Ma Playbook
Run structured M&A due diligence across financial, technical, legal, and operational domains when buying or selling a small software business.
Overview
M&A Playbook is an agent skill most often used in Operate (also Validate) that guides structured acquisition due diligence across financial, technical, and operational checklists for small software deals.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/alirezarezvani/claude-skills --skill ma-playbookWhat is this skill?
- Financial diligence: revenue concentration, MRR/ARR trends, churn cohorts, unit economics, cap table, and liabilities
- Technical diligence: architecture diagrams, stack inventory, scalability, security posture, and technical debt
- Operational and legal checklist domains framed as pick-what-matters-for-your-deal rationale
- Emphasis on 24-month revenue trends and realistic path-to-profitability scrutiny
- Checkbox-oriented structure for agent-guided review sessions with a data room
- 24 months minimum MRR/ARR trend called out in financial diligence
- Multi-domain checklist spanning financial, technical, and operational areas
Adoption & trust: 532 installs on skills.sh; 17.5k GitHub stars; 2/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
You are evaluating buying or selling a software business and risk missing material issues because diligence is scattered across spreadsheets and ad-hoc notes.
Who is it for?
Indie operators pursuing micro-acquisitions, acqui-hires, or exit prep who need a exhaustive question bank in one place.
Skip if: Casual idea-stage founders with no deal in motion, or regulated transactions that require licensed M&A advisors without human oversight.
When should I use this skill?
A buy-side or sell-side software transaction is active and you need structured diligence questions aligned to deal rationale.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a domain-organized diligence workbook with prioritized open questions and evidence gaps to discuss with counsel, accountants, and technical reviewers.
- Prioritized diligence checklist with open items
- Risk and evidence-gap summary by domain
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Operate is where acquisition, exit, or consolidation decisions surface for founders who already run a live product. Iterate covers strategic business changes—including buy-side diligence and integration planning—not day-to-day feature work.
Where it fits
Sanity-check whether reported MRR, churn, and customer concentration support proceeding past initial calls.
Work through financial and technical sections while assembling a virtual data room for a LOI.
Map post-close monitoring gaps discovered during infrastructure and security diligence.
Reconcile seller analytics claims against cohort and unit-economics checklist items before closing.
How it compares
Use as a diligence checklist skill, not as automated valuation or legal contract generation.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is ma-playbook for?
Solo founders and small teams on buy-side or sell-side software transactions who need systematic diligence prompts across finance, tech, and operations.
When should I use ma-playbook?
Use it in Operate when iterating on acquisition or exit strategy, and in Validate when scoping whether a target business's metrics and stack justify a serious offer.
Is ma-playbook safe to install?
It provides review templates only; review the Security Audits panel on this page and never upload confidential counterparty data to untrusted environments without your security policy.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Ma Playbook
# M&A Due Diligence Checklist Comprehensive due diligence organized by domain. Not every item applies to every deal — focus on what matters for YOUR acquisition rationale. ## Financial Due Diligence ### Revenue Quality - [ ] Revenue by customer (top 10 customer concentration) - [ ] Revenue by product line - [ ] Revenue by geography - [ ] MRR/ARR trend (24 months minimum) - [ ] Churn rate (gross and net, by cohort) - [ ] Revenue recognition policies - [ ] Deferred revenue / backlog - [ ] One-time vs recurring revenue split - [ ] Professional services vs product revenue ### Profitability - [ ] Gross margin by product line - [ ] Operating expenses breakdown - [ ] Burn rate trend (improving or worsening?) - [ ] Path to profitability (realistic or aspirational?) - [ ] Unit economics (LTV, CAC, payback by channel) ### Cash & Liabilities - [ ] Cash position and burn rate - [ ] Outstanding debt (terms, covenants) - [ ] Accounts receivable aging - [ ] Accounts payable - [ ] Pending or contingent liabilities - [ ] Tax obligations (any back taxes?) - [ ] Cap table (fully diluted, option pool) ### Financial Controls - [ ] Audit history (audited vs reviewed vs compiled) - [ ] Financial reporting cadence and quality - [ ] Budget vs actual variance history - [ ] Key financial policies ## Technical Due Diligence ### Architecture - [ ] Architecture diagrams (current state) - [ ] Technology stack inventory - [ ] Infrastructure (cloud provider, regions, costs) - [ ] Scalability assessment (current capacity vs load) - [ ] Security architecture (encryption, access controls) ### Code Quality - [ ] Test coverage (unit, integration, e2e) - [ ] CI/CD pipeline maturity - [ ] Technical debt inventory (estimated remediation cost) - [ ] Code review practices - [ ] Documentation quality ### Data - [ ] Data architecture and storage - [ ] Data privacy compliance (GDPR, CCPA) - [ ] Data portability (can you migrate it?) - [ ] Proprietary data assets (training data, user data) - [ ] Data retention policies ### Operational - [ ] Uptime history (SLA compliance) - [ ] Incident history (frequency, severity, resolution time) - [ ] Monitoring and alerting coverage - [ ] Disaster recovery plan and testing history - [ ] On-call rotation and processes ## Legal Due Diligence ### Intellectual Property - [ ] Patents (granted and pending) - [ ] Trademarks - [ ] Copyright registrations - [ ] IP assignment agreements (all employees/contractors) - [ ] Open source usage and compliance - [ ] Trade secrets protection measures ### Contracts - [ ] Customer contracts (terms, renewals, termination rights) - [ ] Vendor contracts (key dependencies, terms) - [ ] Partnership agreements - [ ] Lease agreements - [ ] Employment agreements (non-competes, IP clauses) ### Compliance & Litigation - [ ] Pending or threatened litigation - [ ] Regulatory compliance status - [ ] Government investigations - [ ] Insurance coverage - [ ] Prior legal disputes and resolutions ## People Due Diligence ### Team Composition - [ ] Org chart with roles and tenure - [ ] Key person dependencies (bus factor) - [ ] Compensation details (salary, equity, bonuses) - [ ] Employment agreements and non-competes - [ ] Contractor vs employee classification ### Culture & Retention - [ ] Recent engagement survey results - [ ] Turnover rate (last 12-24 months) - [ ] Glassdoor/reputation assessment - [ ] Management quality assessment - [ ] Culture compatibility analysis ### HR Compliance - [ ] Employee handbook and policies - [ ] HR complaints or investigations - [ ] Benefits programs - [ ] Equity plan details and administration ## Market Due Diligence ### Market Position - [ ] Market size (TAM, SAM, SOM) with sources - [ ] Market share estimate - [ ] Growth rate (market and company) - [ ] Competitive landscape (direct and indirect) - [ ] Barriers to entry / competitive moat ### Customer Analysis - [ ] Customer segmentation - [ ] Win/loss analysis (why customers chose them) - [ ] NPS or satisfaction sc