Technical Due Diligence Before You Write the Check

Every target looks great in a demo. The product loads, the founder is sharp, the deck says the architecture is modern and scalable. None of that tells you whether the code behind the demo is an asset or a liability. We have seen impressive-looking products built on a copy-pasted prototype with no tests, hard-coded credentials, a single founder who is the only person who understands the system, and a dependency that was abandoned three years ago. That is the kind of thing that turns a clean term sheet into a painful surprise eighteen months later.

Technical due diligence is an independent look under the hood before you commit capital. We read the actual code, map the real architecture, probe the security posture, and assess how the engineering team works. Then we tell you, in plain language, what you would be buying — what is solid, what is risky, what it would cost to fix, and what should affect the price or the terms.

We start with a scoping call to understand the deal, the thesis, and the depth you need — a quick read for a seed round is different from acquisition diligence on a system you will operate. We agree on a fixed fee and a delivery date up front, sign your NDA, and take scoped read-only access to the codebase and infrastructure.

From there we review the code and architecture, interview the engineering lead, and probe the security and operational posture. You receive a written report with an executive summary your investment committee can read in five minutes, a severity-ranked findings list, a remediation cost estimate, and the specific items we think should affect price or terms. We are available to walk your team and the target through it.

We are an engineering firm, not a deal advisor, and we have no incentive for your deal to close or fall through. That independence is the value. We also separate signal from noise: a startup with some technical debt and thin test coverage is normal and fixable, while undocumented architecture controlled by a single departing engineer is a real threat to the thesis. Knowing which is which comes from building and inheriting systems for a living, not from a checklist.

Because the engagement is founder-led, the person reading the code is the person writing the report and sitting on the readout call — not a junior analyst whose findings get summarized away. You get a candid, defensible artifact you can put in front of an investment committee or a board.

Delivered confidentially and remotely to investors and acquirers across the United States from our base in Macon, Georgia.

Fixed-fee per engagement. Typical ranges:

• Focused diligence on an early-stage seed or Series A target: $8k – $18k
• Standard diligence on a growth-stage product with multiple services: $18k – $30k
• Deep acquisition diligence on a larger, multi-team system: $30k – $45k
• Add-on hands-on penetration test of the target application: scoped separately
• Post-deal remediation roadmap and oversight: scoped as a follow-on engagement

Fixed fee and delivery date agreed before access is granted. No hourly meter running during a time-sensitive deal.