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About this service
Build scalable, maintainable software with our experienced engineering teams. We deliver high-quality code and best practices that help your product succeed.
Go to serviceAudits & due diligence
Technical due diligence for investors and startups
Our experienced CTOs and staff engineers technically de-risk your next funding round. In only 2 weeks. About 90% of funded startups fail within 3 years. The biggest risks are not the pitch or market fit, they are the hidden flaws in the product or the team.
Our technical due diligence explained in 1 minute
We help startups, scale-ups and investors with technical due diligence by objectively evaluating the codebase and the technical team to ensure your next funding round is fully technically de-risked.
Buyers and investors call this work by different names. Software due diligence, technology due diligence and tech DD all describe the same engagement, and in a merger or acquisition it usually runs as the technical workstream alongside financial and legal diligence. The term varies by deal team. The work does not.
Know where you stand
- - Is your software solution ready to scale?
- - How much legacy code and technical debt does your product have?
- - What is limiting velocity?
- - What is preventing the team from delivering higher quality?
- - Can you scale with your current team, technology, and processes?
Our sample report shows exactly how we answer these questions.
Our approach to technical due diligence
Team & leadershipProcessWritten communicationEngineeringProblem & solution
Our unique methodology is based on 5 pillars, because just analysing the code or exploring documentation is nowhere near enough.
Step 1
The Baseline Interview
2-hour call with the CTO
We start with a baseline interview covering key players and areas to focus on. We prepare 3 to 5 key questions and schedule placeholder interviews.
Step 2
Strategic preparation
Planning
After the baseline interview, we know who we want to talk to and the important systems to review. We ask for access to codebases, ticketing systems, and documentation tools.
Step 3
Interviews and code review
Reviewing everything
Our team dives deep, checking for best practices across systems. During interviews, we zoom in on specific details to understand how a team thinks about their work.
Step 4
The report
Documenting findings
We document our observations and concerns, share a draft with the company, then refine the finished version and share it with the recipients.
Step 5
The debrief
Answering your questions
We debrief the report after people have had a chance to read it. We even join board meetings if necessary. From the first interview: 10 business days.
AI readiness, assessed like engineers
“How mature is this team's AI adoption?” has joined the standard questions an audit is expected to answer, and we answer it the way we answer everything else: by looking at the code and talking to the people who write it.
That cuts both ways. A codebase largely written with AI gets the same scrutiny as any other, plus the questions specific to how it was made.
What we look at:
- →How the team actually uses AI today, checked against the repository rather than taken from the interview.
- →Whether guardrails and review discipline exist, or AI-generated code lands unchecked.
- →Where source code is allowed to go, and whether those controls are proportionate to the other risks we find.
- →Whether what is being spent on AI matches the adoption we can actually observe.
- →How dependent the product is on a single model provider.
- →Whether the codebase is documented well enough for AI tools to work on it safely.
Why companies call us in
You don't call us when everything's fine. You call when you need clarity about your technology before making a big decision.
“Our team says everything is fine, but delivery keeps slipping.”
“We need an objective view before a big technical decision.”
“After auditing our product, madewithlove made the bold recommendation to rebuild our platform from scratch. This allowed us to bring much-needed security upgrades and modern architectures to our previ…”
Jef Daniels, CEO at Impact Us Today
“Investors are worried about technical risk.”
“We’re dealing with legacy systems nobody fully understands.”
“The staff engineers at madewithlove were essential in not only giving a diagnosis but also being involved to help deliver solutions.”
Dorian de Broqueville, General Manager at Izix
“We want to prepare for our next funding round.”
“We’re about to raise and investors want a tech audit.”
“A madewithlove audit connects the technical picture to the things we care about as investors: scalability, key-person risk, and the real cost of fixing what sits under the hood. That translation is where their value lies.”
Filip Van Innis
Fortino Capital / Managing Partner
We help our clients succeed
You will not see companies like Amazon among our past clients. You will, however, see the names that will soon rock the SaaS world because we helped them predict risks and avoid failure.
“Madewithlove’s audit was thorough and fair. They asked insightful questions on both the architecture and purpose of our technology. They quickly understood the value of our vehicle routing and employee scheduling optimization solutions. Afterwards, they provided clear and…” Read more
Geoffrey De Smet
CTO, Timefold
“Madewithlove helped us by providing a critical eye for our situation then got their hands dirty, got involved to fix problems, to put us on a better path.”
Dorian de Broqueville
General Manager, Izix
“The staff engineers at madewithlove were essential in not only giving a diagnosis but also being involved to help deliver solutions.”
Dorian de Broqueville
General Manager, Izix
Happy clients
We have conducted technical due diligence for investors and companies looking to understand the true state of their technology investments.
Contractify
Contract management simplified through refactoring, not rewriting
We were the only party advising them to refactor instead of starting over. Over 18 months, we modernised their PHP/Laravel stack, established CI/CD pipelines, migrated infrastructure to DigitalOcean, and dramatically reduced bug rates while mentoring their growing team.
Read case study
FROM 190+ SAAS AUDITS
nine in ten SaaS teams depend on one person
Usually the CTO. Bus factor of one, across every stage.
Break the bus factorLatest insights
Our latest thinking on technical due diligence, investment risks, and what makes SaaS codebases fundable.
Read the book
Ready to de-risk your investment?
Tell us about your company or portfolio company and we'll scope a technical due diligence that gives you the clarity you need before the next round.
Not ready to talk yet?
Download a sample of our technical due diligence report to see exactly what we deliver before reaching out.
Or read what we see in audits once a month, in Investor Insights.
Frequently asked questions
Everything you need to know about our technical due diligence service.
Our standard process is designed to be completed within 10 business days, from the initial interview to the delivery of the final report.
No. A code review is only one part of our comprehensive audit. We also examine the structure of your team, development processes, architecture, infrastructure, security, and scalability.
Yes. Software due diligence, technology due diligence, technical due diligence and tech DD are used interchangeably for the same work: an independent assessment of the codebase, the architecture, the engineering practices and the team behind them. Which term you meet depends on who is running the process. Private equity and corporate development teams tend to say technology due diligence, venture investors more often say technical. In a merger or acquisition it is one workstream among several, sitting alongside financial and legal diligence. The scope is the same whatever your deal checklist calls it.
Our service is designed for both investors seeking to de-risk an investment and for SaaS startups or scale-ups preparing for a funding round, merger, or acquisition.
We operate under strict NDAs and handle all client information with the utmost confidentiality. Any access you provide us with is revoked immediately upon completion.
We deliver a detailed report and conduct a debrief session to ensure all stakeholders understand our findings. We can also join board meetings to present results.
Looking for something more specific?
For investors
Technical due diligence for VCs
De-risk your next investment with our 5-pillar methodology.
For SaaS teams
Internal audits
A 15-20 page health check of your product, team and codebase in 10 days.
For Belgian SaaS
Technical due diligence in Belgium
Independent TDD from our Leuven team. 190+ audits since 2008.
Free guide
Technical due diligence checklist
The full five-pillar checklist, red flags and FAQ: the methodology behind our audits.