Early mandate intelligence for restructuring advisors.
Built for practitioners competing in the US mid-market
01 / 09
The Problem
By the time you hear about it, someone else has already called.
Mid-market distress sourcing is reactive. By the time a company makes the wires, the mandate is already gone.
Referrals and relationships are slow and unpredictable. You can't build a pipeline on them.
Restructuring wires (Debtwire, Bloomberg) cover large-cap and rated issuers. Mid-market private companies are invisible.
Chapter 11 dockets hit CourtListener at 8am. By noon, three advisory firms have already made contact. The mandate goes to whoever moved first.
The information exists publicly. The platforms that monitor it are built for hedge funds, not advisors. Mid-market private companies are a blind spot for every major incumbent.
02 / 09
APERTURE
Signal Timing
The signals exist. They're just scattered.
T - 60 days
WARN Act Notice
Mass layoff or plant closure filed with state agency. No press release. No wire coverage. 60-day early indicator before any public announcement.
Day 0 (SEC)
8-K Covenant Default
Filed directly with EDGAR. No PR. No story. Just the 8-K sitting in the database while the company's CFO starts making calls.
Day 0 (Court)
Ch.11 Docket Filed
Appears on CourtListener the day it's docketed. Before Debtwire indexes it. Before the wires run a story. Before most advisors know it exists.
Day 1-3
Wire Coverage
Debtwire, Bloomberg, Reuters pick it up. By this point, calls are already being made. You're competing, not leading.
Day 7+
Referral / Conference
A contact mentions it. Someone brings it up at TMA. The mandate has been awarded for a week.
All of this is public record. The platforms that monitor it serve hedge funds and institutional creditors at $15-50K per seat. They're built for the rated, public-debt market. Mid-market private companies with no bond exposure are a blind spot for every major incumbent. That's the gap.
03 / 09
APERTURE
The Platform
One platform. 5 live feeds. Real-time distress scoring.
📊
SEC EDGAR
14 signal types: DIP motions, going concern, covenant defaults, debt acceleration, late filings, delisting notices.
⚖️
CourtListener
Chapter 11 dockets the day they're filed. Attorney and creditor data. Advisor retention status on demand.
⚠️
WARN Act
Mass layoff and plant closure notices. 60-day early indicator before public announcement or filing.
📰
News Wires
GlobeNewswire press releases filtered for financial distress keywords. Catches early restructuring announcements.
🏦
FDIC
Bank failure and enforcement action data. Early indicator for companies with distressed banking relationships.
94
Distress Score — 0 to 100
Percentile-ranked across the full dataset. Updated every 6 hours. Multiple converging signals drive higher scores. Filters out noise.
04 / 09
APERTURE
Product — Signal Feed
This is what your morning looks like.
Every distress signal across all 5 sources, in one feed. Filter by filing type, severity, industry, or state. Signals hit the feed the same day they appear in the source database.
Sort by severity. Click any signal to see the full company profile.
aperture.onrender.com — Signals page
aperture.onrender.com/signals
Chapter 11
DIP Motion
Going Concern
Covenant Default
Critical
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Filed
Meridian Logistics Group · CourtListener
2h ago
Critical
DIP Financing Motion — $45M
Coastal Retail Holdings · SEC EDGAR
4h ago
High
Going Concern Disclosure
Summit Industrial Corp · SEC EDGAR
6h ago
High
WARN Act — 340 Workers, Chicago IL
Heartland Packaging LLC · WARN Act
9h ago
High
Covenant Default — Credit Agreement
Triton Energy Services · SEC EDGAR
12h ago
Medium
Late Annual Report Filing (NT 10-K)
Pacific Ventures Group · SEC EDGAR
1d ago
05 / 09
APERTURE
Product — Company Intelligence
Every signal converging on one company.
Click any company to see its full distress profile. All signals aggregated. Scored 0 to 100 percentile-ranked against the dataset. Multiple converging signals from different sources signal real distress, not noise.
Score 80+ with 3 or more signals from independent sources: act immediately.
aperture.onrender.com/companies/coastal-retail
Coastal Retail Holdings
CRHL · Retail · Florida
94
Active Distress Signals
Critical
DIP Financing Motion — $45M
SEC EDGAR · 4 hours ago
Critical
Going Concern Disclosure (10-K)
SEC EDGAR · 3 weeks ago
High
Covenant Default — Credit Agreement
SEC EDGAR · 6 weeks ago
High
WARN Act — 280 Workers, Tampa FL
WARN Act · 8 weeks ago
Score trend
42
94
06 / 09
APERTURE
Product — Advisor Conflict Check
Before you call. Not after.
On any Chapter 11 company, Aperture pulls the CourtListener case docket and shows you exactly who is retained, their role, and the key creditors.
Green: No advisor on record. Your window is open.
Orange: Advisor retained. See who, their role, and the key creditors.
No other platform surfaces this for mid-market cases at the point of signal detection.
Meridian Logistics — Advisor Check
✓
No financial advisor on record
CourtListener docket checked · Updated 2 hours ago
Debtor's counsel: Baker McKenzie LLP · Filed: April 5, 2026
Coastal Retail Holdings — Advisor Check
⚠
Financial advisor retained
1 advisor on record
FTI ConsultingFinancial Advisor, Debtor
Kirkland & EllisLead Counsel, Debtor
Apollo Global (key creditor)$120M First Lien
07 / 09
APERTURE
The Edge
A&M competes in the mid-market. This is your edge.
5-7K
US business Chapter 11 filings per year. The vast majority are mid-market companies with no financial advisor retained at filing.
Day 0
Aperture sees a new Chapter 11 docket the same day it hits CourtListener. Before Debtwire. Before any wire. Before any advisor is retained.
vs. Debtwire
Debtwire Dockets monitors companies you already know about. You tell it who to watch. Aperture tells you who to watch in the first place. Pre-filing discovery is the gap.
1
Signal before filing: WARN Act and covenant default 8-Ks surface distress weeks before a Chapter 11 is ever filed. You're in the room before the retainer conversation starts.
2
Mid-market blind spot: Octus, 9fin, and Debtwire all skew toward rated issuers and large-cap leveraged finance. The companies A&M competes for are invisible to those platforms.
3
Advisor conflict clarity: Know before you dial whether a financial advisor is already on record. A two-second check versus three days of calls and emails.
4
Portfolio monitoring: Pin your active targets. Get alerted the moment their distress score crosses your threshold.
08 / 09
APERTURE
Next Step
"
Which signals would move the needle for your team this quarter?
That's the only question that matters. The answer shapes how we configure your firm's setup on Aperture.
Pioneer Cohort·10 firms·60 days free
1
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2
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Pioneer cohort is 10 firms. No pitch, no contract. You tell me what works and what doesn't. That's the deal.
3
Weekly digest to your inbox
Every Monday: the top distress signals from the past week, scored and categorized for restructuring practitioners.
4
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I built this. If a signal type is missing or something isn't working, I fix it. Pioneer cohort gets direct access.