Is Your Tech Foundation Ready for Your First Raise?
Eighteen scored questions across six dimensions any sophisticated angel or seed investor will ask about — foundation, founder dependency, growth ceilings, security basics, hiring, and runway math.
- A scored profile across 6 dimensions — see exactly where you're strong and where the gaps are.
- Your biggest opportunities, mapped to specific next moves.
- A personalized video walkthrough from Shawn (optional) — a real read on your results.
Most first-time rounds don't fall apart on the vision — they get nicked in tech diligence. A sophisticated angel will give a friendly read. A seed lead's tech advisor won't. They'll ask how the product is actually built, who can ship if a founder is unreachable, what breaks at 10x customer load, whether the security posture would survive a light enterprise questionnaire, what the first three engineering hires look like, and whether the post-raise tech spend ties to real milestones. For founders raising outside money for the first time, the gap between 'we can pitch anyone' and 'we should fix two things before the second meeting' is usually a few weeks of focused pre-raise work — not months.
This free assessment scores your tech foundation across six dimensions any sophisticated angel or seed investor will probe, and returns a clear readiness profile in about six minutes. It's built from 27 years of technology leadership across Fortune 500 and growth-stage companies — the same lens a fractional CTO would bring to the conversation you should be having before you ever circulate a pitch deck to a lead.
What first-time-raise tech diligence actually looks like
First-time founders often picture diligence as a single moment — a data-room link, a few questions, a term sheet. In practice, a seed lead's tech advisor runs the same playbook every time: walk the architecture, read a sample of code, check the repo's history and review hygiene, ask about deploys and rollback, ask about backups and security questionnaires, review the SaaS and infra spend line-by-line, and probe founder dependency. None of these questions are hostile. They're how an investor decides whether the round is buying a foundation that compounds — or a rewrite waiting to happen. Founders who walk into the conversation knowing what an investor will ask, and having already closed the obvious gaps, negotiate from a stronger seat.
The six dimensions a sophisticated investor probes
Readiness for a first raise is a profile, not a single number. The assessment scores six dimensions independently so you can see where you're strong and where the gaps are: Foundation & Stack Choices (is it built to scale or to be rebuilt), Founder & Bus-Factor Dependency (would it survive a founder being unavailable), Growth Ceiling & Architecture (what breaks at 10x), Security Basics & Compliance (can you answer a light security questionnaire), Hiring & First Engineering Hires (do you know what to do with the new money), and Runway Math & Tech Spend (can you justify each line). The final worry map captures the specific diligence gaps you're most concerned about — the shortlist a fractional CTO would close first.
What you get at the end
You'll see an overall tech foundation score, a band describing where you stand (from Pre-Diligence through Raise & Execute), a per-dimension breakdown showing exactly where the gaps are, and a focused view of the diligence worries you flagged. From there you can request a personalized video walkthrough — a short, recorded read on your specific results and what a fractional CTO engagement would do for your pre-raise and first-12-months execution. No generic sales deck.
Frequently asked questions
Who is this assessment for?
It's built for bootstrapped solo founders and small-team founders who are weighing their first outside raise — typically a $1M to $3M pre-seed or seed round — and want a clear-eyed read on whether the tech foundation will hold up to a sophisticated investor's diligence.
How long does the assessment take?
About six minutes. It's 18 scored questions across six dimensions plus an optional diligence-worry map covering the codebase, architecture, security, team, runway, and IP risk. Your progress auto-saves, so you can leave and resume without losing answers.
Will an investor actually look at my code?
A seed lead's technical advisor often will — not the whole codebase, but a sample for read quality, the repo for history and review hygiene, and the deploy and rollback story. The assessment treats this as a baseline expectation, not a worst-case scenario, because it's how the better seed leads now operate.
What if I built the product on no-code or low-code tools?
That's an honest answer, not a disqualifier. Plenty of bootstrapped companies have raised on top of no-code stacks. What investors probe is whether you understand the trade-offs, whether the path to a rebuild or migration is sequenced, and whether founder dependency on the stack creates key-person risk. The assessment will score that honestly.
Is the assessment free?
Yes. The assessment and your scored results are completely free. You can optionally request a personalized video walkthrough of your results, which is also free.