shares for around $946.6 million. (2026) https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/nvidia-director-sells-946-million-144944105.html #### Legal & regulatory NVIDIA faces a dense and active legal-regulatory portfolio. The most material items are an active U.S. DOJ antitrust investigation (legally binding subpoenas since September 2024, now reportedly probing the Groq licensing deal, with a parallel European Commission probe advancing) and a certified securities class action over concealed crypto-mining revenue, on top of a $5.5M SEC fine already paid in 2022. Export controls are the biggest financial risk: the H20 licensing change forced a $4.5B charge and roughly $8B in lost revenue, while China sales remain effectively stalled. Most active cases have no set trial date; the only dated procedural milestone located was the April 21, 2026 case-management conference in the securities case. - Red flag: Active DOJ antitrust investigation into Nvidia with legally binding subpoenas issued since September 2024; no formal complaint had been filed as of September 28, 2026. (2026-10-29) https://ailawsuittracker.com/cases/doj-antitrust-investigation-into-nvidia-subpoenas-issued-september-2024-no-formal-case-number - Red flag: DOJ is investigating whether Nvidia tried to skirt antitrust scrutiny of its Groq licensing deal; Senators Warren and Blumenthal have called on the FTC and DOJ to investigate Nvidia's 'reverse acqui-hire' deals, which they say function as de facto mergers bypassing merger review. (2026-09-10) https://dnyuz.com/2026/09/10/regulators-are-investigating-nvidias-licensing-deal-with-groq - Red flag: The European Commission is advancing an informal antitrust investigation into Nvidia. (2026-10-20) https://thecapitolforum.com/european-antitrust-agenda-eu-commission-advances-nvidia-probe-ministers-take-on-china-trade-strategy - Red flag: A single export-control rule change forced Nvidia to record a $4.5B charge and roughly $8B in lost H20 revenue, illustrating the scale of China export-control exposure. (2025-04-09) https://blofin.com/en/academy/education/nvdax/nvidia-china-and-export-control-risk - Active U.S. Department of Justice antitrust investigation into Nvidia (pre-litigation; no formal complaint filed). DOJ escalated from informal questionnaires (Aug 2024) to legally binding subpoenas to Nvidia and third parties (Sept 2024); reported Sept 10, 2026 to be probing Nvidia's Groq licensing deal. Concerns center on whether Nvidia penalizes customers for using rival chips and whether its RunAI acquisition forecloses competition. (2024-08-01) https://ailawsuittracker.com/cases/doj-antitrust-investigation-into-nvidia-subpoenas-issued-september-2024-no-formal-case-number - DOJ opened an investigation into Nvidia's nonexclusive licensing deal with AI chipmaker Groq (announced Dec 2025) shortly after it was announced and has sent Nvidia a formal demand for information; if fault is found, the agency may fine the company, though it would probably not require the deal to be undone. (2026-09-10) https://dnyuz.com/2026/09/10/regulators-are-investigating-nvidias-licensing-deal-with-groq - The European Commission is taking new steps in its informal antitrust investigation into Nvidia. (2026-10-20) https://thecapitolforum.com/european-antitrust-agenda-eu-commission-advances-nvidia-probe-ministers-take-on-china-trade-strategy - France's competition authority is running a parallel antitrust investigation into Nvidia. https://ailawsuittracker.com/cases/doj-antitrust-investigation-into-nvidia-subpoenas-issued-september-2024-no-formal-case-number #### News flow Over the last 90 days NVIDIA's news flow was dominated by blowout Q2 FY2027 results (revenue $96.2B, +106% YoY; Q3 guide ~$108B; ~70% FY2028 growth) that added roughly $440B in market cap, major partnership and financing moves (a $500B+ third-party AI-compute financing platform with six financial institutions, an AWS 2M-GPU commitment, and a deepened MediaTek tie-up including a $3.5B investment), and the start of Vera Rubin platform shipments. Analyst action was overwhelmingly positive (broad post-earnings price-target raises, consensus ~$315-329), but sentiment turned more cautious into October-November on valuation/narrative risk, "circular financing" concerns, supply constraints and rising competition from hyperscaler custom silicon. - Red flag: Circular financing concern: NVIDIA increasingly funds its own demand - it carries $108.5B in guarantee obligations, has invested nearly $50B in frontier AI labs, and expects balance-sheet-supported customers to drive roughly a quarter of next year's business; management acknowledged "some will call this circular financing." (2026-10-19) https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/19/nvidias-valuation-and-narrative-risk-are-high-now-so-act-accordingly/ - Red flag: Supply constraints: NVIDIA warned shortages of memory components would continue to curb how quickly it can expand, and main manufacturer TSMC continues to face supply constraints. (2026-08-26) https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/nvidia-forecasts-quarterly-revenue-above-estimates-2026-08-26/ - Red flag: Analysts pointed to a "threat" to NVIDIA's near-monopoly on the most advanced AI chips from recently announced custom semiconductors built by hyperscalers and AI labs. (2026-08-27) https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/27/nvidia-nvda-q2-earnings.html - Red flag: Valuation/narrative risk: a beta of 2.216 magnifies any sentiment shift; the stock barely moved (0.11% over the past month) despite six straight earnings beats, with the market rewarding beats less as it weighs financing and margin questions. (2026-10-19) https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/10/19/nvidias-valuation-and-narrative-risk-are-high-now-so-act-accordingly/ - Aletheia Capital downgraded NVDA to Hold, while Bank of America maintained Buy ($350), Bernstein maintained Buy ($400) and RBC maintained Buy ($330). (2026-11-09) https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/nvda/ratings/ - Goldman Sachs (James Schneider) reiterated Buy with a $300 price target. (2026-11-09) https://stocknear.com/stocks/NVDA/forecast/analyst - Melius Research maintained Buy but cut its price target from $420 to $315 (-25%). (2026-11-02) https://stocknear.com/stocks/NVDA/forecast/analyst - Morgan Stanley reiterated Buy ($300) and Citi maintained Buy ($315). (2026-10-22) https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/nvda/ratings/ ### Canva: private equity & m&a (recorded 2026-11-10) Question: What would an acquirer need to know about Canva? Run record: 6 agent runs in parallel, high effort, 9.6 minutes, 214 pages read, 142 findings from 70 websites, cost $3.05. Acquisition view: Canva is a rare asset: a profitable-on-a-free-cash-flow-basis (company claim), 260M-user design platform with US$3.5B 2025 revenue and US$4B stated ARR, now decelerating sharply - 2026 growth guidance cut from 30% to 20% on frontier-AI cost overruns, and a 22% workforce restructuring announced 3 Nov 2026. The price problem is the valuation gap: the last priced mark was US$42B (Aug 2025 employee tender), but the internal 409A was cut to A$43.9B, Blackbird marked its ~10% stake down to US$34.9B, and secondary-market trackers implied ~US$37B by Nov 2026, with the Nasdaq float shelved and backers (Airtree extending a 2014 fund to 2028) pressing for liquidity. What would most affect the decision: whether Canva AI's ~90% cost-per-task reduction (company claim) restores margin and growth, founder willingness to sell (co-founder-CEOs plan to 'refound' the company), and the unresolved security/litigation tail (Canny-Salesforce breach with KVKK action and an unverified extortion claim). - Revenue: Company statements: recognized revenue of US$3.5 billion for 2025 (Canva 2025 year-in-review, Dec 2025) and ARR of US$4 billion at end-2025 (co-founder/COO Cliff Obrecht to TechCrunch, 18 Feb 2026). Latest investor update (seen by AFR, reported 4 Aug 2026): Q2 CY2026 revenue of US$921.9 million, up 25.2% year-on-year, below guidance. Only audited filed figures are Australian statutory accounts: FY2024 revenue US$2.1 billion with a US$242 million net loss (Canva Pty Ltd consolidated report, lodged with ASIC 27 Mar 2026, ~11 months late); Australian business revenue surpassed A$4.1 billion in 2025 per accounts filed May 2026 (partial view - local entities only). Conflicting published figures, labelled: AFR (29 Mar 2026) reports the company saying revenue 'more than doubled over the past two years to more than $5.8 billion', and The Information (via Capital Brief, 20 Mar 2026) put annualised revenue at US$6.3 billion at end-2025 - both unreconciled with the US$4B ARR statement. - Profitability: No audited group net-income or EBITDA disclosure. Company claim: 'a ninth consecutive year of profitability on a free cash flow basis' (Canva via SMH, 14 Aug 2026). Press figures (labelled, The Information via Capital Brief, 20 Mar 2026): Q1 2026 EBITDA of US$236 million and free cash flow of ~US$275 million. Statutory filings tell a different story: FY2024 consolidated accounts lodged with ASIC showed a US$242 million net loss on US$2.1 billion revenue (company attributes losses to 'Canva 2.0'/AI investment), with operating cash flow of US$263 million and ~A$1 billion cash at end-2024; the Australian entities swung to an after-tax profit in 2025 per accounts filed May 2026 (AFR; partial local view). - Growth: Company-reported revenue growth: 45% in 2024 and 38% in 2025; on 3 August 2026 management cut full-year 2026 growth guidance from 30% to 20% (company statement to investors, reported by SMH/AFR), blaming soaring frontier-AI serving costs ('AI bill shock'). Q2 CY2026 revenue was up 25.2% year-on-year but missed internal guidance, and CEO Melanie Perkins wrote on 3 Nov 2026 that 'our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade'. Monthly active users fell below 208 million in early August 2026, flat year-on-year (company attribution: school holidays). - Customer concentration: Nothing published on largest customers or revenue concentration - no customer exceeds a disclosed share of revenue. Published breadth claims (company-claimed, unverified): 'used by 95% of the Fortune 500' and 260 million monthly users (Canva 2025 year-in-review); 31 million+ paid users and B2B (companies >25 seats) at US$500M ARR after doubling in 2025 - roughly one-eighth of ARR (Obrecht via TechCrunch; Sacra estimate). Named enterprise case studies/logo claims include FedEx (1,400 teams, 45 countries), Docusign, and land deals with Salesforce and Marriott (company claims); ~$130 implied average revenue per paid user/year (derived) shows a long-tail, low-ARPU base with no single-customer dependence visible publicly. - Ownership: Privately held, no sponsor. Co-founders Melanie Perkins (CEO), Cliff Obrecht (COO) and Cameron Adams (CPO) are the largest holders - their combined stake is estimated at ~30-38% (aggregator estimate; not publicly disclosed). Blackbird Ventures owns about 10% (SMH, 7 Nov 2026); other backers per aggregator/press lists include Airtree, Sequoia, Felicis, T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, General Catalyst, Bond, Dragoneer, Bessemer and Founders Fund. Last priced mark: US$42B employee tender, Aug 20 2025 (~US$1,646/share), with Fidelity and JPMorgan Asset Management participating. Liquidity pressure is live: Canva has returned >US$2.5B via secondaries since 2023, early investors are testing an exploratory secondary block sale (BBRW, 26 Sep 2026), and afloat was 'shelved' in Aug 2026 with IPO talk slipped to 2027 (bankers' base case: New York). No sale process or acquisition rumour has been published. - Employees: No official total headcount published. On 3 Nov 2026 Canva announced a restructuring affecting 1,271 people 'or 22% of Canva' (company statement), implying roughly 5,780 staff; SMH (14 Aug 2026) reported 'roughly 5500 employees' for share-grant pricing. Aggregator counts diverge and are estimates: Revelio Labs ~13,061 profiles as of Jun 2026 (LinkedIn-profile-based, inconsistent with the company's 22% math) and ~3,500 in 2024 (Famewall). Hiring is pulling back: job postings down ~47% in 2026 (Revelio Labs estimate). Senior attrition: CTO Brendan Humphreys stepped down in 2026 after 12 years, and four senior leaders (including 8-year growth lead Iain Dowling) left in May 2026 (press reports). #### Business quality Canva is a freemium, subscription-led design platform with strong top-line economics — ~$4B ARR and 265M+ monthly users at end-2025, ~11-12% free-to-paid conversion, 31M+ paying users, low-CAC organic growth — but it publishes no gross or operating margins (private company), and its 'profitable for nine years' claim rests on operating-free-cash-flow metrics that belatedly filed statutory accounts (FY2022: $962M revenue, $222M loss) do not support. 2026 is the margin-pressure test: an August guidance cut (30% to 20% growth) on AI inference costs, annualised revenue flat at ~$3.69B by October against a $5.2B internal goal, and a 22% workforce restructuring in November, with price rises (Teams ~$300 to ~$500/yr) and a claimed ~90% AI-cost reduction as the countermeasures. - Red flag: Rare revenue downgrade: 2026 growth guidance cut from 30% to 20% after June-quarter revenue of $921.9M (+25.2% YoY) came in below the company's own earlier guidance — the cause was AI serving costs, not demand. (2026-08) https://startupfortune.com/canva-slashed-its-2026-growth-forecast-after-ai-costs-blew-past-expectations - Red flag: Revenue stalled: annualised revenue ~US$3.69B at end-October 2026, roughly flat versus the start of the year, versus a US$5.2B internal 2026 goal; internal data showed the company 'bleeding active users' — the day leadership met to decide lay-offs. (2026-11-03) https://afr.com/street-talk/canva-revenue-stuck-in-mud-confidential-data-shows-job-cuts-loom-20261103-p61aw5 - Red flag: Profitability claims rest on non-statutory metrics: belatedly filed ASIC accounts show a FY2022 statutory loss of $222M on $962M revenue (successive statutory losses in the five years to 2022 per AFR), while the company publicly claimed seven/eight/nine years of profitability — the gap is share-based compensation ($482M employee benefits), but acquirers should treat 'profitable for nine years' as an operating-FCF claim, not audited statutory profit. (2025-09-24) https://startupdaily.net/topic/business/profitiness-why-canvas-profitable-right-up-until-it-has-to-file-accounts-with-the-government - Red flag: ASIC fined Canva $792,000 for failing to file audited accounts on time for four of its local entities — a governance/compliance lapse on basic filing obligations, filed only after the regulator rebuked the company ahead of an expected IPO. (2026-05-06) https://afr.com/technology/canva-hit-with-near-1m-fine-for-late-accounts-ahead-of-expected-ipo-20260506-p5zu86 - Business model: freemium — anyone can use Canva free and roughly one in nine monthly users pays for a subscription unlocking premium features, brand tools and team/enterprise controls; supplemental revenue lines are Canva Print and creator-marketplace commissions. (2026) https://bizmodelinsight.com/canva-business-model - Company figures via co-founder/COO Cliff Obrecht (TechCrunch, Web Summit Qatar): $4 billion ARR by end-2025, more than 265 million monthly active users (+20% YoY) and over 31 million paid users; 'subscription-based company'. (2026-02-18) https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/canva-gets-to-4b-in-revenue-as-llm-referral-traffic-rises - Canva's own year-in-review: business 'reached $3.5 billion in revenue' in 2025, community of 260 million people using Canva every month (company claims, no quarter breakdown, no margins). (2025-12) https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-2025-wrap/ - Recurring vs one-off: revenue is almost entirely recurring subscriptions — Canva does not charge per design or per download; Canva Print, marketplace commissions from creators and Affinity product sales are the smaller ancillary lines. The $4B ARR vs ~$3.5B recognized FY2025 revenue gap reflects more multi-year enterprise contracts being signed (per third-party analysis). (2026-11-04) https://valueaddvc.com/blog/how-does-canva-make-money-freemium-subscriptions-enterprise-and-valuation #### Customers & concentration Canva discloses no customer concentration, retention or churn metrics anywhere public — it is private with no S-1 — so evidence is limited to company-published customer logos and case studies (95% of the Fortune 500 claimed; Stripe, FedEx, Zoom, Salesforce, Expedia, Keller Williams and others), partner programs, and published contract terms. Contract terms are published: self-serve plans auto-renew monthly/annually with cancellation at end of cycle and no refunds, while the Enterprise Subscription Agreement specifies an Order Form-based initial term that auto-renews in successive 12-month terms with 30-day non-renewal notice and annual advance invoicing. The clearest dependency risks: 100% AWS-hosted infrastructure, growing reliance on OpenAI models (a November 2026 expanded GPT-6 Astra deal) while AI costs forced a 2026 growth-guidance cut from 30% to 20%, and a double-digit share of acquisition traffic now coming from LLM referrals — a channel Canva's COO calls a top-of-funnel platform but which ChatGPT is also using to compete for design work. - Red flag: Churn/competition signal: Canva underestimated usage of its new AI features, driving up inference costs, and some users shifted design work to ChatGPT after OpenAI improved image generation — forcing a cut to its 2026 revenue-growth forecast from 30% to 20%, a push toward usage-based pricing and smaller or in-house models (Canva says routing changes have cut cost per task nearly 90% since April 2026). (2026-08) https://dealroom.co/news/info-19trz12-canva-hits-ai-speedbump-on-costs-chatgpt-competition - Red flag: Retention pressure acknowledged by the company: in the 3 November 2026 restructuring note (1,271 people, ~22% of staff), CEO Melanie Perkins wrote that 'our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade' and 'This has been our hardest year yet' — the first company-confirmed deceleration, following the August 2026 guidance cut. (2026-11-03) https://canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-team-update - Red flag: Single-supplier infrastructure concentration: Canva's entire platform — compute, containers, ML/AI inference, streaming data and 230+ PB of storage — runs on AWS alone, with free users on Spot capacity and paid usage on On-Demand/Savings Plans; no secondary cloud is disclosed. https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/canva-cost-optimization-case-study - Red flag: Acquisition-channel concentration in LLM platforms: a double-digit share of Canva's traffic already comes from LLM referrals, and management treats ChatGPT as a top-of-funnel acquisition platform — while ChatGPT simultaneously competes for Canva's core design use case (the same dependency and the competitor are the same counterparty). (2026-02-18) https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/canva-gets-to-4b-in-revenue-as-llm-referral-traffic-rises - Named enterprise customers via Canva-published case studies (company claims, not independently verified): Virgin Voyages (AI-powered sales force, 2x bookings), We Insure (130+ franchise network), YuLife (25+ countries), Keller Williams (300,000 hours saved for agents), Stripe (global performance marketing scaled 20x), Engel & Völkers (brand consistency across 900+ locations), The Danberry Co. (16x more content), Virginia Department of Health (35 districts), eXp Realty (82K+ agents). https://canva.com/case-studies - Stripe (Canva Enterprise customer, company claim): 20x more content production, +900% increase in asset production per month (25 assets per campaign to 500+ monthly), content localized across 50 countries in hours; quotes from Will Esdaile (Head of Performance Marketing), Seth Berman (Head of Growth Marketing) and Jeff Titterton (CMO, Stripe). https://canva.com/case-studies/stripe - Additional named enterprise customers linked from the Stripe case study (company claims): Docusign (global rebrand, $300K of design hours unlocked), Expedia Group (saves over 160 design hours per week), FedEx (Canva 'empowers 1,400 teams to create in minutes, not days'). https://canva.com/case-studies/stripe - Canva's Enterprise page claims 'Trusted by 95% of the Fortune 500' and shows logos of Expedia Group, Airbnb, Salesforce, Keller Williams, Aramark and Kellanova; named customers with testimonials include Zoom (Brandon Realmonte, Brand Creative Manager — 230 hours of design time saved in three months), Salesforce (66% reduction in design costs across 22 global regions), F45 (60% design-efficiency lift for franchisees in one month), Skyscanner (rebrand rolled out in six months) and Reddit (testimonial logo). All are company claims via logo/case study. https://canva.com/enterprise #### Management depth Canva is a founder-dominated management structure: all three co-founders still hold the CEO (Melanie Perkins), COO (Cliff Obrecht, Perkins's husband) and CPO (Cameron Adams) roles 13 years after launch, and Perkins is personally leading a 'refounding' after the company's first-ever restructuring (1,271 roles, ~22% of staff, Nov 2026). C-suite depth below the founders is thin and recently churned: the CFO seat turned over amid an internal investigation in Feb 2024, ex-Zoom CFO Kelly Steckelberg was hired only in Nov 2024, and CTO Brendan Humphreys — appointed Sept 2024 — departs June 2026 with no named successor. Board composition is only visible via aggregator estimates (Bill Tai, Ash Fontana, Ed Roman, Trevor Folsom, Tod Francis, Keval Desai) plus a reported recent board exit by early investor Wesley Chan; no executive compensation or change-of-control terms are published. - Red flag: CFO Damien Singh resigned early in February 2024 after Canva launched an internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour; he departed abruptly and without a successor named, just as the company finalised a US$1.5bn employee/investor share sale at a US$26bn valuation ahead of an intended 2024 IPO. (2024-02-14) https://afr.com/technology/ipo-hopeful-canva-s-cfo-departs-without-successor-20240214-p5f4yw - Red flag: The CTO seat has churned twice in two years and is now vacant-ish: Dave Hearnden was CTO until September 2024, his successor Brendan Humphreys lasted under two years in the role before announcing his exit (effective 19 June 2026), and Humphreys referenced no specific leadership succession plans. (2026-05-04) https://edtechinnovationhub.com/news/canvas-cto-steps-down-after-12-years-as-the-company-navigates-its-ai-pivot - Red flag: Executive turnover spiked in the last 24 months: four senior leaders left in May 2026 in a single month (growth lead Iain Dowling after eight years, senior engineering director Jonathan Ross, and two others), which AFR tied to staff concerns about job security during the AI repositioning. (2026-05-18) https://afr.com/technology/canva-loses-senior-leaders-amid-push-into-artificial-intelligence-20260518-p5zy4d - Red flag: Board turnover: early investor Wesley Chan 'until recently sat on its board'; combined with the absence of any company-published board roster, an acquirer cannot verify current director composition from primary sources. (2026-11-07) https://smh.com.au/technology/from-misery-walk-to-mass-layoffs-inside-canva-s-hardest-month-20261107-p61bpv.html - Canva's current executive roster (aggregator Craft, with canva.com newsroom and CNBC citations): Melanie Perkins CEO & Co-Founder; Cliff Obrecht COO & Co-Founder; Cameron Adams CPO & Co-Founder; Kelly Steckelberg CFO; Jennie Rogerson Chief People Officer; Rob Giglio Chief Customer Officer; Todd Carpenter Chief Legal Officer, Australia; Zach Kitschke CMO. https://craft.co/canva/executives - Canva's own press-hub leadership page lists the co-founders in the top three roles — Melanie Perkins (CEO & Co-founder), Cameron Adams (CPO & Co-founder), Cliff Obrecht (COO & Co-founder) — plus Zach Kitschke (CMO) and Jennie Rogerson (Global Head of People); no CFO or CTO appears on that page. https://public.canva.site/canva-press-hub-leadership - Melanie Perkins has been CEO since the company's founding — after Canva's 2013 public launch an investor advised appointing a single leader and co-founder Cliff Obrecht nominated Perkins as chief executive — giving her roughly 13 years of CEO tenure. (2026-11-05) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanie_Perkins - Tenure of the other founders: Cliff Obrecht has been Co-Founder & COO since 2013 (directing corporate operations, enterprise sales and acquisitions including Affinity, Pexels, Pixabay and Flourish) and Cameron Adams joined in 2012 as third co-founder and CPO, previously a Google senior software engineer on Google Wave. https://corpdigest.com/company/canva/ceo-history #### Liabilities Canva's liability profile is unusually light for a company of its scale: no regulator enforcement action, consumer complaint, or tax dispute has been published, the one major data breach (May 2019, ~137-139M users) produced no reported litigation or fines, and the company carries no published debt. The live items are (1) an active NPE patent suit against Canva US Inc over its AI voice generator where Canva's motion to dismiss was denied in September 2026, with the same serial-litigant counsel filing further claims; (2) ASIC infringement notices of A$792,000 for lodging FY24 financial reports ~11 months late, amid ASIC's stated open investigations into late lodgement - a direct hit to financial-diligence reliability; (3) a pre-litigation class action investigation (Aug 2026) into whether user content was used for AI training without consent; and (4) the Nov 2026 first-ever redundancy round (1,271 roles, 22% of staff, >=6 months' salary severance) after 2026 growth guidance was cut from 30% to 20% - an accruing obligation plus the core valuation problem (US$42B Aug 2025 secondary mark vs US$31B referenced Nov 2026). - Red flag: ACTIVE PATENT LITIGATION: Cedar Lane Technologies v. Canva US, Inc. (W.D. Tex. 7:25-cv-00271) survived Canva's motion to dismiss - Judge Counts adopted the R&R and denied dismissal with Canva's objections overruled on 23 Sep 2026 - so the case proceeds to claim construction against Canva's AI voice generator, custom templates and subscriber portal. The plaintiff is a serial litigant (similar claims against hundreds of companies incl. Amazon, Zoom, Huawei) and its counsel filed additional patent claims against Canva entities in Texas, so exposure is a stream, not a single case. (2026-09-23) https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txwdce/7:2025cv00271/1172849975/46 - Red flag: REGULATORY FINE + OPEN INVESTIGATIONS: ASIC issued infringement notices totalling A$792,000 (4 x A$198,000) against Canva Pty Ltd, Canva Operations, Canva Trading and Fusion Books for failing to lodge FY24 financial reports by 30 April 2025 - the consolidated FY24 report was lodged 27 March 2026, nearly 11 months late. ASIC says it 'has a number of open investigations' into non-lodgment/late lodgement and has made it a 2026 enforcement priority; late statutory accounts also undercut reliance on filed financials in diligence. (2026-05-06) https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2026-releases/26-090mr-canva-group-pays-792-000-in-infringement-notices-for-failing-to-lodge-financial-reports-on-time - Red flag: PRE-LITIGATION CLASS ACTION INVESTIGATION TOUCHING THE AI STRATEGY: Migliaccio & Rathod (26 Aug 2026) is investigating whether Canva used customers' uploaded designs/images/documents to train or improve AI features without clear disclosure or affirmative consent (potential unfair-trade-practices, contract, privacy and unjust-enrichment claims), contrasting archived opt-in terms with current settings-dependent terms. This strikes the core of Canva's AI monetisation and arrived the same quarter AI costs forced a guidance cut; no suit filed as of the page date. (2026-08-26) https://classlawdc.com/2026/08/26/canva-user-content-ai-training-investigation - Red flag: REPRICING EVENT - GROWTH BREAK AND FIRST-EVER REDUNDANCIES: 2026 revenue growth guidance was cut from 30% to 20% in August 2026 on ballooning AI costs, and on 3-4 Nov 2026 Canva announced its first-ever restructuring - 1,271 roles, 22% of staff ('growth has slowed for the first time in a decade' - CEO Melanie Perkins) - with severance of at least six months' salary plus statutory entitlements, 12 months' healthcare continuation and US$10,000 grants per departee accruing across 37 countries with no quantum disclosed. Both the momentum break and the severance bill directly affect deal price. (2026-11-04) https://abc.net.au/news/2026-11-04/canva-restructure-job-losses/107344304 - Cedar Lane Technologies Inc. v. Canva US, Inc., No. 7:25-cv-00271 (US District Court, W.D. Texas, Midland/Odessa Division), filed 12 June 2025: patent infringement action under 35 U.S.C. s 271 against Canva US, Inc. over US Patent No. 8,438,485; jury demanded; plaintiff represented by Isaac Rabicoff (Rabicoff Law LLC); Canva's Rule 7.1 disclosure names parent Canva Australia Holdings Pty Ltd. (2025-06-12) https://dockets.justia.com/docket/texas/txwdce/7:2025cv00271/1172849975 - Judge David Counts adopted the magistrate's Report and Recommendation and DENIED Canva US, Inc.'s motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, overruling Canva's objections; the court found Cedar Lane 'plausibly alleges infringement' and that fact issues preclude a s 101 invalidity finding at the pleading stage, so the case proceeds to claim construction and further litigation. (2026-09-23) https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txwdce/7:2025cv00271/1172849975/46 - The accused products in Cedar Lane's claim chart are Canva's custom templates, subscriber portal and AI voice generator tools that create voiceovers, podcasts and audio content (as characterized in court filings). (2026-09-23) https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/texas/txwdce/7:2025cv00271/1172849975/46 - AFR reporting: Canva faces a patent lawsuit by Cedar Lane Technologies, a Canadian 'serial litigant' alleging Canva stole its patents for an AI voice generator now integrated into Canva's platform; Cedar Lane has made similar claims against hundreds of companies over five years (incl. Amazon, Zoom, Huawei), and its lawyer Isaac Rabicoff lodged separate patent claims against Canva in Texas on behalf of other companies in the prior two months. (2025-06-22) https://afr.com/technology/patent-trolls-come-for-canva-as-it-prepares-for-share-sales-20250622-p5m9bg #### Ownership & deal history Canva is founder-owned and controlled: co-founders Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams are the largest holders (aggregator-estimated ~35-38% combined, never disclosed), with Blackbird (~10-15%) the largest institutional backer alongside Airtree, Felicis, Sequoia, T. Rowe Price and Franklin Templeton; the last priced primary round was September 2021 at US$40B, with Quadrant PE buying in via a 2024 secondary. Every valuation mark since 2021 is a board-facilitated secondary, peaking at US$42B in the August 2025 employee tender led by Fidelity with JPMorgan AM as a new buyer, then marked down hard in August 2026 (internal 409A cut to A$43.9B; Blackbird to US$34.9B) as the Nasdaq IPO was shelved and early investors began testing a pre-IPO block sale. Canva has been a serial tuck-in acquirer (Zeetings, Pexels, Pixabay, Kaleido, Smartmockups, Flourish, Affinity ~US$380M, Leonardo.AI, plus 2025-26 deals), has no published lenders or debt, no published change-of-control terms, and no recorded sale process for the company itself - the only exit path on the table is an IPO, now slipped toward 2027. - Red flag: August 2026 valuation reset: Canva cut its internal 409A valuation by more than A$10bn to A$43.9bn (independent assessment, used to price grants to ~5,500 employees), Blackbird marked its stake down ~A$10bn to US$34.9bn, and the long-expected Nasdaq IPO is understood to have been shelved - a hard repricing of every holder's stake a year after the US$42bn tender. (2026-08-14) https://smh.com.au/technology/sobering-markdown-canva-slashes-valuation-by-10b-as-ai-reality-bites-20260814-p60of9.html - Red flag: Sponsor liquidity overhang: early investors are testing a pre-IPO block sale of existing shares with secondary marks softened to the high-US$30bn range (vs US$42bn in August 2025); the exploratory sounding had no published size or outcome, and repeated tenders have relieved pressure to list - making staying private (and the liquidity problem) structural. (2026-09-26) https://bbrw.com/canva-backers-test-pre-ipo-sale - Red flag: Insider selling cadence: founders were actively negotiating a secondary sell-down in June 2025, Blackbird sold US$150m in 2023 and kept selling (while buying back via later funds), and Quadrant PE bought a partial stake from earlier investors in May 2024 - the register is churning through secondaries rather than a single clean sponsor base. (2025-06-17) https://afr.com/street-talk/canva-prepares-secondary-share-sale-after-last-year-s-us1-6b-bonanza-20250617-p5m85o - Red flag: Regulatory attention on M&A: the ACCC said it may review Canva's purchase of Leonardo.AI as an early test of its interest in digital platforms entrenching market power under planned federal merger laws - an antitrust overhang on Canva's bolt-on strategy. (2024-07-30) https://afr.com/technology/it-was-called-the-next-canva-so-canva-bought-it-20240730-p5jxnu - Canva is privately held with no parent or listed shares; its ultimate holding company is Canva, Inc., registered in Delaware (US), and current holdings and voting percentages are not disclosed. (2026-10-12) https://visionarytalks.com/who-owns-canva - Ownership structure change: on 2025-02-12 a reverse triangular merger made a new Delaware parent effective, exchanging old shares 1:1 for holding-company shares with equivalent percentages and rights and no cash consideration; the old entity was registered in Australia as Canva Australia Holdings Pty. Ltd. on 2025-03-12, per ATO Class Ruling CR 2025/36 dated 2025-05-28. (2025-05-28) https://visionarytalks.com/who-owns-canva - The three co-founders remain the controlling owners: Melanie Perkins (CEO) estimated at ~18% direct stake, Cliff Obrecht (COO) ~18%, and Cameron Adams (CPO) ~5-9% - all explicitly aggregator estimates, with no official disclosure; other compilations put the founders combined at ~30-38%. (2025-12-24) https://champsignal.com/ownership/canva.com - Perkins and Obrecht have pledged to direct a substantial part of their equity value (reported elsewhere as more than 80% of their stake) to the Canva Foundation; the legal split and structure are not fully disclosed. https://visionarytalks.com/who-owns-canva ### Deel: counterparty & compliance (recorded 2026-11-09) Question: Can we onboard Deel as a payroll partner? Run record: 5 agent runs in parallel, low effort, 58 seconds, 98 pages read, 44 findings from 25 websites, cost $0.17. Screening result: DEEL, INC. (Delaware) is verified as the main operating legal entity: registered and active (file 6465099), LEI 549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16, with no confirmed sanctions match and a clean registry record. However, adverse-media flags are material for a payroll partner: a reported DOJ criminal investigation into alleged corporate espionage against Rippling and a Miami federal RICO lawsuit accusing Deel of enabling money laundering and sanctions evasion. Recommend enhanced due diligence before onboarding: obtain Deel's written AML/sanctions compliance representations, verify its money-transmitter licensing (26 states approved as of 2024), and monitor the litigation and DOJ probe on an ongoing basis. - Legal name: DEEL, INC. - Jurisdiction: United States (Delaware) - Registration: Division of Corporations, Department of State (Delaware); file number 6465099; status ACTIVE; entity created 2017-07-03; registered agent Vcorp Services, LLC, 108 W 13th St Suite 100, Wilmington DE 19801 - LEI: 549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16 #### Registry & entities Deel's principal operating entity is Deel, Inc., a Delaware corporation (Division of Corporations entity ID 6465099, LEI 549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16, active, created 3 July 2017), whose registered-agent address is in Wilmington, DE and whose headquarters is at 425 1st St, San Francisco. For UK payroll the contracting entity is Deel Software Solutions (UK) Ltd (Companies House 15878154, active, incorporated 5 Aug 2024). Diligence flags: the UK entity has twice faced compulsory strike-off proceedings (June 2025 and October 2026, both discontinued) and its first statutory accounts are overdue, which should be verified before relying on it as a payroll counterparty. - Red flag: Deel Software Solutions (UK) Ltd received a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off (GAZ1) on 6 October 2026; the strike-off action was discontinued on 10 October 2026. (2026-10-06) https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15878154/filing-history - Red flag: Deel Software Solutions (UK) Ltd previously received a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off (GAZ1) on 10 June 2025; discontinued 14 June 2025. (2025-06-10) https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15878154/filing-history - Red flag: Companies House flags Deel Software Solutions (UK) Ltd's accounts as overdue: first accounts made up to 31 August 2025 were due by 5 August 2026 and had not been filed as of retrieval. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15878154 - Deel, Inc. (Delaware) is the group's parent operating entity: LEI 549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16, Delaware Division of Corporations entity ID 6465099, legal form corporation (XTIQ), entity status ACTIVE, created 2017-07-03; LEI status ISSUED, last updated 2026-10-23, next renewal 2027-11-24. (2026-10-23) https://lei.bloomberg.com/leis/view/549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16 - Deel, Inc. registered (legal) address: c/o Vcorp Services, LLC, 108 W. 13th Street Suite 100, Wilmington, Delaware 19801, US; headquarters address: 425 1st Street, San Francisco, California 94105. (2026-10-23) https://lei-lookup.com/record/549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16 - Deel, Inc. has an 'other entity name' of LIFESLICE (trading/operating name) recorded on its GLEIF LEI record. (2026-10-23) https://lei.bloomberg.com/leis/view/549300IFGBDZQE2NZG16 - Deel Software Solutions (UK) Ltd: Companies House company number 15878154, private limited company, status Active, incorporated 5 August 2024, registered office 167-169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London W1W 5PF, SIC 62090. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15878154 #### Officers & owners Deel is a privately held, founder-led global payroll/HR platform: co-founders Alex Bouaziz (CEO) and Shuo Wang (CRO) remain in operating control alongside Philippe Bouaziz (Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer), with a professional C-suite including President/CFO Joe Kauffman and COO Dan Westgarth. It is venture-backed with roughly $1.28B raised (latest $300M Series E, October 2025) and reports ~$750M annual revenue, ~9,600 employees, and 40,000+ customers. For onboarding Deel as a payroll partner, the key diligence points are its concentrated founder-led governance (key-person dependence) and the absence of public beneficial-ownership registry data (UK PSC/EU UBO) for its legal entities, so ultimate-owner and counterparty verification must come from Deel directly rather than public registers. - Red flag: Deel's control is concentrated in its founders: co-founders hold the CEO and CRO roles, and the founding CFO (Philippe Bouaziz) serves as Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, creating key-person dependence for a platform onboarding partner. https://www.deel.com/leadership-team/ - Philippe Bouaziz is Executive Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of Deel. https://www.deel.com/leadership-team/ - Shuo Wang is Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer of Deel. https://www.deel.com/leadership-team/ - Joe Kauffman is President and Chief Financial Officer of Deel. https://www.deel.com/leadership-team/ - Dan Westgarth is Chief Operating Officer of Deel. https://www.deel.com/leadership-team/ #### Sanctions & PEP Deel and its main officers show no confirmed matches on the UN Security Council consolidated sanctions list or the UK OFSI/UK Sanctions List as retrieved, and none of the named officers is publicly identified as a politically exposed person. The most material diligence issue for onboarding Deel as a payroll partner is not a static sanctions-list hit but a January 2025 RICO class action filed in Miami federal court accusing Deel of enabling money laundering and sanctions evasion — including alleged transfers to Russia via a Russian bank and transactions linked to a counterparty subject to an SEC Ponzi-scheme enforcement action — which Deel denies. Because a full OFAC SDN and EU consolidated-list screen could not be completed in this run, those two checks remain open gaps. - Red flag: A RICO class action complaint filed in federal court in Miami accuses Deel of violating federal anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) laws and enabling money laundering and sanctions evasion, including partnering with a Russian bank to transmit money to Russia in violation of U.S. sanctions, and facilitating transfers by Brent Seaman and his company Surge Capital Ventures, which was subject to a 2024 SEC enforcement action over a Ponzi scheme. Deel denies wrongdoing, stating it processed one payment to a Surge employee, ended the relationship in 2023, and was not involved in Surge's illegal investment activities. (2025-01-13) https://www.inc.com/jennifer-conrad/payroll-startup-deel-accused-of-money-laundering/91106552 - No entry for Deel or any named officer (Bouaziz, Wang, Kauffman, Westgarth, Lavi, Sharma, Rodriguez) appears on the UN Security Council consolidated sanctions list as retrieved. https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en/content/un-sc-consolidated-list - No entry for Deel or any named officer appears on the UK OFSI Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets / UK Sanctions List as retrieved. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68f89eab529ccfa62ea39a5a/sanctionsconlist.pdf - Deel's leadership team: Alex Bouaziz (Co-founder & CEO), Shuo Wang (Co-founder & CRO), Philippe Bouaziz (Executive Chairman & Chief Strategy Officer), Joe Kauffman (President & CFO), Dan Westgarth (COO), Yaron Lavi (CTO), Harish Sharma (Chief Risk Officer), DeAnn Work (Global Corporate General Counsel), Anthony Rodriguez (Chief Compliance Officer). https://deel.com/leadership-team - Alex Bouaziz is co-founder & CEO of Deel since May 2019, based in Tel Aviv, Israel, with a Master's from MIT and BSc from Technion; he is also Founding Partner at Sarona Ventures. He is a private-company executive, not a public office-holder. https://linkedin.com/in/alexbouaziz #### Adverse media For onboarding Deel as a payroll partner, the most material adverse items are the reported Department of Justice criminal probe into alleged corporate spying on Rippling (HIGH) and the active Rippling civil espionage/trade-secrets suit in which Deel has admitted directing discreet surveillance (MEDIUM). Deel has also faced a money-laundering/sanctions-evasion RICO class action tied to the Surge Capital Ponzi scheme, but a Florida federal court dismissed the fraud and RICO claims in August 2025 and Deel was never sanctioned by the SEC or CFTC, leaving those allegations LOW/unproven. - Red flag: HIGH — reported criminal investigation: DOJ reportedly opened a criminal probe into Deel over alleged corporate spying on Rippling (grand jury subpoenas in N.D. Cal.). Deel denies awareness; no charges confirmed. (2026-01-23) https://inc.com/jennifer-conrad/the-justice-department-is-now-investigating-an-alleged-startup-spying-scandal/91291694 - Red flag: MEDIUM — open civil suit: Rippling v. Deel (San Francisco Superior Court) alleging Deel orchestrated corporate espionage and trade-secret theft; ongoing pretrial litigation as of September 2026 with no trial date confirmed. (2025-03) https://lawfold.com/deel-rippling-lawsuit - Red flag: MEDIUM — Deel admitted instructing 'discreet surveillance' on the Rippling manager at the centre of the spy case (Irish Times), a confirmed admission of questionable conduct in the ongoing dispute. (2025-06-25) https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/23/the-rippling-deel-corporate-spying-scandal-may-have-taken-another-wild-turn - Red flag: LOW — dismissed allegation: the RICO/money-laundering class action (Surge Capital) was dismissed by a Florida federal court in August 2025 with no finding against Deel; Deel was never accused by the SEC. (2025-08-20) https://deel.com/blog/court-dismisses-rippling-claims - Damian v. Deel, Inc. (1:25-cv-20017, S.D. Fla.) — a RICO class action filed in Miami alleging Deel enabled money laundering and sanctions evasion by processing payments for Surge Capital (Brent Seaman's $35M Ponzi scheme per the SEC) and payments to Russian individuals/companies in violation of U.S. sanctions. Deel denied wrongdoing and was never directly accused by the SEC. (2025-01-03) https://law360.com/cases/67782621a7d540fde17808c2 - Inc. reported Deel was accused of enabling money laundering and sanctions evasion in the RICO complaint; Deel said it operated through licensed/regulated partners and had obtained money transmitter licenses in 26 states. (2025-01-13) https://inc.com/jennifer-conrad/payroll-startup-deel-accused-of-money-laundering/91106552 - A federal court in Florida dismissed fraud-based claims against Deel, including the RICO allegations, holding the plaintiff lacked standing and failed to identify a distinct RICO enterprise; Deel's own blog confirms the dismissal and closure of the civil RICO claim. (2025-08-20) https://deel.com/blog/court-dismisses-rippling-claims - Rippling sued Deel in San Francisco Superior Court (trade-secret theft, corporate espionage, CFAA, civil RICO) alleging Deel planted a mole (Keith O'Brien) inside Rippling to steal customer data and competitive intelligence; the suit is active and in pretrial discovery as of September 2026, and Deel countersued. (2025-03) https://lawfold.com/deel-rippling-lawsuit ## 8. Skill The skill the prompt points to, as published at https://docs.nimbleway.com/skills/due-diligence/SKILL.md (copied 2026-11-11). ### Due diligence Writes a first-pass due diligence memo on a private company: business, traction, team, funding, financial signals, legal issues, reputation and red flags, every claim dated and cited. #### What the user gets A memo with sections for business, traction, team, funding, financial signals, legal and regulatory, reputation, red flags and a short verdict. Every claim has a date and source. #### Agent template This skill runs the Nimble gallery template `due-diligence`. The agent's instructions, sources and output schema live in the template. Do not rewrite them in the run. Effort: this skill runs the template at medium effort (about 1-3 minutes), even when the template's default effort is different. That is on purpose. If the user asks for a specific effort (low, medium, high or x-high), run that one instead. #### Flow 1. Interview the user. 2. Connect Nimble if it is not connected already. 3. Run the agent and show the result. 4. Offer next steps. Ask every question with the host's question UI, never as plain text: `AskUserQuestion` in Claude Code, ChatGPT's interactive question form (clickable choices and a Submit button) in ChatGPT. ##### Get the inputs | Input | Required | Ask for | If skipped | | - | - | - | - | | Company | yes | Name and domain | - | | Focus | no | Anything to check first, for example "focus on the AI cost story" | no specific focus | * Skip anything the user already said in this conversation or in their request, and ask only for what is missing. Do not fill in answers from earlier conversations, with one exception: a stable fact about the user, such as what they sell, may be offered as the first option, labeled "(from before)". Never carry over the subject of the request, dates or rules from an earlier conversation. * Ask the required inputs first, in table order, one question at a time. Then ask the optional ones together, in one question-tool call, as many as the tool takes per call (a second call for the rest). * Put the whole question in the question tool, once. Never restate or introduce a question in text. Between questions, acknowledge the answer in a few words, and before the first question, at most one short sentence that acknowledges your role (the user's, if they named one), such as "Sure, I'll use Nimble to be your due diligence assistant." Talk in plain, friendly words: never say "input", "required" or "optional", and use no field names. Use plain text only if the host has no question tool, in one short line. * Write 2-3 likely answers as options, based on what the user has already said. Fixed examples in the table are a guide to what the answer contains, not a list to copy. Offer only answers Nimble can act on with public web data, never ones that need the user's own data, such as their customers or CRM. * If you cannot guess likely answers, such as a company name or an industry, still use the tool and offer two or three examples as options, written as answers the user could really give. If the user picks one, use it as their answer. * Every question must let the user type their own answer, optional ones too. Claude's question UI adds its own free-text choice ("Something else" in Claude, "Other" in Claude Code), so add none there. ChatGPT's form does not, so add "Other" as the last option of every question, even one whose options look complete, opening a text field with a placeholder. In any other host, add "Other" unless you know its UI already has a free-text choice. Keep Skip and Other, when you add them, even if you must drop an answer to fit the option limit. * Use single-select only. For a range, such as a size or a date, offer a few options that do not overlap. * Optional questions can be skipped, and a skipped answer uses the "If skipped" value. Claude's question UI has its own Skip button, so add no Skip option there. In other hosts, include a Skip option that states the default in its label, for example "Skip (any location)", not in the question. When you acknowledge a skipped question, say the default you will use, for example "Any location.", not that it was skipped. Do not offer a "skip all" option. If the user asks to skip the remaining questions, use the "If skipped" values for all of them. * Do not ask about effort. Build the agent input from this pattern: ``` Write a due diligence memo on (). Focus on . ``` Example: `Write a due diligence memo on Canva` * One company at a time. If the user names several, run the first and offer the rest next. * A focus line shifts depth. It does not remove sections. ##### Connect Nimble Do this after the interview. Until the questions are done, say nothing about connecting Nimble. Check the connection. If a Nimble tool is listed in this session, call `nimble_agents_list`. If the CLI is available, run `nimble --client-source nimble-agent-skills agents list`. A normal response from either, even an empty list, means the user is connected: say nothing and go on. If neither check succeeds (no tool is listed and the CLI is missing or fails, or a check returns an auth error or an authorization link), connect it in these steps. Your message is only these steps: no summary of what the user told you, no mention of the skill, the template or the workflow, and no plan for what happens after connecting (that belongs in the run notice). 1. Tell the user, in two short sentences at most: "Nimble searches the live web and links where every answer came from. Connecting takes one approval, and if you're new to Nimble you start with a free trial." 2. Connect it in the first of these ways that works, and stop at the first one that does: * Show the host's card to connect or install Nimble from nimbleway.com: the Connect card for the connector in Claude, the install card for the plugin in ChatGPT. * If you can't show a card and a check returned an authorization link, show that link to the user. * If you can do neither but can run commands, follow [https://docs.nimbleway.com/agent-onboarding.md](https://docs.nimbleway.com/agent-onboarding.md) and involve the user only for the sign-up and the approval. With only the CLI and no `NIMBLE_API_KEY`, an approval is not enough: follow the page's API key fallback and have the user set the key in their environment, never in the chat. That page is written for you: never link it or its steps to the user. * If none of these works, tell the user how to find Nimble in this app, with the clicks: in ChatGPT, open Plugins in the sidebar, search for Nimble, pick the one described as "Expert web search for agents" and install it; in Claude, open Customize, then Connectors, then Nimble, then Connect. Never send the user to nimbleway.com for this. 3. Ask with the question tool, with the options "I've connected Nimble" and "Not now". If the host has no question tool, end the message by asking them to reply "connected", and add nothing after that. Never ask the user to paste an API key into the chat. When they confirm, check the connection again and go on without comment. If it is still not connected, say so in one line and ask again. If they pick "Not now", say the skill needs Nimble and stop. Show no research until Nimble is connected, not from your own search and not from memory. ##### Run the agent Do not comment on the connection check or on creating or reusing the agent. The first thing the user hears is step 2. 1. Create the agent from the template: `nimble_agents_create(template="due-diligence", agent_name="due-diligence")`. A 409 "already exists" means it was created before, so go on. If the template is not found, tell the user it is unavailable and stop. Do not substitute another template. 2. Tell the user once, in one line, what you are researching and how long it takes at the effort you will use: "Researching \. Expected to take \