For M&A advisors

The sell-side data room for boutique M&A advisors.

One room per mandate. Stage the reveal, isolate every buyer, and see who is really digging in. Flat-rate, set up in minutes.

Flat-rate · one room per mandate · Room free for 14 days
Project Kestrel
Sell-side
86 documents · Link is live
Documents
86
In this room
People
14
Verified emails that opened it
Views this week
57
212 in total
Open questions
2
Waiting for an answer
WhoOpenedWhen
j.lee@harbourcap.comXLSFinancial model FY26.xlsxReading now
m.chen@alderpike.comPDFAudited accounts FY25.pdf1 hr ago
deals@northgate.coPDFMaterial contracts.pdf3 hr ago
r.shah@harbourcap.comPDFBoard minutes 2025.pdfYesterday
t.grey@northgate.coXLSRevenue by customer.xlsxYesterday

The data room is the whole job. The tooling fails you at both ends.

Google Drive hands 200 buyers your seller's financials and tells you nothing about who is serious. Datasite and Ansarada fix that, at a price a $5M to $100M mandate can't justify.

What you get

A sell-side process that reads the room.

One room per mandate, staged revealsRun the whole sell-side process from one room

Show the teaser first, then open the full diligence set as buyers clear each stage. Set it up yourself in minutes.

Per-buyer links with bidder isolation100 to 200+ buyers, each isolated

Each buyer group gets its own link to only the folders you choose. Rivals never see each other, and you can cut off a buyer the moment they drop.

Per-viewer, page-level view-trackingSee which acquirer is actually digging in

See who opened what, how far they read and who came back, so you know who to push before the deadline.

Dynamic watermarking, NDA gate, full audit logProtect the seller and hand over a clean record

Every page carries the viewer's email, an NDA comes before anything opens, and every action is logged for your client.

In practice

Know which bidder to push before you set the deadline.

Three bidder groups, three isolated links. A week in, one group is deep in the financials; another has barely opened the teaser. You steer toward the real buyer, and can prove why.

Project Kestrel / Access
Groups · each with its own link · click a folder to give or take access
Harbour CapitalActive
JLRSLP3 people · 23 opens
Northgate PartnersActive
TGSI2 people · 9 opens
Alder & PikeActive
MC1 person · 14 opens
Brookfield GrowthActive
DR1 person · 4 opens
Access requests
a.ross@alderpike.com asked for access“Joining the Alder & Pike diligence team.”

Shared drive, enterprise VDR, or TalkOctopus

What a boutique advisor actually needs from the room.

For a boutique advisorGoogle Drive / DropboxDatasite / AnsaradaTalkOctopus
Bidder isolation and buyer access control–✓✓
Who-viewed-what, page-level view-tracking–✓✓
Set up in minutes, no sales call✓–✓
Flat rate a $5M to $100M mandate can justify✓–✓
Dynamic watermarking and NDA gate–✓✓

Datasite and Ansarada price per customer and vary by plan. Check each vendor for current details.

Security

Built for confidential documents.

Exactly what we do to protect your deal, in plain terms.

Read the security overview →
Access-checked files

No file has a public address. Every page request is checked against the viewer's access first.

Verified viewers

An email code, a passcode, an NDA, or a list of approved people.

Watermarks Founder and up

The viewer's email across every page they read.

Download control

Off by default. Readers view in the browser unless you allow a copy.

Permissions Room and up

A separate link per party, limited to the folders you choose. Turn any link off instantly.

Audit log Room and up

Every open, download, invitation and access change, exportable as CSV.

A plan for every process.

Teammates included. Try Room free for 14 days.

What you get
1 live data room

For up to 5 people

RoomFree for 14 days
$149/month

First 14 days free, then billed monthly, plus tax. Card required; cancel before and you pay nothing.


Run one complete diligence process
  • Everything in Founder
  • 17 room templates
  • Per-party folders
  • Q&A with each party
  • Question tracking
  • Full audit log
  • Room analytics
  • Your branding
Start free trial

Team included, no per-seat fees. Add-ons: extra room $99/mo, +5 people $99/mo.

Need more rooms, more people or single sign-on? Talk to us about Firm

M&A data room FAQ

Anything else? Talk to the founder directly.

What is the best data room for a boutique M&A advisor?

One you can run yourself, with bidder isolation and view-tracking, and no enterprise contract. TalkOctopus is flat-rate, sets up in minutes, and shows which buyers are actually reading. Datasite and Ansarada are built and priced for large deals.

What is a sell-side data room?

The room a seller's advisor uses to share the CIM and diligence documents with buyers. It controls who sees what, reveals material in stages, and tracks who read each document.

Is TalkOctopus a Datasite or Ansarada alternative for M&A advisors?

For boutique sell-sides, yes. Datasite and Ansarada are built and priced for large deals. TalkOctopus gives you bidder isolation, staged reveals, watermarks, NDA gates, an audit log and per-buyer tracking on a flat rate.

Can I keep competing buyers from seeing each other?

Yes. Each buyer group gets its own link to the folders you choose, so rivals never see each other. Watermark, gate, expire or revoke each link on its own.

How much does an M&A data room cost on TalkOctopus?

Flat-rate: $149 a month for one diligence process (Room), $299 for three live deals (Deal), $699 for up to ten (Desk). No per-deal, per-seat or per-page fees, and yearly plans get two months free.

Can I hand my client a report of who viewed what?

Yes. The audit log records every open, download, NDA and access change, and you can export a PDF or CSV of every viewer.

Set up your next mandate's data room today.

Stage the reveal, isolate every buyer, and see who reads what.