Code Health Checklist

✓ Checklist 1: Architecture & Scalability

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can this system handle 10x growth without a complete rewrite?

Critical Questions:

• Is the architecture documented anywhere?
• Can the system handle 10x current user load?
• Are there single points of failure?
• Is the database properly indexed?
• Are there caching layers (Redis, CDN)?
• Can components scale independently?
• Is there a clear separation of concerns?

How They Actually Check This:

Non-Technical Investors:

• Ask: "What happens when you get 10x the users?"
• Listen for: Confident, specific answer vs. vague hope
• Red flag: "We'll figure it out when we get there"

Technical Advisors Check:

• Review architecture diagrams
• Ask developers to explain scaling strategy
• Look for obvious single points of failure
• Check if there's actual planning vs. wishful thinking

What YOU Should Know Before Meetings:

Questions to Ask Your Developers:

1. "If we got 10x our current traffic tomorrow, what would break first?"
2. "Show me our load testing results."
3. "What's our plan for scaling the database?"
4. "How much would infrastructure cost at 10x scale?"

Good Answers Sound Like:

• "We've load tested to 50K concurrent users. Database is the first bottleneck at around 30K. Here's our scaling plan..."
• "Current infrastructure handles 10x no problem. At 50x we'd need to implement caching, which is a 2-week project."

Bad Answers Sound Like:

• "It should be fine..."
• "We haven't tested that yet."
• "We're using AWS so it scales automatically."
• "We'll optimize when we need to."

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Monolithic architecture with no clear boundaries
• ❌ All logic in a single giant file
• ❌ Database queries in frontend code
• ❌ "We'll refactor when we need to scale"
• ❌ No load testing ever performed

What Non-Technical Founders Can Check:

• Do we have any performance monitoring? (Can you see a dashboard?)
• Has anyone tested what happens with more load?
• Do we have a written scaling plan?
• Can our tech lead explain this in a way that makes sense?

What Good Looks Like:

• Load tested to at least 5x current capacity
• Clear documentation of bottlenecks
• Scaling plan that doesn't require rebuild
• Separate services for critical functions

Investor Impact: 🔴 DEAL KILLER if scaling plan requires 6+ month rebuild

Estimated Time to Fix: 4-12 weeks depending on severity

✓ Checklist 2: Database Design & Performance

What Investors Are Looking For:

Is the data layer built for growth or will it collapse?

Critical Questions:

• Are database queries optimized with indexes?
• Is there an N+1 query problem?
• Are slow queries logged and monitored?
• Is the database normalized appropriately?
• Are query timeouts configured?
• Is connection pooling implemented?
• Can you identify your slowest queries right now?

How Non-Technical Investors Check:

• "How fast does your app load?"
• "Ever have performance issues?"
• "What happens to speed as you add users?"

How Technical Advisors Check:

• Ask to see slowest database queries
• Review database schema
• Check if indexes exist
• Run performance monitoring tools

What YOU Can Check (Non-Technical):

Simple Tests:

1. Open your app. Does it feel fast or slow?
2. Ask your developers: "Show me our database monitoring dashboard"
3. If they say "we don't have one" → RED FLAG
4. Ask: "What's our slowest database query and how long does it take?"
5. If they don't know instantly → RED FLAG

Questions That Reveal Truth:

• "When was the last time we had a performance problem?"
• "Do users ever complain about slowness?"
• "If I added 10 items to this page, would it slow down?"

Good Answers:

• Shows you a dashboard
• "Our P95 response time is 150ms"
• "Here are our 5 slowest queries and our plan to fix them"

Bad Answers:

• "Everything's fast enough"
• "We don't monitor that"
• "Never had complaints" (you would if you were monitoring)

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Every query does a full table scan
• ❌ No indexes on foreign keys
• ❌ Selecting all columns when you need three
• ❌ Queries taking 5+ seconds regularly
• ❌ Database CPU at 80%+ with low traffic

The Math That Kills Raises:

• Current: 1,000 users, queries average 200ms
• Projected: 50,000 users (50x growth)
• Reality: Queries will average 10+ seconds
• Result: App is unusable, users churn, growth stalls

What Killed One Raise:

Startup had 3,000 users. Queries averaged 800ms. Investor asked: "What happens at 30,000 users?" Answer: "We haven't tested that." Investor tested it: Database crashed at 8,000 concurrent users. Projected 100,000 users in year one. Term sheet died that week.

What Good Looks Like:

• All queries under 100ms
• Proper indexing on all foreign keys
• Query monitoring with alerts
• Regular database performance reviews

Investor Impact: 🔴 DEAL KILLER - Poor database performance signals amateur engineering

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-6 weeks

✓ Checklist 3: Security Fundamentals

What Investors Are Looking For:

Will this company end up on TechCrunch for the wrong reasons?

Critical Questions:

• Are passwords properly hashed (bcrypt/Argon2)?
• Is user input validated and sanitized?
• Are API endpoints authenticated?
• Are secrets in environment variables (not code)?
• Is HTTPS enforced everywhere?
• Have you had a security audit?
• Is sensitive data encrypted at rest?

How Investors Actually Check:

Seed Stage:

• "Have you had a security audit?"
• "How do you handle passwords?"
• Basic questions about data protection

Series A:

• Hire security consultant for scan
• Run automated vulnerability tools
• Check for obvious issues
• Review compliance stance

What YOU Can Check (Non-Technical):

Questions to Ask:

1. "Are our passwords stored securely?"
   • Good answer: "Yes, we use bcrypt hashing"
   • Bad answer: "Um, I think so?"
2. "Have we had a security audit?"
   • Good answer: "Yes, here's the report from [date]"
   • Bad answer: "We've been meaning to do that"
3. "Are there any API keys in our code repository?"
   • Good answer: "No, everything's in environment variables"
   • Bad answer: "Might be some old ones..."
4. "If we got hacked tomorrow, would we know?"
   • Good answer: "Yes, we have monitoring and alerts"
   • Bad answer: "Probably not immediately"

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Passwords hashed with MD5 or SHA1
• ❌ SQL injection vulnerabilities
• ❌ API keys committed to GitHub
• ❌ Admin panel with no authentication
• ❌ "We'll add security after launch"

Red Flags Even Non-Technical Founders Can Spot:

• Developers get defensive about security questions
• "We'll add security later"
• No one can show you a security audit
• Passwords sent via email
• Can access admin functions without logging in

How to Check:

1. Search codebase: git grep -i "password\|api_key\|secret"
2. Try SQL injection: ' OR '1'='1 in login
3. Check admin URLs without logging in
4. Look for "TODO: security" comments

Real Example:

Startup raising Series A. Security audit found: Passwords stored with MD5; Admin panel accessible without auth; 47,000 user records exposed via simple URL manipulation; API keys in public GitHub repo. Investors walked. Company shut down 4 months later.

What to Do:

Before raising $500K+, spend $3K-$5K on basic security audit from a local cybersecurity firm, a freelance security consultant, or services like HackerOne. Get a report you can show investors.

What Good Looks Like:

• Recent third-party security audit
• All critical vulnerabilities fixed
• Security checklist passed
• OWASP top 10 addressed

Investor Impact: 🔴 DEAL KILLER - Security breaches destroy companies

Estimated Time to Fix: 1-4 weeks for critical issues

✓ Checklist 4: Code Quality & Maintainability

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can this codebase be maintained and extended?

Critical Questions:

• Is there a consistent coding style?
• Are functions under 50 lines?
• Is code DRY (not copy-pasted everywhere)?
• Are variable names meaningful?
• Is complex logic commented?
• Can a new developer understand the code?
• Is technical debt documented?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ 2,000-line files with no structure
• ❌ Functions that do 10 different things
• ❌ Same code copy-pasted 47 times
• ❌ Variables named x, temp, data2
• ❌ Zero comments on complex algorithms

How to Check:

1. Open 3 random files in your codebase
2. Can you understand what they do in 2 minutes?
3. If not, your code quality is a problem

What Investors Think:

Bad code = slow development = burning cash = need more runway = worse terms

The Velocity Test:

Ask: "How long to add a simple feature like email notifications?"

• Good codebase: "2-3 days"
• Bad codebase: "2-3 weeks, lots of things could break"

What Good Looks Like:

• Consistent style guide followed
• Code reviews before merging
• Refactoring happens regularly
• New features don't slow down over time

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT - Bad code = higher risk = lower valuation

Estimated Time to Fix: Ongoing, not a one-time fix

✓ Checklist 5: Testing & Quality Assurance

What Investors Are Looking For:

How do you know the code actually works?

Critical Questions:

• Are there automated tests?
• What's your test coverage percentage?
• Do tests run before deployment?
• Are critical paths tested?
• Is there a QA process?
• Can you deploy without breaking things?
• Do you have staging environment?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Zero automated tests
• ❌ "We test in production"
• ❌ "Our users are our QA team"
• ❌ Deployments regularly break things
• ❌ No staging environment

How to Check:

Ask: "Show me your test suite running." If response is awkward silence, you're in trouble.

The Cost of No Tests:

• Every deployment is Russian roulette
• Bug fixes break other features
• Developers scared to change code
• Velocity drops to near zero
• Technical debt compounds

Real Numbers:

Startup with no tests: 3 days to safely deploy small change. Same startup after adding tests: 3 hours to deploy with confidence.

What Good Looks Like:

• 60%+ test coverage on critical paths
• Tests run automatically on every commit
• Staging environment mirrors production
• Deployments are routine, not scary

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT - No tests = unpredictable quality = higher risk

Estimated Time to Fix: 4-8 weeks to establish testing culture

✓ Checklist 6: Error Handling & Monitoring

What Investors Are Looking For:

Do you know when things break?

Critical Questions:

• Is error logging implemented?
• Are errors monitored in real-time?
• Do you get alerted when errors spike?
• Can you trace errors to specific users?
• Are errors prioritized and tracked?
• Do you review error logs weekly?
• Is there uptime monitoring?

How They Check:

Non-Technical Investor:

• "How do you know if something breaks?"
• "Show me your error dashboard"

Technical Advisor:

• Asks to see error monitoring tool
• Reviews error rates and types
• Checks if team actually uses the data

What YOU Can Check (Non-Technical):

The Dashboard Test: Ask your developers: "Show me our error monitoring right now."

Good Response: Opens Sentry/Datadog/whatever and shows: Current error rate; Recent errors; Trends over time; "Here are the top 3 we're working on"

Bad Response:

• "We don't have that set up yet"
• "Let me check the logs..."
• "Users tell us when things break"

Questions to Ask:

1. "What broke in production last week?" — Should know immediately
2. "How long after something breaks do we know about it?"
   • Good: Immediately, alerts
   • Bad: When users email us
3. "What's our error rate?" — Should have a number

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ No error logging anywhere
• ❌ Errors fail silently
• ❌ "Users will tell us if something breaks"
• ❌ No idea what your error rate is
• ❌ Can't reproduce user-reported bugs

Simple Truth:

If your developers can't show you a monitoring dashboard in under 60 seconds, you're not monitoring properly.

What This Costs You:

• Users hit errors, you don't know
• Problems persist for weeks unnoticed
• Can't make data-driven decisions
• Investors see you flying blind

Real Example:

Startup in due diligence. CTO claimed "very stable." Investor asked to see error dashboard. There wasn't one. Set up Sentry: 1,200 errors per day. 3 critical bugs affecting 40% of users. Nobody knew. Valuation cut by 30%.

What Good Looks Like:

• Sentry, Datadog, or similar installed
• Daily error review process
• Alerts on error spikes
• Clear error resolution workflow

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT - Can't manage what you can't measure

Estimated Time to Fix: 1 week to implement monitoring

✓ Checklist 7: Deployment & DevOps

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can you ship code without drama?

Critical Questions:

• Is deployment automated?
• Can you rollback a bad deploy in under 5 minutes?
• Is there a CI/CD pipeline?
• Are database migrations automated and tested?
• Can you deploy without downtime?
• Is infrastructure documented?
• Do you have disaster recovery plan?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Manual deployment process
• ❌ "We deploy when Bob is available"
• ❌ Deployments take 4 hours
• ❌ Can't rollback easily
• ❌ Every deploy causes downtime

How to Check:

Ask: "Walk me through deploying a small bug fix right now." If it takes more than 30 minutes, you have problems.

What Bad Deployment Costs:

• Slow iteration = slower learning
• Fear of deploying = features sit in code
• Manual process = human errors
• Downtime = lost revenue

The Velocity Killer:

• Startup A: Automated deploy, 50+ deploys/week
• Startup B: Manual deploy, 1 deploy every 2 weeks

After 6 months: Startup A ships 12x more iterations; Startup B still guessing, running out of runway

What Good Looks Like:

• One-click deployments
• Automated tests run before deploy
• Zero-downtime deployments
• Easy rollback process
• Deploy multiple times per day

Investor Impact: 🟠 CONCERN FLAG - Slow deployment = slow iteration = higher risk

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-4 weeks

✓ Checklist 8: Documentation

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can someone other than the original developer maintain this?

Critical Questions:

• Is there technical documentation?
• Can a new developer get started in under a day?
• Are architectural decisions documented?
• Is there an API reference?
• Are deployment procedures written down?
• Is the database schema documented?
• Can you onboard without the current team?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Zero documentation
• ❌ "It's all in Bob's head"
• ❌ README file from 2022
• ❌ Can't onboard without 2-week knowledge transfer
• ❌ "The code is self-documenting"

How to Check:

Ask a developer who didn't build it: "How would you add feature X?" If they need to ask the original dev, documentation is insufficient.

The Bus Factor:

"How many developers need to get hit by a bus before the project is doomed?" If the answer is 1, investors see massive risk.

What This Costs You:

• Can't scale the team
• Knowledge trapped in heads
• Developers become irreplaceable
• Onboarding takes forever
• Investors see "key person risk"

What Good Looks Like:

• README with setup instructions
• Architecture diagrams
• Decision logs for major choices
• API documentation
• Runbooks for common operations

Investor Impact: 🟠 CONCERN FLAG - Poor documentation = team scaling risk

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-3 weeks

✓ Checklist 9: Dependencies & Technical Debt

What Investors Are Looking For:

Is this codebase maintainable long-term?

Critical Questions:

• Are dependencies up to date?
• Are you using maintained libraries?
• Is technical debt documented and prioritized?
• Are deprecated dependencies identified?
• Do you have a dependency update process?
• Are there known security vulnerabilities?
• Can you upgrade major framework versions?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Dependencies 3+ years old
• ❌ Using unmaintained libraries
• ❌ Critical security vulnerabilities in dependencies
• ❌ "We can't upgrade without breaking everything"
• ❌ Framework version is end-of-life

How to Check:

Run: npm audit or equivalent. If you see HIGH or CRITICAL vulnerabilities, you're exposed.

The Dependency Death Spiral:

• Don't update for 6 months → Update becomes harder
• Don't update for 12 months → Update becomes impossible
• Stuck on unsupported versions
• Can't hire developers
• Eventually forced into complete rewrite

Real Example:

Startup built on Angular 1. Reached end-of-life. Forced rewrite: $400K and 9 months. Could've been avoided with regular updates.

What Good Looks Like:

• Dependencies updated quarterly
• No critical vulnerabilities
• Using actively maintained libraries
• Clear technical debt backlog
• Regular "cleanup sprints"

Investor Impact: 🟠 CONCERN FLAG - Outdated dependencies = future rewrite risk

Estimated Time to Fix: Ongoing maintenance, 1 day/month

✓ Checklist 10: API Design & Integration

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can this system integrate with others and grow?

Critical Questions:

• Are APIs well-designed and documented?
• Is there proper versioning?
• Are rate limits implemented?
• Is there an API for partners/integrations?
• Are breaking changes handled gracefully?
• Is API performance monitored?
• Are webhooks reliable?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ No API documentation
• ❌ Breaking changes with no warning
• ❌ No versioning strategy
• ❌ Can't integrate with other tools
• ❌ APIs timing out regularly

How to Check:

Ask: "Show me the API documentation. How do partners integrate?" If there's no clear answer, scaling partnerships will be painful.

What This Limits:

• Can't build ecosystem
• Can't partner with enterprises
• Can't support integrations
• Mobile apps limited by API design
• Third-party developers can't build on platform

What Good Looks Like:

• RESTful or GraphQL API
• Clear documentation
• Versioning strategy
• Rate limiting
• Webhook reliability

Investor Impact: 🟢 NICE TO HAVE - Important for platform plays, less critical otherwise

Estimated Time to Fix: 3-6 weeks

✓ Checklist 11: Performance Optimization

What Investors Are Looking For:

Will users have a good experience at scale?

Critical Questions:

• Are page load times under 3 seconds?
• Are images optimized?
• Is there code splitting/lazy loading?
• Are database queries optimized?
• Is there caching at multiple layers?
• Are large files handled efficiently?
• Have you profiled performance bottlenecks?

How They Check:

Any Investor Can Do This:

1. Open your app on their phone
2. Count: "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi..."
3. If it takes more than 3 seconds, they're already concerned

What YOU Can Check (No Technical Skills Required):

The Mom Test: Give your app to someone who's never seen it. Watch them use it.

• Do they say "is it loading?"
• Do they click multiple times because nothing happened?
• Do they look confused waiting for something?

Simple Tools Anyone Can Use:

Google PageSpeed Insights:

1. Go to: pagespeed.web.dev
2. Enter your URL
3. Get a score 0-100

What the Scores Mean:

• 90-100: Excellent, investors won't question it
• 50-89: Okay, but could be better
• 0-49: Problem. Users are bouncing. Fix this.

The Reality Check:

Open your app next to your competitor's app. Which one feels faster? Be honest.

Questions for Your Team:

1. "How fast does our homepage load?" — Should know the number
2. "What's our slowest page and why?" — Should know this too
3. "Do we monitor page speed?" — Should have a dashboard

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Homepage takes 10+ seconds to load
• ❌ No performance monitoring
• ❌ Loading entire database into memory
• ❌ No caching anywhere
• ❌ "Performance is fine on my laptop"

Non-Technical Founder Action:

Run PageSpeed Insights yourself right now. If score is under 50, tell your team: "This is a priority."

The Conversion Killer:

• 1 second delay = 7% drop in conversions
• 3 second load = 40% of users bounce
• 10 second load = 90%+ bounce rate

Real Impact:

Startup before optimization: 8s load, 3% conversion. After optimization: 2s load, 8.5% conversion. Same traffic, 2.8x more customers.

What Good Looks Like:

• Page loads under 2 seconds
• Core Web Vitals all green
• CDN for static assets
• Database query optimization
• Regular performance reviews

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT - Slow app = poor UX = lower conversion = lower revenue

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-4 weeks

✓ Checklist 12: Code Repository & Version Control

What Investors Are Looking For:

Is development organized and professional?

Critical Questions:

• Are you using Git with proper branching?
• Are commits descriptive and atomic?
• Is there a code review process?
• Are secrets excluded from repo?
• Is commit history clean and meaningful?
• Are branches managed properly?
• Can you trace features to commits?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Commit messages: "fix", "update", "asdf"
• ❌ Secrets committed to repo
• ❌ No branching strategy
• ❌ No code reviews
• ❌ Giant commits with 50 file changes

How to Check:

Look at recent commits on GitHub. Are they professional or chaotic?

What Bad Version Control Signals:

• Amateur development practices
• No collaboration process
• Can't track down bugs
• Can't rollback safely
• Unprofessional team

What Good Looks Like:

• Clear branching strategy (gitflow, trunk-based)
• Descriptive commit messages
• Pull requests with reviews
• Protected main branch
• Clean history

Investor Impact: 🟢 NICE TO HAVE - Poor practices signal amateur team

Estimated Time to Fix: 1 week to establish process

✓ Checklist 13: Infrastructure & Hosting

What Investors Are Looking For:

Is the infrastructure reliable and cost-effective?

Critical Questions:

• Is infrastructure documented?
• Are you using modern cloud services?
• Is infrastructure as code (Terraform, etc.)?
• Are costs optimized?
• Is there auto-scaling?
• Are backups automated?
• Is there a disaster recovery plan?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Single server hosting everything
• ❌ No auto-scaling
• ❌ Hosting costs out of control
• ❌ Manual server management
• ❌ "We use Bob's AWS account"

How to Check:

Ask: "What's our monthly infrastructure cost and what happens if traffic doubles overnight?"

The Cost Trap:

Bad infrastructure choices cost 3-5x more than necessary.

Example: Startup A $15K/month unoptimized vs Startup B $4K/month optimized — $132K/year difference.

What Good Looks Like:

• Modern cloud provider (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Auto-scaling configured
• Infrastructure as code
• Cost monitoring and optimization
• Proper backup strategy

Investor Impact: 🟠 CONCERN FLAG - High burn + reliability risk

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-6 weeks

✓ Checklist 14: Mobile App Quality (If Applicable)

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can mobile scale independently?

Critical Questions:

• Is mobile app performant?
• Are crashes monitored and minimal?
• Is app store rating above 4.0?
• Are releases regular and stable?
• Is offline functionality working?
• Are both iOS and Android maintained?
• Is mobile code quality equal to web?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ App crashes frequently
• ❌ 1-3 star app store rating
• ❌ Reviews complain about bugs
• ❌ Mobile is clearly an afterthought
• ❌ No crash reporting

How to Check:

Look at app store reviews and ratings. Users are brutally honest there.

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT if mobile is core to business

Estimated Time to Fix: 4-8 weeks

✓ Checklist 15: Data Management & Analytics

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can you make data-driven decisions?

Critical Questions:

• Is analytics properly implemented?
• Can you track key metrics accurately?
• Is data warehouse/pipeline set up?
• Are reports automated?
• Can you answer business questions with data?
• Is user behavior tracked?
• Are funnels and conversion tracked?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ No analytics implementation
• ❌ Can't answer "what's our conversion rate?"
• ❌ Making decisions on gut feel
• ❌ Data in multiple disconnected places
• ❌ No idea what users actually do

How to Check:

Ask: "What's our activation rate? Show me the data." If they can't show you immediately, you're flying blind.

What This Costs:

• Can't optimize what you can't measure
• Don't know what's working
• Can't forecast accurately
• Investors see amateur operation

What Good Looks Like:

• Google Analytics/Mixpanel properly set up
• Key metrics dashboarded
• Funnel analysis available
• Can answer questions with data
• Regular data review process

Investor Impact: 🟡 VALUATION HIT - No data = no insight = higher risk

Estimated Time to Fix: 1-3 weeks

✓ Checklist 16: Third-Party Service Integration

What Investors Are Looking For:

Are integrations reliable and maintainable?

Critical Questions:

• Are third-party APIs properly abstracted?
• What happens if a service goes down?
• Are API keys rotated regularly?
• Are rate limits handled?
• Is there retry logic for failures?
• Are webhooks reliable?
• Do you have fallback plans?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Direct dependencies on flaky services
• ❌ No error handling when services fail
• ❌ App breaks if Stripe is down
• ❌ Hardcoded API calls everywhere
• ❌ No fallback strategies

How to Check:

Ask: "What happens if [critical service] goes down for an hour?"

What Good Looks Like:

• Services abstracted behind interfaces
• Graceful degradation
• Circuit breakers implemented
• Retry logic with exponential backoff
• Monitoring of third-party uptime

Investor Impact: 🟢 NICE TO HAVE - Important for reliability

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-4 weeks

✓ Checklist 17: Feature Flags & Experimentation

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can you experiment and iterate safely?

Critical Questions:

• Can you enable/disable features without deploying?
• Can you A/B test easily?
• Can you roll out features gradually?
• Can you kill features quickly if they fail?
• Is experimentation part of your process?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ Must deploy to test anything
• ❌ All-or-nothing feature releases
• ❌ Can't run experiments
• ❌ No way to kill bad features quickly

What This Enables:

• Safe rollouts to 5% of users first
• A/B testing for optimization
• Fast kill switches for problems
• Gradual migrations

Investor Impact: 🟢 NICE TO HAVE - Shows mature engineering

Estimated Time to Fix: 1-2 weeks

✓ Checklist 18: Team Collaboration & Workflow

What Investors Are Looking For:

Can this team scale and work efficiently?

Critical Questions:

• Is there a clear development workflow?
• Are roles and responsibilities defined?
• Is knowledge shared across team?
• Can work continue if one person is out?
• Are code reviews standard practice?
• Is there regular technical planning?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ One person knows everything
• ❌ No process for new features
• ❌ Work stops when key person is gone
• ❌ No collaboration practices

Investor Impact: 🟠 CONCERN FLAG - Can't scale team = can't scale company

Estimated Time to Fix: Ongoing cultural change

✓ Checklist 19: Compliance & Legal Requirements

What Investors Are Looking For:

Are you compliant with relevant regulations?

Critical Questions:

• Are you GDPR compliant (if serving EU)?
• Are you CCPA compliant (if serving CA)?
• Are you HIPAA compliant (if health data)?
• Are you SOC 2 compliant (if B2B)?
• Do you have proper terms of service?
• Do you have privacy policy?
• Can users export/delete their data?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ No privacy policy
• ❌ Violating GDPR/CCPA
• ❌ Can't delete user data
• ❌ No compliance documentation

Investor Impact: 🔴 DEAL KILLER if in regulated industry

Estimated Time to Fix: 2-8 weeks depending on requirements

✓ Checklist 20: Bus Factor & Knowledge Distribution

What Investors Are Looking For:

What happens if key people leave?

Critical Questions:

• Is knowledge documented?
• Can team members cover for each other?
• Are there single points of failure in knowledge?
• Can you onboard new developers quickly?
• Is tribal knowledge minimized?

Red Flags Investors See:

• ❌ "Only Sarah knows how deployment works"
• ❌ "Bob built this, nobody else understands it"
• ❌ Critical systems understood by one person
• ❌ Can't operate if one person leaves

The Bus Factor Test:

How many people need to leave before the project dies? If the answer is 1-2, investors see massive risk.

Investor Impact: 🔴 DEAL KILLER - Key person risk is unacceptable

Estimated Time to Fix: 4-8 weeks of knowledge transfer and documentation