You can judge the founders and the market. What is harder to judge from a deck and a demo: is the technology real, is the build-vs-buy call right, can this team actually ship, and is the AI genuinely defensible or a thin wrapper on someone else's model. I stress-test exactly that, fast, and hand you a decision you can act on.
Book Assessment Call See The MethodDemo day answers the wrong question. A polished demo tells you the product works once, in front of you. It does not tell you whether the AI is a defensible system or a call to someone else's API wrapped in a UI, whether the architecture holds at ten times the load, or whether the team can maintain what they built.
Visual Element
The same structured due diligence used to evaluate technology acquisitions, extended with an AI-specific reality check. A fixed-scope sprint, not an open-ended engagement.
Tech Reality - What is actually built versus claimed. Architecture review against the pitch.
AI Reality Check - Is the AI real: data or model moat, training and inference economics, wrapper-or-not. The question generic technical due diligence does not ask.
Build vs. Buy - Was the right call made on what to build in-house versus license or integrate. Cost and risk of each path from here.
Team and Delivery Risk - Can this team ship and maintain it. Key-person risk, technical debt, what happens if the lead engineer leaves.
A decision-grade report, not a technical audit nobody on your investment committee will read.
On each axis: tech reality, architecture and scalability, build-vs-buy, team capability, AI substance, key-person and tech-debt risk.
The specific questions to put to the founder before you commit, and what a good versus evasive answer looks like.
Plain answer to the question your committee will ask anyway: is this AI, or an API call with a story. Data moat, model economics, and defensibility, argued with evidence.
Verdict walked through live, questions answered, before your decision deadline.
This method is the AI-specific extension of the rapid technical due diligence I already run for technology acquisitions - including a real case where it mattered.
Visual Element
Fixed fee, priced in line with market rates for early-stage technical due diligence. No hourly billing.
1-2 days. Go/no-go signal on tech reality, team, and whether the AI is real - for triage before a full look. From 2,000 EUR.
About 5 days. The complete report above, plus the debrief call. From 8,000 EUR.
See Rapid Technical Due Diligence - the same method scaled for company or platform acquisitions, from 5,000 EUR.
Book a 15-minute call to discuss scope and timeline before your decision deadline. Ex-CTO, 20+ years building software, and AI-native - I build the systems I evaluate.
Book Assessment Call