Will Your Tech Survive Investor Due Diligence?
12 questions across the 6 areas a technical DD panel actually probes: IP ownership, key-person risk, architecture, security, delivery, and the AI story. Your score and weakest areas are calculated in your browser, free. The problems investors find late are the ones that reprice rounds; this is the 3-minute version of finding them first.
Scorecard
Get the full 6-area report
All 6 areas scored and ordered weakest first, with what DD will ask in each and the fix to make before the data room opens. Free; enter the email you want it tied to.
How the scoring works
Each area gets 2 questions and each answer carries a weight, mirroring how I run the first pass of a real pre-raise audit. At 75 or above you are packaging, not fixing. Between 50 and 74 there are gaps that slow diligence and chip terms, most of them closeable in weeks. Below 50, a competent DD panel finds material problems, and it is much cheaper when you find them first.
I've sat on both sides of this: as co-founder and CTO through Unmind's Series B, and running technology through Vault Platform's acquisition by Diligent in 2025. The weighting above comes from what DD panels actually flagged in those rounds, not a generic checklist. See the full background.
The longer version of the reasoning, and what I do about it, is on A CTO for the Raise.
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One short email every couple of weeks on getting a startup through technical DD with its valuation intact: what investors ask, what to fix first, and what can wait until after the round.
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Common questions
What does technical due diligence cover at Seed or Series A?
Six areas come up in almost every process: code and IP ownership (signed assignments, open-source licences), team and key-person risk, architecture and its behaviour under growth, security and data protection, delivery credibility against the roadmap, and increasingly the AI story: whether what the deck claims is real in production. The depth varies by round size, but the checklist barely changes.
When should a startup start preparing for technical due diligence?
Three to six months before the raise opens. The slowest items are the legal ones: chasing signed IP assignments from past contractors and untangling agency contracts can take months, and they are also the items that most reliably delay or reprice a round when discovered late. Everything else, from architecture notes to a licence inventory, closes in weeks once someone owns it.
Is my score stored anywhere?
No. The scorecard runs in your browser and the score is calculated locally. If you choose to get the full report, the email address you enter is saved (with your score) so Nick can follow up personally if it looks like he can help. There is no newsletter attached and nothing is sent without that explicit step.
Raising in the next 2 quarters?
The gaps this scorecard finds are the ones I close for founders before the data room opens. 30 minutes, free, and I will tell you honestly if you do not need me.