Technical diligence for deals without a CTO.
You are buying a company with a bookkeeper, a server closet and nobody who owns technology. I tell you what is actually in there before you sign, put a number on fixing it, and then — if you want — stay and do the fixing. The plan gets written by whoever has to live with it.
Before the LOI
$2,800
fixed fee
One month of Technical Advisor · $2,800/mo rate
Five business days from data-room access.
Is there a technology problem here big enough to change the price?
The actual system inventory — not the one in the CIM · Software and infrastructure spend, annualised, with the auto-renewals flagged · Key-person risk: who is the only person who can do a thing · Anything that will not survive being separated from the seller
You get A three-page memo: what they run, what it costs, what is held together by one person, and the rough cost to put it right.
During exclusivity
$5,600
fixed fee
One month of Fractional CTO · $5,600/mo rate
Two to three weeks, inside your exclusivity window.
What will we have to spend in year one, and what could stop the deal?
Everything in the pre-LOI screen, verified rather than estimated · Vendor and licensing contracts read for assignment, change-of-control and true-up clauses · Integration and separation cost, as a number you can put in the model · Security and data-handling exposure in plain English, sized not scored · Which of their technical staff you want to keep, and what it takes to keep them
You get A costed findings report with a 100-day technology plan, plus a call with the deal team to defend the numbers.
After close
$11,200
a month
Embedded CTO retainer · 6-month initial term
Starts the week after close.
Earliest start: December 15, 2026
Who actually executes the plan we just underwrote?
The 100-day plan, executed, against the costs it was underwritten at · Vendor consolidation and the contracts renegotiated at the new scale · Systems integration across the platform and the next bolt-on · Board and lender-ready technology reporting every month · Hiring and managing the technical team, including the performance conversations
You get The same person who wrote the findings runs them out — on-site in the DMV when being in the room is what moves it.
How the fee works
There is one rate card and it is on the website, so there is no discount to negotiate for and none you missed. Billed monthly in advance. No success fee and nothing contingent on the deal closing — a diligence provider who gets paid more when you buy is not a diligence provider. If the honest answer is “walk away”, that answer costs the same.
What this is not
Not a QofE, not a legal or insurance review, not a penetration test, and not a 300-page vendor report nobody reads. Fifteen years shipping production software, and currently advising an enterprise M&A software platform — so the memo is written by someone who has had to run the systems, not score them.