Around 90% of SaaS startups fail within three years, even with adequate funding. Why does this happen? While a compelling pitch and strong market fit are critical, the real risks often lie hidden within the product, the team, or both—risks no one anticipated.
Technical due diligence (TDD) can help you avoid this fate. In just two weeks, our staff of experienced engineers and CTOs will thoroughly evaluate your codebase, architecture, and team to identify weaknesses that could hinder scalability. We conduct up to eight interviews, perform in-depth code reviews, and deliver a detailed 20-25 page report highlighting all technology, codebase, and team-related risks. No sugar-coating, just honest, actionable recommendations.
This rigorous evaluation replaces assumptions with objective facts, providing investors and companies with a clear and unbiased understanding of a product's technical strengths and weaknesses. It's not about assigning blame—it's about building confidence and enabling more intelligent business decisions.
A TDD audit provides the transparency needed to accurately value a company, plan for growth, and confirm that the technology can support business goals. It transforms potential liabilities into well-understood assets, enabling smarter and more informed decisions.
The technical health of a company goes far deeper than just the codebase. It's a combination of people, processes, and technology. A simple code review can't capture the whole picture. That's why our technical due diligence process is built on a holistic, five-pillar methodology designed to provide a comprehensive understanding.
We start with a baseline interview, a 2-hour call with the CTO (or other senior leadership). During this time, we cover a lot of ground. Our goal is to know about the key players in the town and the main areas to focus on during our remaining interviews. We prepare for this interview by getting access to an org-chart and deciding on 3 to 5 key questions (from you or an investment team). We also schedule placeholder interviews.
After the baseline interview, we know who we want to talk to and the important systems to review. We invite other team members to the pre-scheduled calls and ask for access to codebases, ticketing systems, and documentation tools.
Behind the scenes, our team dives deep, checking for best practices across the various systems. During interviews, we zoom in on specific details in an effort to understand how a team thinks about their work.
After a week or so, it's time to write the report. We document our observations and concerns, then share a draft with the company. We refine the finished version and share it with the recipients.
We debrief the report after people have had a chance to read it. Then we answer questions. We even join board meetings if necessary. From the first interview, it takes 10 business days to complete the audit.
In only two weeks, our experienced audit leads and senior engineers will technically de-risk your next investment. They will focus on these five pillars of our technical due diligence methodology:
High-performing teams need psychological safety to take risks and learn from mistakes, fostering transparency and growth. Regular feedback meetings build a culture of improvement, allowing leaders to address issues early and develop necessary communication skills.
Balancing processes is critical; retrospective meetings and code reviews improve workflows incrementally. Hiring wisely is essential—startups must avoid rushing decisions, delaying a CTO hire until scaling or fundraising demands it, and focus on building a strong pipeline.
Startups often skip documentation, risking knowledge loss when key people leave. Documenting processes early ensures continuity, accelerates onboarding, and supports a scalable, knowledge-driven culture.
A strong CI/CD pipeline automates testing and streamlines delivery, enabling engineers to focus on value. Neglecting legacy code leads to technical debt, so companies must allow time to address it and avoid future bottlenecks.
A clear vision and roadmap are vital for guiding teams and avoiding wasted effort. Continuous customer validation at every stage ensures alignment with user needs, preventing costly late-stage changes.
We asked our clients why they decided to hire our team to conduct technology audits for them. Among many reasons, 3 have been mentioned over and over again:
Result: faster delivery, fewer regressions, and a calmer team that can focus on real progress.
You won't see companies like Amazon or Facebook among our past clients. They're already pretty big. 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. They also went through the architecture and some of the source code of our PlanningAI solver. Afterwards, they provided clear and actionable feedback on our weaknesses, which allowed us to fix those going forward."
Geoffrey De Smet
CTO Timefold
"The technical dd report that MWL provided was on point and covered our key questions. We appreciated the methodology and efficient way of working. Communication with the team was smooth."
Piet Renson
PMV
"They not only helped scale our output but also our strategy, processes and culture. Not by imposing, but by reinforcing the foundations that were already there."
Michelle Dassen
Head of Product, Flexmail
We've conducted technical due diligence for investors and companies looking to understand the true state of their technology investments.
Email marketing tools for better audience engagement
We helped Flexmail resolve challenges from merging teams by conducting a product audit, reinforcing the team with UI/UX talent, and implementing improved development processes including user research, prototypes, a PHP7 upgrade, better version control, testing frameworks, and release management.
From top-notch development to strategic C-level advice
We helped Teamleader scale their product and engineering organizations by implementing data-driven product strategy, introducing modern development practices, and providing interim CTO leadership that enabled them to hire their own CTO and grow from one product owner to a team of forty engineers.
Free aim training for FPS gamers
We provided technical leadership and software engineering to resolve performance issues and legacy system problems. We implemented infrastructure improvements on DigitalOcean, decoupled the front-end into a Next.js application with a new Laravel API, and helped recruit staff engineers.
Building startups is tough, we know. We've been helping SaaS products and teams for over 15 years. Tell us about your product, whether it's for engineering power, technical leadership, de-risking an investment or just for fun. We love to listen. No strings attached.
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 to provide a comprehensive view of your technical health.
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. A self-initiated audit can be powerful to prepare for future scrutiny.
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 of the process.
We deliver a detailed report and conduct a debrief session to ensure all stakeholders understand our findings. The report includes actionable recommendations.
Read our latest thoughts on software engineering, team leadership, and building better products.
Performance bugs erode trust quietly until users explode. Three pragmatic steps help you catch slowdowns early: explore real bottlenecks with Sentry, test with production-sized data, and add lightweight API load tests.
Mike Veerman
CTO in residence
Outages can strike unexpectedly, impacting businesses and users alike. In this episode of the SaaS Show, hosts Andreas and Sjimi delve into the recent outages experienced by major cloud providers like Amazon and Cloudflare.
Andreas Creten
Founder & CEO
If you believe what you see on LinkedIn, startups don't need employees anymore, real founders just have agents building their companies. You write a prompt, fire off the agent, and wait for customers. In reality, you get a vague workflow that produces a mediocre demo at best.
Peter Eysermans
CTO in residence
