Every deal graded the same way: your thesis, four pillars, cited reasoning.

Underwriting quality shouldn't depend on which analyst caught the deal or how busy the week was. SamCIO applies one weighted, thesis-tied framework to every opportunity, so a score means something across deals, analysts and vintages.

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Your thesis is the rubric

You define the thesis, anti-thesis, sectors, stages, check-size bands and the weights on four pillars: thesis fit, market opportunity, team & execution, and traction & deal terms. Sam assesses each pillar from the full deal record and the weighted framework combines them into a grade with one overall Pursue / Diligence / Pass call.

Reasoning you can defend to an IC

Every pillar score ships with a rationale grounded in evidence from the deck, documents and your team's own conversations. Section confidence is rated honestly: clear evidence rates high, pure inference rates low, and 'not disclosed' lowers a traction score rather than being papered over.

Benchmarked against your own history

Sam compares each new deal against your firm's record: how similar deals scored, what you passed on and why. The framework compounds instead of resetting with every hire, which is the difference between a tool and institutional memory.

About 60 seconds a deal

Underwriting that takes a team a week takes Sam about a minute: deck, model, data room, email threads and call transcripts, analyzed against thesis, portfolio composition and relationship graph. Speed is the byproduct; the consistency is the product.

Common questions

Is the scoring deterministic?

The weighted math combining pillar assessments is fully deterministic, and Sam's pillar assessments run at deterministic model settings, so grades are consistent and comparable. Sam supplies the reasoning behind every score; your team makes the call.

Can we change the weights later?

Yes, anytime in Settings. Future scoring uses the new weights immediately; prior scores are preserved as scored. Each fund in a multi-vintage workspace carries its own weights.

What inputs does the underwriting actually use?

Everything on the deal: deck (any format), financial models and documents, your team's synced email threads and meeting transcripts, prior notes and memos, plus Sam's own market knowledge, clearly separated from what the deck claims.

How is this different from asking ChatGPT to review a deck?

A chatbot gives you prose about one document. SamCIO gives you a repeatable process across every deal: your weighted framework, pillar scores with cited reasoning, a fact-checked memo, and a decision record that compounds. See our comparison pages for the full picture.

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