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Free self-check

Technical due diligence self-check for startups

14 questions on the seven areas an assessor reads. Each scores red, amber or green.

Start the self-checkRead the checklist behind it
  • 14 questions
  • Red, amber or green for each area
  • Answers stay in your browser
01The self-check

14 questions

Quantum Craft's technical due diligence self-check is a free test of 14 questions that scores your engineering red, amber or green in each of the seven areas an investor's assessor reads.

It uses the same seven areas and the same wording as our technical due diligence checklist, with two checks from each area. The result is your own reading of your own engineering, not a review: an assessor will ask to see the evidence.

Last reviewed

Illustrative result

Indicative UI, sample data. Red areas come first, then amber, each in the order of the 90-day plan, and green areas come last. The highlighted row comes first.

Your areas, coloured as you answer

  1. Architecture and scalabilityNot answered yet
  2. Code quality and deliveryNot answered yet
  3. Team and key-person riskNot answered yet
  4. Security and compliance postureNot answered yet
  5. IP and open-source licensingNot answered yet
  6. Data and AI exposureNot answered yet
  7. Roadmap credibilityNot answered yet

An area takes its colour when both of its questions are answered.

How to answer

Yes
It is true today, and you could show the evidence to an assessor this week.
Partly
It exists, but it is incomplete, out of date or held in one person's head.
No
It does not exist, or nobody could show it.

  1. Architecture and scalability

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether the architecture was chosen or accumulated
    Evidence that answers it
    Decision records with rejected alternatives
    Does every major choice have a written reason, including the ones you would make differently now?
    Can you name what breaks first at ten times current load, and roughly what it costs to fix?

  2. Code quality and delivery

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether the team can change the system safely and quickly
    Evidence that answers it
    Tests that fail for the right reasons, and deploy history
    Do you have tests that fail when you break the behaviour they name?
    Is there a rollback, and has somebody used it this quarter?

  3. Team and key-person risk

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether the company's knowledge exists outside one head
    Evidence that answers it
    Written conventions, and a second person who can deploy
    Can more than one person deploy, and has the second one done it recently?
    Are engineering conventions written down somewhere a new starter gets pointed at?
The top of page 1 of Quantum Craft's technical due diligence checklist: the title, a line saying it covers seven areas, notes on what it is and how to use it, and area 01, architecture and scalability, with its first checks.
  1. The seven areas an assessor works through

    The page's own line: seven areas, and the checks an investor's assessor works through under each.

  2. Tick what you can evidence

    How to use it: tick what you can evidence today, and treat the rest as your preparation backlog.

  3. Each area names its test and its evidence

    Area 01, architecture and scalability, states the question being tested and the evidence that answers it, then the checks to tick.

The checklist the review works from: the top of its first page.Our own document, cropped. Download the checklist as a PDF.

  1. Security and compliance posture

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether security is a habit or a document
    Evidence that answers it
    Access controls, an audit trail, restore evidence
    Can you list who can reach production data, and does every access leave a record?
    Has a backup been restored, on purpose, with the restore timed?

  2. IP and open-source licensing

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether you own what you are selling
    Evidence that answers it
    Licence inventory, signed assignments, provenance
    Does a licence inventory exist, generated from the lockfile rather than from memory?
    Has every contributor, employee and contractor signed an assignment?

  3. Data and AI exposure

    What the assessor is testing
    What leaves your trust boundary, and what breaks if a vendor changes
    Evidence that answers it
    Data map, subprocessor list, a fallback that has been tested
    Do you have a map of what customer data leaves your systems, to which vendor, under which agreement?
    Can you name the features that stop working if a model provider changes its pricing or terms?

    If the product uses no AI model, answer yes.

  4. Roadmap credibility

    What the assessor is testing
    Whether the plan the money funds is buildable by this team
    Evidence that answers it
    A roadmap whose foundations are visible in the code
    Do the next two quarters of roadmap have visible foundations in the current codebase?
    Does technical debt have a written list, with the interest rate on each item?
0 of 14 answered

Your result

Answer all 14 questions, then choose Show my result.

02Scoring

How the colours are set

Each answer scores 2 for yes, 1 for partly and 0 for no. An area adds its two answers, so its score is out of 4.

How an area's colour is set: each answer scores 2 for yes, 1 for partly and 0 for no, and an area adds its two answers, so its score runs from 0 to 4. Red is 0 or 1, amber is 2 or 3 and green is 4.

  • 1. Red, 0 or 1 of 4
  • 2. Amber, 2 or 3 of 4
  • 3. Green, 4 of 4
What each colour means
ColourScore for an areaWhat it means
Green4 of 4Both answers are yes. You could show the evidence this week.
Amber2 or 3 of 4Some evidence, with a gap an assessor will find.
Red0 or 1 of 4A likely finding. Fix it before an assessor finds it.

Two questions cannot cover a whole area, so green is a good sign and not a pass. The full checklist has six checks under each.

03Next

Read more

  1. The 90-day plan

    Preparing for technical due diligence: a 90-day plan sets out the order to do the work in, starting ninety days before a raise.

  2. What stops a funding round

    Tech due diligence red flags that stop a funding round covers the seven findings that stall a raise, when each surfaces and what each costs to fix.

  3. The key-person question

    Key-person risk: the question that ends diligence calls covers what an investor is probing when they ask what happens if your CTO leaves.

  4. Licences and who owns the code

    Open-source licences, AI-written code, and your IP story covers the three IP questions diligence asks and what a good answer looks like.

Download the checklist

Checklist as a PDFChecklist as a CSV
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Tell us your stage and when an investor will look, or what you need checked in a company you are backing. On a 30-minute call we will say what the review would cover and what it costs: from £6,500.

More on technical due diligence for startups
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What happens after you get in touch

  1. We reply within one working day

    By email, to arrange a time for the call.

  2. A free 30-minute call

    With a senior engineer, about what you are building or deciding.

  3. The fee in writing first

    If a first step is worth taking, you get its exact fee in writing before any work starts.

contact@quantumcraft.ukLondon, UK