ATechnicalDueDiligenceChecklistforFoundersRaisingaRound

Diligence typically looks at code quality and structure (is it maintainable, or would a new hire struggle to onboard), test coverage on critical paths, security practices around user data and authentication, and how dependent the product is on one person's undocumented knowledge — commonly called bus factor risk. None of these need to be perfect; they need to be honestly assessable.

Reviewers also look at infrastructure choices — is the hosting and database setup something that can scale with growth, or will it need a costly rebuild the moment usage increases. A thoughtful choice like PostgreSQL for relational data, with clear reasoning behind it, reads well in diligence; an undocumented, ad hoc infrastructure setup does not.

Get basic documentation in place before diligence starts: what the architecture looks like at a high level, how to run the project locally, and what the deployment process is. This is useful for your own team regardless of fundraising, and it's the single most impactful thing you can do to make diligence go smoothly.

If your product has known technical debt — and most early-stage products do — be upfront about it rather than hoping it isn't found. Investors are generally more concerned by debt discovered independently than debt disclosed with a credible plan to address it.

A pre-raise code audit from someone outside your existing team surfaces issues while you still control the narrative, rather than during diligence when an investor's team finds them first. It's a relatively small cost relative to the round size, and it gives you a documented, credible plan to address anything found — which is exactly what turns a potential red flag into a non-issue.