Investors, acquirers and their boards
Technical due diligence for investors
In short
Before you write the cheque, it is worth knowing what you are buying. I give investors and acquirers an independent view of a company’s technology, engineering team and risks, in plain commercial terms, drawing on leading technology through funding rounds and an acquisition. I also help founders prepare for diligence.
You might recognise this
- You are about to invest, and nobody on your side can judge the technology.
- The product demos well, but you cannot tell what sits underneath it.
- You are acquiring a company and need to know what its technology will cost to own.
- A portfolio company’s technology is worrying you after the investment.
What technical due diligence looks at
- Product and architecture
- Whether the platform can support the plan you are investing in, and what would have to change.
- Engineering team
- Leadership, key-person risk, hiring and how the team actually delivers.
- Security and compliance
- The controls, evidence and obligations customers and regulators will expect.
- Costs
- Cloud and vendor spend against revenue, and what it will cost to scale.
- AI claims
- Whether AI features are real, evaluated and dependable, or a demo.
Diligence reduces risk; it cannot remove it. I report what I found, what it means commercially and what I could not check. The investment decision stays yours.
How we might work together
Examples, not packages. They often overlap within one relationship, and we shape the work together.
- Before you invest
- A short, focused look before you commit, with the risks and their likely cost explained plainly.
- Before an acquisition
- Deeper work on what the technology will cost to own, integrate and scale after the deal.
- After the investment
- An independent view, or hands-on help, when a portfolio company’s technology needs attention.
- Preparing founders
- Helping a company get ready for diligence, so the evidence is to hand and nothing is a surprise.
Relevant experience
- Led Remo’s technology organisation through contraction and acquisition by Events.com Read the case study
- Led Festicket’s technology through Series B and C funding Read the case study
- Served on the BBC’s digital strategy board, one of approximately 12–15 members overseeing digital strategy across the organisation, including enterprise architecture and software engineering standards Read the case study
- Regularly presented hydrogen fuel technology to boards of publicly listed companies at Puregeneration
How we start
We start with a focused look at what you’re trying to achieve, what’s getting in the way, and how I could help. From there, we agree whether there’s a useful role for me and what it should involve.
- Understanding the business and what you are trying to achieve
- Meeting the people who matter to the work
- Looking at enough evidence to see where I could be useful
- Deciding together whether an ongoing role makes sense, and what it should be
Selected results
| Organisation | What changed |
|---|---|
| RemoCTO, 2021 to 2024. Events and remote-office SaaS | Led a 24/7 engineering organisation spanning GMT−8 to GMT+8 through pandemic hypergrowth, contraction and acquisition by Events.com. Cut infrastructure and vendor spend by more than 80% over 14 months, achieved approximately 99.99% uptime with recovery from live-event failures in under one minute, and achieved SOC 2 and ISO 27001. |
| FesticketInterim CTO, 2015 to 2017. The UK's sixth fastest-growing startup | Took over technical leadership from the founding CTO, scaled the team from 3 to 17 through Series B and C, and reengineered the platform to support substantial increases in concurrent demand during a period of more than 1,000% revenue growth. |
Questions
Do you work for the investor or the company?
For whoever commissions the work, and never for both sides of the same deal. Founders can use the same approach to prepare before investors look.
Will you tell us not to invest?
I tell you what I found, what it means commercially and what I could not check. The decision is yours.
How are scope and fees agreed?
Privately, once I understand the company, the deal and the depth you need. For an early-stage investment it is usually a small fraction of the cheque.