Surviving TDD
Here’s a great piece from Bob Pasker, CTO-in-Residence at Azure Capital Partners, titled “A High-tech Entrepreneurs Guide to Surviving Technical Due Diligence“.
It’s a comprehensive set of advice for any company that finds itself the subject of a technical due diligence assessment (and good recommended reading for anyone about to undergo a Remarkable Innovation due diligence assessment!).
Bob’s article is specific to the IT industry, but can be readily applied across all the fields we cover. The “dos and don’ts” in particular rang true – we’ve encountered virtually all of them in the past.
The one thing that really stands out though is the need for honesty.
Technical problems are only to be expected. Even for current issues, the assessor will be more interested in how they’re being addressed.
The best companies we assess are open about fault histories. They provide their failure reports and demonstrate that a resolution process is in place.
A seemingly fault-free technical history, on the other hand, is likely to ring alarm bells in the mind of the assessor. And if it turns out that the proposition company is hiding a significant technical problem then an unfavourable report is inevitable.