The Forensic Audit
A two- to three-week diagnostic of the systems and processes that run your operational backend. You get a graded scorecard, a prioritized roadmap, and a clear picture of what to fix first — yours regardless of what happens next.
Most founders book the audit for one of three reasons.
A raise is on the horizon and the backend hasn't been pressure-tested.
A specific operational problem has been festering and an outside read is overdue.
A VC, advisor, or operator already pointed at the gaps — now there's a question of where to start.
THREE WEEKS FROM NOW
You'll have a clear picture of what's actually broken — and what to do about it first.
The Scorecard in Your Hand Three weeks from now, you have a graded picture of your operational backend across four pillars. You can see at a glance which systems are running clean, which are limping, and which would not survive the first round of due diligence questions. You know which of your numbers you can show the work behind — and which ones you'd have to reconstruct by hand when an associate asks. You can name your Burn Multiple. You can defend it.
The Roadmap in Front of You You have a prioritized list of what to fix and in what order, with each item sized and scoped enough to make a real decision about. Not a wish list. A sequenced plan, calibrated to the runway and the timeline you actually have. You can act on it yourself, hand it to whoever you choose, or come back to us. The roadmap is yours either way.
WHAT THE AUDIT DELIVERS
The five deliverables.
Red/Yellow/Green grading across four pillars — Financial Rigor, Ops Scalability, Data Room Readiness, and GTM Infrastructure — benchmarked against the standards we've seen survive Series A due diligence. The Due Diligence Readiness Scorecard.
Twelve months of trailing financial data used to verify your Burn Multiple, analyze your runway, and assess CAC Payback against current VC expectations. Burn Multiple & Efficiency Analysis.
A trace of a single lead from first touchpoint to final invoice, mapping every manual handoff, every point where data is re-entered by hand, and every place where revenue information goes missing between systems.
Every recurring SaaS tool in your stack mapped visually. Redundant subscriptions identified. Broken data links documented. Where data flows between systems — and where it doesn't. The Tech Stack Architecture Map.
Clear recommendations organized by urgency and scope, mapped to the right next step — whether you work with us or take it elsewhere. The Prioritized Roadmap. The roadmap is yours regardless of what happens next.
WHAT WE EVALUATE
The four pillars.
We grade your operational backend across four pillars. Most founders are Red or Yellow on at least two of them. That's not a failing — it's the starting line.
Financial Rigor
Assess: Burn Multiple, CAC Payback, Gross Margin reporting, P&L structure and reporting flow, runway modeling.
Green: Clean Chart of Accounts. 18-month projections. Investor-ready financial package.
Ops Scalability
Assess: Bus Factor, tribal knowledge dependency, documented SOPs, async-readiness.
Green: No single point of failure. Core processes documented. New hires onboard from documentation alone.
Data Room Readiness
Assess: Document organization, contract indexing, IP assignment coverage, cap table accessibility.
Green: All due diligence documents indexed and retrievable within 24 hours.
GTM Infrastructure
Assess: CRM hygiene, pipeline tracking, lead-to-cash data flow, sales process repeatability.
Green: Deals follow a documented process. CRM data is clean and connected to reporting.
WHO IT'S FOR
The audit is for you if any of these landed.
You're 6–12 months from a raise and you're not yet sure the backend will hold up to the questions investors are going to ask.
You have a specific operational problem that's been costing you time, money, or sleep — and you want an objective read before you commit to a fix.
A VC, advisor, or operator told you to get your operations in order, and you need to know where to start and what to prioritize.
If the audit leads to a deeper engagement, the audit investment is applied toward that next step. If it doesn't, the roadmap is yours to execute on your own or with whoever you choose.
HOW IT WORKS
What you actually do.
You give us access.
Read-only access to your financial tools, CRM, project management platform, and document storage. We provide a specific access checklist before we start. We never modify live systems during the audit. About 30 minutes if you're handing the access setup to someone internal; longer if you're running it yourself.
You go back to building.
For the next two to three weeks, the audit runs in the background. No status calls. No standing meetings. If we need clarification, we batch our questions rather than pinging ad-hoc throughout the engagement. Otherwise you don't hear from us until the walkthrough.
You get the roadmap.
At the end of the audit, we deliver the Due Diligence Readiness Scorecard and Prioritized Roadmap in a recorded walkthrough. About 45 minutes. You ask questions. You decide what happens next.
You give us access.
Read-only access to your financial tools, CRM, project management platform, and document storage. We provide a specific access checklist before we start. We never modify live systems during the audit. About 30 minutes if you're handing the access setup to someone internal; longer if you're running it yourself.
You go back to building.
For the next two to three weeks, the audit runs in the background. No status calls. No standing meetings. If we need clarification, we batch our questions rather than pinging ad-hoc throughout the engagement. Otherwise you don't hear from us until the walkthrough.
You get the roadmap.
At the end of the audit, we deliver the Due Diligence Readiness Scorecard and Prioritized Roadmap in a recorded walkthrough. About 45 minutes. You ask questions. You decide what happens next.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING THE AUDIT
What we actually do.
While you go back to building, the audit runs four parallel workstreams. Each one produces a specific input to the Scorecard and Roadmap.
Financial Analysis
We use 12 months of trailing financial data to verify your Burn Multiple, analyze your runway trajectory, and assess CAC Payback against current VC expectations.
→ Produces: the Burn Multiple & Efficiency Analysis.
Lead-to-Cash Trace
We trace a single lead from first touchpoint to final invoice — mapping every manual handoff, every point where data is re-entered by hand, and every place where revenue information goes missing between systems.
→ Produces: the lead-to-cash trace finding in the Roadmap.
Tech Stack Mapping
We map every recurring SaaS tool in your stack, identify redundant subscriptions, and document where data flows between systems — and where it doesn't.
→ Produces: the Tech Stack Architecture Map.
Series A Benchmarking
We benchmark your operational backend against the standards we've seen survive Series A due diligence across multiple rounds — and grade you Red, Yellow, or Green on each of the four pillars.
→ Produces: the Due Diligence Readiness Scorecard.
WHAT FOUNDERS ASK
The questions worth asking before you book.
"What if I already know what's broken?"
Most founders have a strong sense of the biggest problem. The audit usually confirms it — and surfaces two or three adjacent issues that were quietly contributing to the same outcome. If you're certain about the scope and don't want the diagnostic, we can scope a targeted build directly. If you want the full picture before committing to a fix, the audit is the cleaner path.
"What if the findings are worse than I think?"
That's a reasonable thing to expect. Most founders are Red or Yellow on at least two of the four pillars — usually because the systems were built fast under different conditions, not because of anything done wrong. The Scorecard names what it names. The Roadmap sequences the response by urgency and scope. You leave the walkthrough with a clear picture of where you stand and what to do first, not a list of failures.
"What if I can't act on the roadmap right away?"
The roadmap is yours to use on your own timeline. Some founders execute the top-priority items themselves and revisit the rest later. Some hand the roadmap to an internal hire or an existing operator. Some come back to us in three months when the budget or the timing is right. The roadmap doesn't expire — and it doesn't lock you into a next step.
"How much access do you actually need, and what are you going to see?"
Read-only access to your financial tools, CRM, project management platform, and document storage. We provide a specific access checklist before the engagement starts. We never modify live systems during the audit. We see what the systems show us — we don't pull anything outside the operational scope, and we don't share findings outside the engagement. The walkthrough at the end is a recorded session for you and whoever you choose to include. This is an audit of your operational systems and data flows — not of your financial statements or legal instruments.
"I had the product and vision, but no idea how to build the business around it. Permits, trademarks, finances, packaging — it was all foreign to me. Mike walked me through every step and helped me think through strategy when I was running out of bandwidth. I went from overwhelmed to launched."
— B.D., Founder
BOOK YOUR AUDIT
"I was stretched thin — finalizing a pivot, pitching a bridge round, and running the day-to-day all at once. Mike came in, took real work off my plate, and helped me think through the strategy and the numbers. The bridge closed. I wanted to hire him full-time."
— Josh W., Founder & CEO
Tell us where to look first.
Book your Forensic Audit.
Tell us a bit about your company and what's going on. We'll follow up within 48 hours with the access checklist and a confirmation of next steps.
We expect the mess. We've seen it all before.
Not ready to book?
Take the Diagnostic Scorecard for a quick self-assessment — at no cost.