We have helped dozens of Australian startups through Series A technical due diligence — both as the fractional CTO preparing the company and as the technical advisor to the investor conducting the DD.
What Series A Investors Are Actually Asking
The technical questions are proxies for commercial questions: Is this technology capable of achieving the 3x revenue growth this investment is predicated on? What will we need to spend to achieve it? Are there any technical liabilities we’re inheriting? Is the team capable of executing the roadmap? Every technical finding is evaluated through a commercial lens.
The 12-Month Preparation Timeline
Months 1-3: architectural review and technical debt register. Months 4-6: top 3 security findings from a pen test addressed; all IP correctly assigned to the company; key processes documented. Months 7-9: single points of failure reduced — technical and human; comprehensive monitoring implemented. Months 10-12: technical investor narrative created; engineering team briefed on DD expectations; mock technical due diligence conducted.
The Documentation Checklist
Series A technical DD typically requires: system architecture diagrams, technology stack documentation, most recent penetration test report, IP ownership confirmation (contractor and employment agreements with IP assignment), development process documentation, infrastructure cost breakdown with growth projections, and engineering org chart with tenure and responsibilities. Having these ready before DD is requested signals operational maturity.
Security: Where Surprises Happen
Cybersecurity is where the most DD surprises occur. Common findings that concern Series A investors: no formal penetration testing programme, shared production access without audit logging, inadequate customer data access controls, and no data breach response plan. All are fixable — but they need to be fixed before DD, not disclosed during it.
The Narrative That Wins
The startups that perform best in technical DD can articulate clearly: here is what our technology does today, here is what it will need to do at 3x scale, here are the three investments Series A capital will fund to get there, here is why our engineering team can execute them. This narrative should be led by your CTO — fractional or full-time — not improvised by the founding team.
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