Are You Ready for Series A Tech Diligence?
Eighteen scored questions across six dimensions a Series A lead's diligence team will actually grade.
- 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 Series A rounds aren't won or lost on the pitch — they're decided in the technical diligence call that follows. A top-tier VC's diligence team can run a fast assessment in 48 hours, and what they surface routinely reshapes a term sheet. Founders who walk into that conversation with a documented architecture, a credible technical leader, a clean security path, and real operational metrics close cleaner rounds at better valuations. The ones who don't spend the next two weeks renegotiating from a weaker position. The difference is rarely the quality of the engineering. It's the quality of the preparation.
This free assessment scores your company across the six dimensions a Series A diligence team will actually grade, 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 your first conversation about scaling, security, and the engineering story you'll tell investors.
What Series A diligence actually looks at
Technical diligence at the Series A stage isn't about whether your code is perfect — it's about whether your engineering story is credible. A diligence team will grade six things: Architecture & Scalability (will it survive 10x without a rewrite), Team & Key-Person Risk (is there a credible technical leader and bus-factor resilience), Security & Compliance (is your security posture defensible and on a clear path), Code Quality & Technical Debt (does the codebase signal discipline), Roadmap & Vision Alignment (does engineering match the growth narrative), and Operations & Observability (is uptime, deployment, and incident response real or aspirational). The final question maps the specific diligence gaps you most want to close before the round opens.
Why pre-Series A tech readiness matters
The cost of fixing a diligence gap before the round opens is dramatically lower than fixing it during. Before pitching, a documentation sprint or a SOC 2 kickoff is a routine 3-4 week project. Mid-diligence, the same gap can stall a term sheet for weeks, knock points off your valuation, or surface a structural concern that kills the deal. Founders who treat diligence-readiness as a deliverable — the same way they treat the pitch deck — close stronger rounds, more cleanly, and from a better negotiating position. The work is the same; the timing is what changes the outcome.
What you get at the end
You'll see an overall Series A technical readiness score, a band that describes where you stand (from Not Diligence-Ready through Top-Tier Diligence-Ready), a per-dimension breakdown across architecture, team, security, code, roadmap, and operations, and a prioritized map of the specific diligence gaps to close first. From there you can request a personalized video walkthrough — a short, recorded read on your specific results and exactly what to fix before you open the round. No generic playbook.
Frequently asked questions
What does a Series A diligence team look for?
Six things, in roughly this order: a scalable architecture with documentation that matches what's actually deployed, a credible technical leader with low key-person risk, a defensible security posture with a clear compliance path, a codebase that signals engineering discipline, an engineering roadmap that supports the growth narrative in the pitch deck, and real operational metrics like deploy frequency and uptime. A weak answer in any one area can stall a term sheet.
How long does the assessment take?
About six minutes. It's 18 scored questions across six dimensions plus a final diligence-gap mapping question. Your progress auto-saves, so you can leave and come back without losing answers.
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.
Who is this assessment for?
Founders, CEOs, and lead engineers at companies planning to raise a Series A in the next 6-12 months. It's built for the stage where the technical story has to start holding up to outside scrutiny — when 'it works' isn't enough and the next round of investors will grade the engineering directly.
What if I score low?
A low score isn't a verdict on your company — it's a map of where to invest time before you pitch. Most of the gaps a Series A diligence team flags can be closed in 3-6 weeks of focused work if you sequence them right. The personalized walkthrough on your results is specifically built to tell you which gaps to close first and which can wait.