Article · ~20 min

Technical Due Diligence Preparation Guide (The Startup CTO's Field Guide)

Gareth Price · startupctobook.com Free Intermediate

Our answer tells you to ask builders what breaks in production, and this is a concrete checklist of what that actually means. It lays out the technical questions serious evaluators ask about architecture, dependencies, and risk, in language a non-technical founder can follow. Use it as a script when you sit down with the engineers you trust.

  • Ask where the single points of failure and key-person risks are
  • A trend is only real for you if it survives your production constraints
  • Self-aware honesty about risk matters more than a perfect answer
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The question it answers

  1. As a non-technical founder, how do I evaluate a tech-heavy trend like AI without getting fooled by hype?

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