Guide
Technical Due Diligence Checklist for Startup Software
Technical due diligence is not only for acquisitions. Founders should run lightweight diligence before major hires, partner changes, or fundraising events.
1) Codebase readability and structure
Check whether naming, module boundaries, and dependency choices support maintainability. Readability predicts delivery speed for every future feature.
2) Architecture and scalability assumptions
Identify scaling bottlenecks and hidden coupling early. Many systems fail at growth inflection points because architecture trade-offs were undocumented.
3) Operational maturity
Review CI/CD health, environment setup, logging, and alerting coverage. Operational blind spots create high-severity incidents when usage grows.
4) Security fundamentals
Validate auth controls, secrets handling, dependency hygiene, and backup practices. Security debt compounds quickly in startup environments.
5) Team continuity risk
Assess knowledge concentration across individuals. If one engineer leaving would stall delivery, invest in documentation and cross-training now.
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