ENGAGEMENT
Assess: Technology Due Diligence
Each engagement has a defined scope, a set timeline, and a fixed fee, all agreed before kickoff. Every engagement starts with an assessment.
Scenarios Our Clients Face
- The deal team's tech advisor flagged risk but couldn't say what it would cost to fix, or when.
- A prior acquisition turned out to have a compliance gap that wasn't surfaced until post-close, and the integration budget had to be reset.
- The target CTO is smooth in meetings, but the engineering org has 80% turnover in the last 18 months and the GP has no independent read on why.
- The deal thesis is a platform play, but nobody has evaluated whether the technology can handle the acquisition targets on the pipeline.
- The LOI was signed and diligence starts in two weeks. There's no technical operating partner on the transaction.
What It Is
A structured technology assessment of a potential acquisition target, with each finding stated in financial terms. It uses the PRISM™ framework to evaluate five dimensions, and each dimension is mapped to dollar impact, remediation timeline, and thesis risk.
When to Engage
- Before LOI or within the first 30 days post-close
- When the GP has a deal with meaningful technology dependency
- When the deal team lacks a technical operating partner on the transaction
- When previous diligence flagged technology risk without quantifying it
The PRISM™ Framework
The framework has five dimensions. Every finding is recorded with its dollar impact, the timeline to remediate, a confidence level, an owner, and a Gate, Price, Thesis, or Lever classification.
| Letter | Dimension | The Business Question | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| P | Portfolio Fit | Can tech support the investment thesis? | Gate |
| R | Risk Quantification | What tech risks create financial exposure? | Price |
| I | Infrastructure & Engineering | Can the platform scale? | Foundation |
| S | Strategic Data Assets | Can the data create value? | Upside |
| M | Management & Execution | Can this team deliver the thesis? | Multiplier |
Workstreams
- Product and roadmap
- Engineering execution and velocity
- Architecture and platform
- AI/data maturity
- Security and trust (cyber posture)
- Cloud, tooling, and cost
- Team and operating rhythm
- Board/executive communication
Deliverables
- PRISM™ Scorecard: 5-dimension, financially translated
- Risk Map: Gate / Price / Thesis / Lever classification
- Technical Debt Inventory: CapEx exposure, quantified
- Engineering Leadership Depth Assessment
- Compliance Gap Summary: SOC 2, HIPAA, CMMC, ISO 27001 as applicable
- 100-Day Technology Roadmap
- Executive Summary: board-ready, 2–3 pages
Engagement Format
Duration: 3–4 weeks
Format: Document review + stakeholder interviews + written deliverable + readout
Interviews: CEO, CTO/VP Engineering, CISO or IT lead, product lead, 1–2 key engineers
Proof Point
Our operators have run technical diligence, integration and post-close efficiency work on multiple transactions, from both the buyer side and the seller side, including in a large-cap PE firm's portfolio. One integration produced a 25% efficiency improvement.
What Comes Next
Post-close: 100-day implementation sprint → Fractional CTO or CISO retainer → hold period Improve engagement via CLEAR™.
NEXT STEP
Discuss how this applies to a portfolio company.
Bring the asset and the investment thesis. We will map this engagement to the specific gap and the first 100 days of work.