Investor-Grade Data: The New Diligence Standard with Graeme Crawford

📊 Growth Capital Podcast — Episode 96 📊 What if the biggest risk in your next deal isn't the numbers on the page, but nobody being able to prove they're right? In this episode of the Growth Capital Podcast, host Justin Dixon sits down with Graeme Crawford, Founder & CEO of Crawford McMillan, a data consultancy that helps private equity firms move from "management-grade" data to "investor-grade" data that can stand up to real scrutiny. Graeme spent years running business intelligence at Capital One before building Crawford McMillan, and he brings a data engineer's eye to what actually happens inside a company once liquidity events and acquisitions enter the picture. This conversation goes well beyond a typical diligence checklist. It's a look at why departments quietly "mark their own homework" on the KPIs they report upward, why a polished AI-generated dashboard can make bad data look more credible than it is, and why value creation work is increasingly happening mid-hold instead of just pre-deal. 🔍 In this episode, you'll learn: • Why "management grade" and "investor grade" data are not the same thing • How AI dashboards can quietly make bad numbers harder to question • Why Crawford McMillan starts every engagement with people, not databases • What a central data dictionary actually fixes, and why it comes first • Why software deal volume has dropped sharply, and what that means for value creation • Why AI can't shortcut the hard work of defining and governing your own data Whether you're a founder preparing for diligence, a PE operator trying to reignite a stalled value creation plan, or an investor trying to separate real data rigor from a nice-looking chart, this episode offers a practical framework for knowing whether your numbers can actually be trusted. 📩 Connect with Graeme Crawford: 🌐 Website: https://crawfordmcmillan.com/ 🎙 Podcast: Private Equity Data Guy - https://crawfordmcmillan.com/podcast/ (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts) 📬 Newsletter: Inside the Data Room - https://insidethedataroom.com/ 🔔 If you found this conversation valuable, give the video a like, share it with an operator preparing for diligence, and subscribe for more in-depth conversations with the founders, investors, and operators shaping the future of business. 💬 Tell us in the comments: If someone asked you right now how you know your top-line number is correct, could you actually answer?