# Glossary > Plain definitions of the terms used by Mindro and in corporate finance and M&A advisory: information memorandum, teaser, digital twin, firm brain, deal layer, company realm, MCP and more. URL: https://www.mindro.co/glossary Last updated: 10 October 2026 **Short answer:** Plain, one-paragraph definitions of the corporate finance, M&A and AI terms used on this site. ## Corporate finance and M&A ### Corporate finance In Europe, corporate finance usually means M&A advisory: advising companies and shareholders on selling, buying and financing businesses. In the US the same work is called investment banking. ### Sell-side process The process an advisor runs to sell a company or a stake in it: preparing materials, approaching buyers, managing offers and due diligence, and negotiating to signing. ### Information memorandum (IM) The document shared with prospective buyers after an NDA in a sell-side process. It has to hold everything a buyer needs to make the buying decision and carry the equity story, with every figure evidenced. Mindro builds IMs on layouts from the firm's own historic IMs, with one click from any figure back to its source. [IM creation](https://www.mindro.co/information-memorandum) ### Equity story The narrative of an IM: why the business is attractive and what it could become, backed by evidence. In Mindro, the equity story desk supports the deal team on it. ### Confidential information memorandum (CIM) Another name for an information memorandum, common in the US. CIM and IM refer to the same document. ### Teaser A short, usually anonymous summary of a company for sale, sent to prospective buyers before they sign an NDA and receive the information memorandum. ### Buyer long-list The first, broad list of potential strategic and financial buyers for a company, before it is narrowed down to a short-list for outreach. ### Buyer matching Finding the buyers most likely to be interested in a company. Mindro does this by surfacing historic buyer behaviour from the firm's own data and combining it with web data and third-party data providers such as Gain and Inven. ### Pitch preparation Preparing the materials and arguments an advisor uses to win a mandate. Mindro supports it with quick, easy access to the firm's historical data and deal history. ## Mindro terms ### Firm brain The structured, governed knowledge of a corporate finance firm: its semantic, episodic and tacit knowledge, such as deal history, precedents, buyer knowledge, models and IM templates. Mindro builds it from the firm's own documents and systems; the firm owns it, and it is portable by contract. [More on the firm brain](https://www.mindro.co/firm-brain) ### Semantic, episodic and tacit knowledge The three types of firm knowledge. Semantic: facts, data, IMs, decks, databooks and deal precedents. Episodic: meeting notes and transcripts, CRM data, emails and deal trackers. Tacit: expertise, methods, persuasion skills, intuitive decision making, leadership styles and culture. ### Deal layer The part of Mindro that holds one mandate: a digital twin of the target company built from the client's materials, with every figure traceable to its source. ### Digital twin of a target company A structured model of a company built from thousands of data points in its documents: financials, commercial, operations, people, market and legal information. Mindro drafts the information memorandum from it. ### Company realm Mindro's governed data layer. All confidential client and deal data is processed in one compliant environment in Europe, every data access is logged by user, tool and time, and your data is never used for training. In an Institutional setup, Mindro and the client also agree which data each connected AI tool may use. [More on the company realm](https://www.mindro.co/company-realm) ### Classification-based access An arrangement, configured per client in an Institutional setup, in which Mindro and the client agree which data levels each connected AI tool may use, based on the client's NDAs and policies. The levels are agreed with each client. [See the company realm](https://www.mindro.co/company-realm) ### Desk A specialised part of Mindro that does one job on a mandate, such as the IM desk, the buyer matching desk, the document classification desk (which classifies and organises mandate documents) or the equity story desk. In a connected setup, approved agents can call and steer desks through MCP. ## AI, data and delivery ### MCP (Model Context Protocol) An open protocol that lets AI agents and assistants connect to external tools and data. At Mindro, MCP and API connections are configured per client on request. [Setups for institutions](https://www.mindro.co/institutional) ### Forward-deployed engineer An engineer who works directly with a client's team, onsite or remote, to configure software, data and agents around the client's workflows. Mindro's forward-deployed engineers and data scientists are included in every plan. [Services](https://www.mindro.co/services) ### Data processor and DPA Under the GDPR, a data processor processes personal data on behalf of a controller. A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) sets out how. Mindro acts as data processor for its clients under a DPA. ### EU data residency Storing and processing data only within the European Union. Mindro's SaaS runs fully in Europe and EU data residency is guaranteed. ### Virtual private cloud (VPC) An isolated section of a public cloud reserved for one organisation. Institutions can run Mindro in their own VPC or on-premise.