A clean tech readout before your investors hire their own.
Documentation, security evidence, scalability answers, risk register. Ready before the VC's DD firm arrives. Monthly retainer from $4,500/mo.
Who this is for
Founder preparing for Series A or acquisition where investors or acquirers are hiring outside technical DD firms, and a clean readout could change the term sheet.
The pain today
- Series A investors hiring external DD firm — cannot afford to look unprepared
- Acquisition LOI signed; tech DD starts in 3 weeks
- No technical documentation suitable for outside review
- Security questionnaires coming back with too many 'in progress'
- Previous fundraise diligence felt chaotic and expensive
The outcome you get
- Complete technical documentation package — architecture, deployment, security
- Risk register acknowledging known issues with mitigation plans
- Scalability story backed by real metrics, not handwaving
- Security evidence: SOC 2 status, data handling, compliance readiness
- DD readiness in 3–4 weeks, ready for external firm arrival
What Series A DD actually covers in 2026
Series A technical DD has become more thorough since 2022. Standard scope: architecture review (does the system scale to planned ARR), code review (quality, test coverage, technical debt), security review (SOC 2 status, data handling, compliance), team assessment (seniority, retention risk, hiring plan), IP review (open-source licenses, ownership of code, key-person dependencies). DD firms (Iris, Crosslake, Amdocs, Galilee) run the process in 2–4 weeks with 20–40 hours of founder and engineering team time. Being prepared means the DD firm finds what you already know and flagged, not surprises. Unprepared DD can cost meaningful term-sheet value.
Docs that save your deal
Documentation package needed. Architecture: high-level diagram, component inventory, data flow, deployment topology. Security: SOC 2 status (Type 1 or 2 report if available, gap assessment if not), data classification, encryption at rest and in transit, access controls, incident history. Scalability: current scale metrics (DAU, requests/sec, DB size), capacity tests results, scale plan to 10x. Code quality: test coverage, CI/CD, monitoring and alerting, incident response process. Team: org chart, key person identification, hiring plan, retention risk. Risk register: known issues with severity and mitigation plans. Each document should be 1–5 pages, readable, evidence-backed. Volume-heavy docs get skimmed; clear docs get valued.
Security and compliance quick wins
DD firms flag security risks aggressively. Quick wins that pass most scrutiny: encryption at rest (AWS RDS / Postgres encryption default-on), encryption in transit (TLS everywhere), access controls (least privilege, RBAC, MFA on admin tools), logging (90+ day retention, audit trail for sensitive actions), backup (daily, tested restore). Medium-term: SOC 2 Type 1 assessment (2–3 months, $15–30k), vulnerability scanning (Nessus, Trivy integrated into CI), penetration testing (annual, $8–20k). For pre-Series-A, SOC 2 in progress with gap assessment is acceptable; for Series B and beyond, Type 2 report is often required. I identify your gaps and prioritize fixes by DD criticality.
Case study: bolttech unicorn-scale standards
bolttech is a $1B+ unicorn in fintech — regulated, high-scale, investor-diligenced repeatedly. I worked on the Payment Service that handled 40+ providers across 15+ markets with 99.9% uptime and 0 post-launch critical bugs. The discipline that produces those numbers — documented architecture, proactive risk register, audit-ready evidence, compliance-first engineering — is exactly what produces clean Series A technical DD. Applying unicorn discipline to Series A prep is overkill only if you plan to stop scaling. For companies headed to Series B, C, and IPO diligence rounds, the patterns compound.
Fixed-scope pricing
Technical DD prep fits the Fractional CTO service, delivered as a 3–4 week focused engagement. Pricing depends on codebase size and documentation starting point. Standard 3-week DD prep for a Series A-stage company: $4,500/mo for 3 months (one month prep, two months on-call during DD process). Complex or enterprise-tier prep: $8,500/mo. Fixed-scope deliverable: the documentation package plus availability during DD firm interviews. 14-day money-back on first month, cancel anytime, Work Made for Hire on all written deliverables. If the deal closes faster than expected, the retainer can reduce or end accordingly.
What I do during the DD itself
DD prep isn't one-and-done. Once the DD firm starts, they schedule interviews, deep-dive specific areas, and push back on documentation. I'm available to: join DD firm interviews as technical spokesperson (or prep your lead engineer to be it), respond to DD firm's follow-up questions, draft remediation plans for findings they flag. Typical post-prep engagement is 2–4 weeks during active DD. After term sheet signs, engagement can continue into ongoing fractional CTO work or end cleanly — your call.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Unified payment orchestration across Asia and Europe
Delivered the payment orchestration platform at bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, with 40+ integrations across multiple regions.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you do DD prep if I don't have SOC 2?
- Yes — I help with gap assessment and quick-win controls. Full SOC 2 Type 1 takes 2–3 months on its own. For Series A DD, 'SOC 2 in progress with documented gap assessment and remediation plan' is usually acceptable. For Series B or acquisition, actual report often required.
- How much does the DD firm typically charge?
- Investor-side DD firms typically $30–80k for a Series A tech DD. Acquirer-side for M&A $100–300k+. Those costs aren't yours — the investor or acquirer pays. Your cost is internal time (20–40 hours founder + engineering) and my retainer during the process.
- What if the DD finds something serious?
- That's why we do prep. Serious findings surfaced by prep get disclosed proactively in your risk register; DD firm confirms rather than discovers. Serious findings surfaced by DD firm first can spook investors. Prep shifts the narrative from 'hidden risk' to 'known risk, managed plan.'
- Can you help during an acquisition, not just fundraise?
- Yes. Acquisition DD is usually more thorough than fundraise DD because the acquirer is buying the tech, not investing alongside it. Same prep framework applies, with extra attention to IP ownership, open-source compliance, and integration planning for post-close.
- What if my team can't spare 20+ hours for prep?
- I can draft most documentation from interviews and code access without heavy team engagement. Engineering team involvement increases during actual DD firm interviews (which is unavoidable). If team bandwidth is a constraint, the prep timeline extends from 3 to 5–6 weeks.
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