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.