Startup Technical Due Diligence: Code, Security & Scalability Checklist

Technical due diligence is where venture capital deals and acquisitions are won or renegotiated. Here is the exact checklist technical auditors evaluate.

The 5 Pillars of Technical Due Diligence

When institutional investors or acquiring engineering teams inspect your codebase during Series A, B, or M&A diligence, they examine five core areas:

1. Codebase Architecture & Maintainability

• Clear separation of concerns and modular folder organization.
• TypeScript strict mode or comprehensive Python type hinting.
• Automated ESLint and Prettier enforcement in CI/CD pipelines.
• Core domain test coverage (Jest, PyTest, Playwright E2E suites).

2. Intellectual Property & License Compliance

• Enforceable work-for-hire agreements signed by every past and current developer.
• Zero viral GPL/AGPL-licensed libraries in proprietary proprietary repositories.
• Commit history verifying all code originated from company-controlled accounts.

3. Security Posture & Data Privacy

• No hardcoded API tokens or secrets in Git history (verified with GitGuardian/TruffleHog).
• Vulnerability scanning with Dependabot and automated CVE patching.
• Mandatory TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 database encryption at rest.
• DPDP Act / GDPR data processing compliance and user consent logs.

4. Infrastructure, DevOps & Recovery

• Infrastructure defined as code (Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes manifests).
• Automated zero-downtime deployment pipelines with instant rollback capabilities.
• Automated daily database backups with verified disaster recovery restore procedures.

5. Unit Economics & Cloud Scalability

• Detailed monthly cloud cost breakdown (AWS, Vercel, Supabase, OpenAI API).
• Cost per active user metrics demonstrating positive gross margin expansion at scale.

How EulerHive Prepares Startups for Diligence

Every product engineered by EulerHive is built to institutional standards from day one: 100% client IP ownership, automated testing, zero-trust cloud infrastructure, and thorough architecture documentation.