Over the last two years, I've worked on 15+ due diligence projects on SaaS companies. The "audit" or "DD" process is on behalf of venture capital firms' pre-investment.
The truth is, 90% of them were calling out similar issues.
Here's the breakdown:
- Team Capabilities
- Value proposition, positioning, audience building and go-to-market
- Too little structure (playbooks) or too much structure
- Mis-aligned go-to-market plan
- Brand building
- Marketing channels, i.e. no details
Due Diligence tends to happen when you are seeking the next round of investment (i.e. I operate between £2m - £15m ARR). But now, intelligent CEOs are looking at audits pre-investment before moving into the discussions on funding.
Why is it essential every SaaS CEO should be doing due Diligence?
Here's why:
- Understand current gaps and blockers
- Validate your strategy is working and accurate
- Create clarity around value proposition and positioning
- Stop spending on the wrong things
- Speed up the growth plan
- Confident in solving problems in the business to your board
- You can't do everything or know everything. But it's helpful being told *exactly* what you need to do
Often this process can save you six-nine months.
Like magic, you'll wake up the following day (post-DD) with *absolute* clarity on how to solve challenges and the roadmap in your current phase to sustainable growth.