Response Time Is a Leading Risk Indicator

How to lose $8M in 6 days without knowing it's happening: $8M drop in closing proceeds. Same company. Same buyer. Different data room speed. Tuesday 9:14am. Buyer's DD team requests customer contracts. Founder scrambles for 6 days. Half are missing signatures. Three are expired. The buyer's IC meeting is Friday. Your deal isn't on the agenda. It never made it to a vote. Slow data room response time = hidden problems in buyer's mind. They don't wait for explanations. They move to the next deal. Here's what gets missed: Diligence isn't about finding your documents. It's about testing your control. Missing contracts don't kill deals because of legal risk. They kill deals because they signal operational chaos. The buyer has 3 other targets in their pipeline. You have one shot at this exit. Preparation isn't optional.