First-Time Acquirers
Your first acquisition.
Plan for what comes next.
Your first acquisition should help your company grow. We examine the target’s technology and team to explain what you are buying, where the risks sit, whether it can support your plans, and what it will take to bring the businesses together.
Before your first acquisition
Risk, growth and integration
People and continuity
Who holds the knowledge, and what happens if they leave?
Capacity for growth
Can the platform and team support what you want to achieve?
Integration readiness
What needs to connect, what should stay independent, and what work comes first?
Your first acquisition checklist
Understand the risks. Plan for the opportunity.
How dependent is it on a few people?
A business can look stable while depending on a founder or a handful of engineers. We examine knowledge concentration, documentation and operational responsibilities to understand what could disrupt delivery or customer service after the acquisition.
Can the technology support the growth plan?
More customers, larger workloads or a broader product offering can expose limits that are invisible today. We assess architecture, reliability and delivery capacity against your plans, identifying where investment may be needed and what could constrain growth.
What will integration really take?
Connecting data, identity and infrastructure competes with the roadmap your team already owns. We examine technical fit, dependencies and specialist skills so you can plan the budget and sequence while protecting customer continuity.
Which shortcuts matter, and which don’t?
Lean teams make trade-offs. Some are good decisions for their stage and resources. Drawing on hundreds of deals, we distinguish sensible compromises from issues that threaten reliability, growth or future cost, so you can preserve what works and invest where it matters.
What happens next
Start with the growth plan. Leave with clearer priorities.
01 / Get your bearings
Tell us why you are acquiring the business, how it needs to fit with yours and where your team needs help. We agree a scope, timeline and fee before the review begins.
02 / Understand the tech
We review the target’s code, architecture and team against your acquisition goals. Key-person dependencies, scalability and integration fit all inform the picture. Material findings shared as they emerge.
03 / Plan the next steps
You get a plain-language executive summary and detailed findings explaining risks, investment needs and integration priorities. Use them to inform the deal decision and the post-close plan.
Plain answers
The questions everyone asks first
What does it cost?
How long does it take?
What happens if you find problems?
What do we get at the end?
Will this slow the deal down or annoy the seller?
How is this different from having our own engineers look?
How many deals fall apart in diligence?
What clients say
“Tech DNA is very technically deep, but they do it in a way that doesn’t overcompensate for people that are not as technically deep. They bridge that gap between what engineers say and executives need to hear.”
M&A Director · Fortune 50 acquirer
Start with a conversation
Make your first acquisition a stronger start.
Tell us what the acquisition needs to achieve and what you most need to understand about the target. We’ll help you frame the technical questions before closing.