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Consult · Technical due diligence

Find out what you’re buying before you own it.

Technical due diligence for investors, acquirers and founders preparing for either. I’ve raised equity for products I built and sat on the founder’s side of this conversation, so I know which answers are rehearsed.

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What a due diligence review covers

Technology due diligence, tech due diligence, IT due diligence: the name depends on who wrote the term sheet. The job is the same whatever it’s called. Somebody is about to pay for technology, and needs to know what it’s worth.

A diligence report written for engineers is no use to the person signing. The question you need answered is commercial: does the technology support the price, what will it cost to keep, and what would stop it growing the way the plan says it will.

I read the code, the architecture, the infrastructure and the way the team ships, and I talk to the people who built it. What you get back is a position, with the reasoning shown and the risks ranked by what they would cost you.

It’s a bounded review. We agree the days before it starts, and the rate is £1,000 a day.

  • Pre-investment and pre-acquisition review
  • Codebase, architecture and infrastructure
  • The team, and who the system depends on
  • Security and data handling
  • What it will cost to keep

Typical work

What this looks like in practice

Before an investment

Whether the product is what the deck says it is, and whether the team can build the next eighteen months of it.

Before an acquisition

What you’d own on day one, what it depends on, and what walks out of the door if two named people leave.

Before your own raise

The same review, run for the founder first, so the gaps are found by somebody on your side while there’s time to close them.

An agency or outsourced team

An independent read of what a supplier has built for you and whether you could take it elsewhere.

Security and compliance

ISO 9001, 14001 and 27001 implemented in 2021 in a business I owned, so I know the difference between a control that exists and one that’s followed.

What it will cost to keep

Running cost, the maintenance nobody budgeted for, and the parts that will need replacing inside the investment horizon.

Where it starts

The Leverage Diagnostic.
Two weeks, fixed, £7,500.

All prices exclude VAT.

Two weeks to find the costly constraint, prove the risky assumption, and price the right response.

Due diligence answers a question about somebody else’s system, and it’s billed by the day. The diagnostic is for your own business, when the question is what is costing you and what would fix it.

You leave with one agreed proof, and a decision you can act on.

How the two weeks work Ask about a review

Questions

The things people ask first

What does technical due diligence cost?

£1,000 a day, with the number of days agreed before the review starts, so the total is known before you commit. All prices exclude VAT.

Who is the report written for?

The person making the decision. It opens with a position you can act on, ranks the risks by what they would cost, and keeps the engineering detail behind it for whoever wants to check the reasoning.

Can you work inside a deal timetable?

Yes, provided access arrives when it’s promised. The days are agreed in advance and the review needs the repository, the infrastructure and an hour each with the people who built it. Where access is restricted, the report says what couldn’t be seen, because a gap you know about is worth more than a clean page.

I am the founder. Should I run this on my own company first?

If you’re raising or selling within the year, yes. I’ve raised equity for products I built, so I’ve answered these questions as the founder. Every gap an investor’s adviser finds is a negotiating point. The same gap found by you six months earlier is a line on the roadmap.

Will you build the fixes afterwards?

For a founder, yes, if you want that. For an investor or acquirer, the review stays independent: I’m not assessing a system with one eye on the contract to repair it.

From Insights

What I’ve written about this

Due Diligence 3 min read

What belongs in a technical due diligence report

The report is for the person signing, and most are written for the engineers. The seven things it has to answer, and how to tell a useful one from a long one.

Read it

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