Why tech shouldn’t be ignored on a deal

Most acquisitions lump tech in to operations, even if the deal is on a tech-enabled business. What this strategy misses is that tech can be an existential risk to a business. Software never shows up as a financial risk in standard diligence, and it’s assumed it can be easy to clean up post-close. Modern tech stacks, even for physical service businesses, have nuances and challenges that you wouldn’t want to take on as a new owner. Even considering the strides you could make with AI. A few questions I’d ask on the tech stack (or lack thereof) on any business: - Does everything go to a centralized software, or does it all live in a bunch of excels? - Are software licenses actually transferable to the new owner? - Is there any software being used that’s no longer supported? - Have recurring tech costs been inventoried? - Can the current tech stack scale with revenue or is it already a bottleneck? These sound basic because they’re considered easy to clean up, but I’ve seen each of these become real headaches post-close. I put together a scorecard that gives you a real high level read on the business and what you need to prioritize post-close. Link is in the comments (it asks for your email to send recommendations to, and I promise you will not be added to a spammy newsletter by entering it).