Share a data room with guests
Give a co-investor, outside counsel or an expert chosen folders of a deal's data room for a set time, with preview or download, a watermark and an NDA.
A guest is someone outside your fund who needs part of a deal's data room for a while: a co-investor you share part of your diligence with, the lawyers on the round documents, or an expert reviewing the product or security. Each guest sees only the folders you choose, only until the date you set, and signs in on your fund portal with a code sent to their email. There is no account or password.
Who can share
| Role | Guests |
|---|---|
| Admin, Partner | Invite, change access, resend the invitation, revoke |
| Analyst | Sees who has access, on deals they can see. Can't invite |
| Committee | No access to the room |
Your fund portal must be published, because that's where guests sign in. See Publish your portal.
Invite a guest
- Open the deal, then the Data room tab, and select Guests.
- Open the Invite tab and pick who it's for. Each preset fills the form; you can change anything after.
| Preset | Access | Ends | Watermark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Co-investor | Preview only | 14 days | On |
| Outside counsel | Preview and download | 30 days | Off |
| Technical expert | Preview only | 7 days | On |
| Custom | Your choice | Your choice | Your choice |
- Enter their Name and Email. One person per invitation: the sign-in code goes to this address.
- Under Access, choose Preview in the browser, Download files or both, and when Access ends (7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days).
- Under Folders to share, tick the folders. A folder includes its subfolders. Team-only folders never appear here.
- Optionally turn on the Watermark and add a Note in the invitation, for example what you'd like them to look at before a call.
- Select Review and send. The confirmation shows the folders, the access and the end date. Select Send invitation.
The guest gets an email from your fund with the folders shared, the end date and a link to your portal. The email never lists file names.
What the guest sees
- They open the link and enter their email. If that address was invited, they get a 6-digit code that works for 10 minutes. The page says the same thing whether or not an address was invited, so nobody can use it to find out who your guests are.
- If the room asks for confidentiality terms, they read and accept them before seeing any file. The version they accepted is recorded. If you change the terms, they're asked again.
- They see only the folders you shared, the current version of each file, and Preview or Download as their access allows. Files still being checked for viruses show Being checked and can't be opened.
Previews open PDFs and images. Other file types can only be downloaded, so a preview-only guest sees them listed but can't open them.
Guest pages show your fund's logo and name at the top and nothing else: there is no Sign in or Apply button, because a guest has nothing to apply for and no founder account. A founder who is signed in to your portal still sees their own menu.
Watermark and NDA
- Watermark is a room setting. When it's on, every PDF a guest previews or downloads is stamped on each page with their name, their masked email (for example j…@lawfirm.com) and the time in UTC, plus a footer line. PNG and JPEG images get the same label across the picture and a footer band, in the preview and in the downloaded copy. The stamp is added for each request and never stored.
- Files that can't carry a watermark stay closed to guests while the watermark is on: spreadsheets, Word documents, slides in their original format, archives and other types. The guest sees them listed as Can't be watermarked, with no preview or download. A password-protected PDF, or an image that can't be read, is refused the same way. To share one of these files, upload a PDF copy (for example, export the model or the SPA to PDF), or turn the watermark off for the room.
- NDA: when the room asks for confidentiality terms, each guest accepts them before their first view. Founders are never asked: funds rarely sign NDAs with founders.
Change, resend or revoke
On the Guests tab, open the menu on a guest:
- Change access: new folders, preview or download, or a new end date. It applies from their next click and nothing is emailed.
- Resend invitation: the same access, emailed again. Once a minute at most.
- Revoke access: they are signed out at once and can't open or download anything new. A file link they opened in the last few minutes stops working within 5 minutes. To share again later, send a new invitation.
When the end date passes, access ends on its own and the guest moves to Ended. Closing or archiving the room also ends guest access.
Activity
Every invitation, sign-in, NDA acceptance, preview, download, change and revocation is recorded in the room's activity, with the guest and the file version, never the email address or the file's contents.
Frequently asked questions
Can a guest upload files?
No. Guests can only read what you share. Founders upload, and your team.
Can I share with a whole firm at once?
No. Invite each person separately, so each has their own code, watermark and end date.
A guest says they didn't get a code. What should I check?
That the email matches the invitation exactly, that their access hasn't ended, and their spam folder. They can ask for a new code after 30 seconds.
Does a guest see our internal comments or ratings?
No. Guests never see team-only folders, internal comments, review states, memos or committee packets.
Something unclear or missing? Tell us