Quantum Ledger came in through a warm LinkedIn intro from a mutual connection at a Series C security infra company we closed last quarter. First touch was a 30-minute discovery call on March 4. Their Head of Engineering, Marcus Webb, walked me through their transaction monitoring stack — they're running Stripe Radar plus a homegrown rules engine, and they have a fraud compliance mandate from their Series B investors that requires a third-party risk-scoring layer before Q3. The deal nearly stalled in procurement in April. Rimilia had been in a 4-month eval and Marcus was using that as cover to delay. The unlock was an exec-to-exec session we ran on April 28 — our CRO with their CFO, Sarah Lin. Sarah had the February 2026 internal audit report on the table: $2.4M in annual fraud loss attributable to delayed transaction scoring. She confirmed the budget, the urgency, and the Q2 close preference verbally on the call. Since that session: security review is booked for May 28 with Priya Nair (Head of Compliance). Procurement confirmed verbally they can run a parallel MSA review week of June 9. The 4-party approval sequence is documented: CFO sign-off, VP Engineering technical approval, Head of Compliance security clearance, Procurement MSA execution. We have all four parties engaged. The gate is the May 28 security call with Priya. The Rimilia risk is real — they have a 4-month head start on the security review. Our counter is that Sarah's audit data justifies accelerating our review timeline. If Priya clears us on May 28, we have a clean path to June 20 close. If the security call slips, this moves to Q3.

[CONFIRMED] CFO Sarah Lin verbal budget approval — April 28 exec session, recorded. [CONFIRMED] $2.4M annual fraud loss from Feb 2026 internal audit — shared under NDA. [CONFIRMED] 4-party approval sequence: CFO + VP Eng + Head of Compliance + Procurement — documented by champion. [ASSUMED] Procurement can complete parallel MSA review week of June 9 — verbal from Marcus, not written. [ASSUMED] Security call with Priya Nair (May 28) will clear — call booked but not yet run. [ASSUMED] June 20 close date — CFO preference verbalized, not contractually binding. [AT RISK] No signed MSA timeline — only verbal from Procurement. [AT RISK] Rimilia has 4-month head start on security review process. [AT RISK] Q2 deadline is soft — CFO said "preference," not contractual obligation.

Risk 1: No signed MSA timeline — Procurement verbal only. Mitigation: Get written confirmation by May 23 that Procurement will run MSA review parallel to security review week of June 9. Escalate to Sarah if Marcus can't deliver written confirmation. Risk 2: Rimilia 4-month head start on security review. Mitigation: Leverage Sarah's $2.4M audit finding to justify fast-track security review. Pre-brief Priya on the compliance mandate before May 28 call. Our advantage: security review is a compliance gate, not a competitive eval — we're not racing Rimilia on features. Risk 3: Soft Q2 deadline — close date not contractual. Mitigation: Confirm CFO buy-in on June 20 close date by May 22. Frame the urgency around the compliance mandate and the audit exposure — every day without a signed contract is another day of unmitigated fraud risk from the February audit.

1. May 23: Written Procurement confirmation for MSA review week of June 9. (Owner: Marcus Webb → Procurement lead) 2. May 22: CFO Sarah Lin confirms June 20 close date as a hard target, not a preference. (Owner: AE → Sarah via Slack or email) 3. May 28: Security review call with Priya Nair clears — no outstanding compliance objections. (Owner: AE + Priya Nair)