How does this compare to Crosslake or West Monroe at this size?

They are excellent above $20M EBITDA and tend to pass, overscope, or charge above the deal's tolerance below it. This is built for the segment they skip. You get an experienced operator running point, not a managed team of consultants.

Can we use your report inside the IC pack?

Yes. The report is written for the IC audience and can be issued in your template. I will also join the IC by video if it helps you defend a finding.

What if the deal window shrinks to 3 days?

I can compress the engagement to 72 hours at the same fee, with a scoped reduction in coverage. We agree on the trade-offs upfront so nothing surprises you in the report.

Will you sign our reliance language?

Yes, within reason. I carry standard professional indemnity and can extend reliance to a named co-investor or lender. Anything more complex goes through counsel.

What happens if we close the deal?

The 100-day technology thesis is already in your hands. If you want me to execute against it, that becomes a Value Creation Plan or a Fractional Retainer with continuity from day one.

What if you find a deal-killer mid-week?

You hear it the moment I see it, not on Friday. The IC report still gets written so you have a paper trail, but you do not pay full freight to find out something we both agreed was disqualifying on Tuesday.

Before the deal

A 5-day tech due diligence on an acquisition target.

A fixed five-day technical assessment of an acquisition target. You get a go/no-go you can put in front of the investment committee by Friday, plus a 100-day technology thesis for the hold.

Scope your diligence

$15,000 fixed · $25,000 to $40,000 for larger or multi-entity targets

When it fits

When this engagement makes sense

You are inside exclusivity on a $1M to $20M EBITDA target and the IC meets in under two weeks.
The target is a digital agency, services business, or lower-mid-market software company that the big DD firms either pass on or overscope.
You need a second technical read on a deal your in-house operating team has already touched.
You suspect concentration risk in a single engineer, a single client, or a single legacy system, and you need it priced into the offer.
The thesis depends on AI, automation, or a platform play, and you need the underlying stack pressure-tested against it.
You have a pre-LOI sanity check window and need a senior read in 48 hours, not a four-week proposal.

The problem

Deals move fast and the technology is usually the part no one on the deal team can read. A weak architecture or a fragile data layer does not show up in the financials. It shows up after close, when the value-creation thesis assumes a platform that cannot carry the weight.

What you get

The deliverables

IC-ready report by Friday

A written report scoped for the investment committee: executive summary, scored risk register, value-creation levers, and a recommended deal posture. Sent in your template if you have one.

Architecture and scalability read

Where the platform holds, where it breaks under the thesis, and what it will cost to carry it through the hold period. Cloud, data layer, integrations, third-party dependencies.

Code and process quality assessment

Sampled code review, release cadence, test coverage, branching discipline, technical debt density. AI-accelerated review so we cover more surface area in less time.

Security posture and data engineering

Vulnerability surface, secrets handling, access control, data lineage, reporting reliability. Flagged at severity, with remediation estimates.

Team and key-person risk

Engineering org chart, bus-factor on critical systems, retention risk, hiring debt. Named, not generic.

100-day technology thesis for the hold

A separate appendix the operating partner can carry straight into post-close: prioritized levers, sequencing, and rough cost to execute. Bridges into the Value Creation Plan.

How it works

The engagement

Day 0

Kickoff and access

Half-day call with the deal team to lock the thesis. NDA, data room access, target introductions. We tell you what we need from management; you tell us where the deal is most likely to break.

Days 1-2

Deep dive

Architecture and code review, security pass, data audit, management interviews. AI-assisted analysis on the codebase runs in parallel with human review.

Days 3-4

Pressure test

Findings tested against the investment thesis. Open questions go back to the target. Risk register scored. Value-creation levers sized.

Day 5

Deliver

IC-ready report delivered. Live walkthrough with the deal team. Q&A captured and folded back in if needed. You walk into the IC with a defensible position.

Engagement shapes

How this is priced

Standard

$15,000

5 business days

Single-entity target, $1M to $20M EBITDA, one core platform.

Multi-entity

$25,000 to $40,000

7 to 10 business days

Roll-ups, multi-product targets, or targets with multiple regulated jurisdictions.

Pre-LOI sanity check

$5,000

48 to 72 hours

A fast technical read before you commit to exclusivity. Becomes a credit against the full diligence if you proceed.

Who it is for

A good fit if

PE deal teams in the lower-mid-market who need a credible, fixed-fee read.
Independent sponsors raising deal-by-deal who need IC-grade material for LPs.
M&A advisors who need a technical workstream on a deal in their pipeline.
Strategic acquirers buying outside their core competence.

Who it is not for

Probably not if

—Targets over $50M EBITDA where you need a 50-person Big-4 team and a $250k budget.
—Pure software companies where you already have an in-house engineering operating partner with bandwidth.
—Deals where you want a rubber stamp rather than a real read.

A recent engagement

A $7M EBITDA SaaS bolt-on. Five days. One killed deal, one repriced.

Two recent diligences ran back-to-back on the same week. One target had a clean front end and a critical reporting pipeline running on a single engineer's laptop. The deal team repriced the offer and added a retention package. The second target presented as a SaaS company; the diligence found 80% of revenue was custom services delivered by a sub-contractor in a different timezone. That one came back as a no-go. Both reports landed Friday.

Questions

What buyers ask

Related engagements

Ready to move?