Book a Call
Technical Due Diligence
Technical due diligence on either side of the table.
Buy-side reports, sell-side readiness, and ongoing deal-pipeline support — risk-scored and priced in real units.
What We Deliver: Technical Due Diligence That Holds Up in an IC
A complete, independent picture of the target's technology — what works, what's debt, and what could blow up after close. Every engagement ends with a risk-scored written report, not a verbal "looks fine."
- Who
- Investors, acquirers, boards
- Where
- the US and Canada
- Fee policy
- No success fee; same report whether you buy or walk
- Seller readiness
- Prepare before valuation is at risk
- Delivery
- Deal-timed, IC-ready report
How Our Technical Due Diligence Engagement Works
A deal-timed review that surfaces decision-changing risks before terms lock, then gives your committee a defensible written report.
-
Day 0-1
Scoping
Align on the deal thesis, key questions, repo and data-room access, and committee dates. Set the fixed fee and delivery date before work begins.
-
Days 2-8
Code & Systems Review
Test the system against growth assumptions; flag deal-breakers immediately.
Code & architecture: Review code quality, test coverage, CI pipeline, maintainability, and documentation. The maintainability and architecture rating names the files, services, and decisions behind it.
Scalability: Pressure-test architecture, data model, and infrastructure against projected growth and whether the system can scale without a rewrite. The scalability verdict names bottlenecks and estimates the cost to remove them.
Security & compliance: Assess hard-coded credentials, unpatched critical CVEs, customer-data access controls, and personal-data practices under PIPEDA and relevant Canadian privacy law. Provide prioritised security findings, severity ratings, and remediation effort.
IP & licences: Check GPL/AGPL copyleft contamination, unclear IP ownership, and licence terms that could compromise the asset. Provide a full licence inventory with flagged risks and ownership gaps.
-
Days 5-10
Team & Key-Person Risk
Review information available through intake, kickoff, and requested materials to assess team depth, bus factor, and where system knowledge sits. Additional interviews may be separately scoped in exceptional cases, but are not guaranteed.
Key-person risk: Map where system knowledge sits and whether the system can survive a founder or lead engineer leaving after close. Provide a key-person risk map with retention and transition recommendations.
-
Days 8-15
Report & Readout
Deliver the written risk score, ranked red flags, and remediation estimates. Present a live readout and answer the committee’s questions about the deal.
Technical debt: The technical-debt estimate quantifies debt in engineering months and dollars for the deal model or integration budget, including when the true asset cost includes a rebuild.
Written report: Give the committee a decision-ready view and engineers evidence they can verify. The IC-ready report is signed by a senior technologist and includes an overall risk score, executive summary, and technical appendix.
Tight timeline?
For deals approaching an LOI or close, we agree a review plan during scoping and set the delivery date once we have received all requested materials and confirmed the review scope.
THE DIFFERENCE
Independent Technical DD vs. The Alternatives
What skipping the tech review — or hiring a generalist — actually costs you.
| Metric | Independent Tech DD (Reyem Tech) | Generalist Consultant | Skipping It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Senior technologist / fractional CTO | Analyst with a checklist | Nobody |
| Reads the actual code | Yes — quality, debt, security, IP | Surface review at best | No |
| Quantifies technical debt | In engineering months and dollars | Rarely | Discovered after close |
| Key-person & IP risk | Assessed and mapped | Often missed | Surfaces as a crisis |
| Report credibility to an IC | Signed, risk-scored, defensible | Generic template | N/A |
| Cost of getting it wrong | Priced into the deal up front | Partial coverage | A rewrite you paid full price for |
The Technical Due Diligence program
Fixed fee from $7,500, scored IC-ready report; preliminary verbal readout follows after all requested materials are received and the review is complete — never a percentage of the deal.
See the program, tiers, and scope →Who This Is For: Investors, Acquirers, and Founders Prepping to Raise
Whether you're writing the cheque or trying to earn it, you need an independent read on the technology before terms are set.
-
The VC / PE Associate Running Diligence
With clean financials but no codebase view, get a trusted technologist’s fast deal-breaker read before committee.
-
The Strategic Acquirer / Corp Dev Lead
Assess product and team fit, integration cost, architecture at your scale, and whether the two engineers will stay.
-
The Founder Prepping for a Raise or Sale
Prepare architecture, security, and documentation for the data room, preserving a credible technical story and valuation.
-
The Board or Lender
Provide boards and lenders with a credible, independent technology-risk assessment for a deal or loan, signed by a senior technologist, not a junior checklist reviewer.
Who This Is NOT For
- You want a rubber-stamp that confirms a deal you've already decided to do
- You need full financial or legal due diligence (we cover technology — we can refer the rest)
- You want the cheapest checklist review with no senior technologist reading the code
- You're looking for a success-fee-based advisor whose pay depends on the deal closing
The Reyem Tech ladder
Four buyable rungs. Pick the one that matches where you are. Each step is a real, productized engagement — not a vague consultation.
Health Check
Advisory
Either side of the table, light-touch. Sell-side, we prepare your technology story and answer the buyer's diligence questions on your behalf — architecture documentation, a clear risk register, and a credible remediation narrative — so a buyer's DD does not reset your valuation. Buy-side, second opinions on findings and on-call guidance while you evaluate a target. You run the deal; we make the technology defensible.
Hands-on management
Embedded fractional CTO, hands on the work. Sell-side, we do not just advise — we get you genuinely DD-ready: remediating architecture and security risk, paying down the technical debt, and writing the documentation a serious buyer will probe (the pre-exit hardening that protects your valuation). Buy-side, an ongoing retainer where we run technical due diligence across your entire deal pipeline — consistent scoring, fast turnarounds, and second opinions for your investment team.
Full execution
A one-time, scoped technical due-diligence project: we independently review the target's codebase, architecture, scalability, security posture, technical debt, and team/key-person risk, and own delivery of a risk-scored report with red flags and an integration/remediation estimate — sized to your deal timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does technical due diligence take?
Most engagements run one to three weeks. A focused pre-LOI review can be completed in three to five business days; a full assessment of a mid-sized codebase typically takes two to three weeks, depending on the agreed scope and the time needed to receive requested access and materials. Kickoff and delivery meetings are included. Additional team interviews may be separately scoped in exceptional cases, but are not guaranteed. We flag access or material blockers during the engagement.
What does a technical due diligence report include?
A typical report covers: an executive summary with an overall risk score; a code and architecture review (quality, test coverage, maintainability); scalability assessment; security and compliance posture (including data handling under Canadian privacy law like PIPEDA); a quantified technical-debt estimate; team and key-person risk; an IP and open-source licence audit; and a prioritised list of red flags with remediation cost and timeline estimates. It is written for an investment committee, not just engineers.
How much does technical due diligence cost in the US and Canada?
A one-time, scoped technical due-diligence project typically runs $6K–$20K depending on codebase size, number of systems, and the agreed scope; a quick pre-LOI red-flag review sits at the low end. Additional team interviews are exceptional and only included if separately scoped; they are not guaranteed. Ongoing pipeline DD for active acquirers is a retainer from $8,000/month; sell-side prep advisory is from $2,750/month. These are typical averages for planning only — actual cost is assessed per project and scope, and is not a guaranteed price. We quote a fixed fee after a brief scoping call so there are no surprises mid-deal.
Can you do technical due diligence under a tight deal timeline?
Yes. We can prioritize decision-critical areas when a deal timeline is tight, but we set the review plan and delivery date during scoping. The preliminary verbal readout follows once we have received all requested materials and completed the review; timing may shift if inputs or access are delayed.
What counts as a technical red flag in due diligence?
The ones that change deal terms: a single engineer who is the only person who understands the system (key-person risk), copyleft (GPL/AGPL) code linked into a proprietary product, no test coverage or CI on a system you are about to scale, hard-coded credentials or unpatched critical vulnerabilities, an architecture that cannot handle the buyer's projected growth, and technical debt large enough that the real cost of the asset is the price plus a rewrite. We rank each by severity and likelihood.
What is reverse due diligence, and do you do it?
Reverse (or sell-side) due diligence is when a startup commissions its own technical assessment before raising a round or going to market for an acquisition. We run the same independent review an acquirer would, then help you fix or document the findings ahead of time — so you walk into the data room with no surprises and a cleaner technical story. Founders use it to defend valuation and shorten the buyer's diligence cycle.
Are you independent, or do you have a stake in the deal?
We are independent. We do not take success fees, finder's fees, or any compensation tied to whether the deal closes — so our report is the same whether you proceed or walk away. That independence is the entire point: investors and boards trust a CTO-grade assessment precisely because it has no incentive to make the target look better or worse than it is.
Who reads the report — and is it credible to an investment committee?
Investment committees, boards, lenders, and non-technical acquirers get a plain-language summary and risk score. Engineers can verify the detailed appendix; a senior technologist signs the report.
$2,000 · ~2 weeks · credited on month 3
Not sure where to start?
Vendor-neutral · priced before we start. A Technology Health Check is a fixed-scope engagement. Two weeks, written report, clear next steps — no open-ended commitment.