DON'T BUY BLIND WE TRACK WHAT'S REALLY HIDING IN THE CODEBASE
You're about to invest millions in a company whose CTO says 'the architecture is solid.' But the last three due diligence reports you commissioned were written by consultants who never opened the repository.
You need someone who reads code, not slide decks, and can tell you what's really under the hood before you sign.
Due Diligence Red Flags That Others Miss
I've assessed codebases for private equity firms, VCs, and acquirers. These are the patterns that turn promising investments into expensive remediation projects.
Black-Box Codebase
The target company's CTO gave a great presentation. But nobody on your side has actually looked at the code. You're making a multi-million decision based on demos and promises.
Untested Scalability Claims
'We can handle 10x growth.' But there are no load tests, no capacity planning documents, and the infrastructure scales manually. The claim is aspirational, not architectural.
Hidden Tech Debt
The codebase looks clean on the surface. But under the hood: no tests, copy-pasted modules, hardcoded credentials, and a deployment process that requires the original developer to be in the room.
Key-Person Risk
Three engineers wrote 80% of the system. One has already left. The other two haven't documented anything. If they walk, the investment thesis walks with them.
The Pointer Assessment
Five trails that reliably expose the real state of engineering health. A good pointer doesn't chase every noise in the field. It locks onto a scent and follows it to the source. These five trails do the same thing for a codebase.
Follow the Prints
Deploy frequency, pipeline health, the gap between what leadership claims and what the git log shows.
Sound the Alarm
DR execution, rollback capability, incident response muscle memory: the production-is-down drill.
Run with the Pack
Onboarding speed, knowledge distribution, bus factor. Can the team absorb growth without fragmenting?
Find the Fence
Architecture headroom, database strategy, the next ceiling, and what it costs to move it.
Flush the Undergrowth
Tech debt blind spots, "don't touch" zones, unescalated issues hiding beneath the surface.
2-4 Weeks From Code to Board-Ready Report
Code-Level Assessment, Not Checklist Auditing
I don't send juniors with a questionnaire. Using The Pointer Assessment, I personally follow five trails through the codebase, the infrastructure, the deployment pipeline, the test coverage, and the team structure. I interview engineers, not just leadership, to understand what's really happening on the ground.
The output is a board-ready report with risk ratings, remediation cost estimates, and a prioritized roadmap. Not a generic template. A specific assessment of this codebase, this team, this architecture.
You get the truth about what you're buying — before you buy it.
- Code Quality Review: Architecture patterns, test coverage, dependency health, security posture. Assessed by someone who ships production code
- Scalability Assessment: Can the system actually handle the growth projections? Load testing, capacity planning, infrastructure review
- Team & Process Evaluation: Bus factor analysis, knowledge distribution, development practices, deployment maturity
- Board-Ready Report: Risk ratings, remediation estimates, prioritized roadmap. Language the board can act on
What You Get
A clear-eyed view of the technical asset you're acquiring. No surprises six months post-close. The remediation costs are in the model before you sign, not discovered after.
Your investment committee has technical risk quantified alongside financial risk. Your post-acquisition integration plan starts from reality, not assumptions.
Assessment Is Phase One
The Pointer Assessment identifies what's hiding. The Chase fixes it. The Unleashing makes your team self-sufficient.
The Pointer Assessment
Five trails through deploy health, incident readiness, team scalability, architecture headroom, and hidden debt. We lock onto the scent and follow it to the source.
The Chase
We embed with your pack and chase the problem to ground. Hands-on engineering alongside your team: building, fixing, shipping.
The Unleashing
Your team hunts on their own. Knowledge transfer, proven independence, off the leash.
Need more than an assessment? The Chase and The Unleashing turn findings into fixes and your team into independent hunters.
Companies That Grew Through The Breaking Point
Real companies, real pressure, real results. Here's what happened when they brought me in during their scaling challenges.
Multi-Region Payment Gateway
The kind of system I assess: multi-region payment gateway processing 1M+ daily transactions across three AWS regions. I know what scalable architecture looks like because I've built it: Kafka event pipelines, Kubernetes orchestration, 99.99% uptime under load.
Global Airline Reservations Platform
Built airline reservations service handling sensitive PII and payment data with enterprise-grade encryption and PCI compliance controls. The kind of compliance complexity I can spot, and quantify, during a due diligence assessment.
"Szymon built the reference architecture templates that twenty other teams ended up adopting. He didn't just ship his own service. He turned what he built into the golden path for the entire programme. His team went from middle-of-the-pack to the highest-performing unit in the delivery." — Delivery Lead, Global Travel Technology Provider
Why This Works When Others Miss What's Hiding
Why Not Internal Review?
- The target's own team wrote the code. Asking them to assess it objectively is like asking a student to grade their own exam. They're too close, too biased, and too busy to give you the unvarnished truth.
- I have no relationship with the target. I read the code, I assess the risk, I tell you what I find, whether it confirms or contradicts the investment thesis.
Why Not Big-4 Auditors?
- They send a team of graduates with a checklist template. They interview the CTO, review the wiki, and produce a report that says 'some technical debt exists.' You paid six figures for a document that tells you nothing actionable.
- I personally read the code and interview the engineers. My reports include specific file references, concrete remediation steps, and cost estimates your board can act on.
Let's Survey the Terrain Before You Commit
A 2-4 week assessment that could save you millions in post-acquisition surprises. 30 minutes, no pitch deck. Let's discuss what you need to know before you sign.
Prefer email? contact@grupavii.eu