SOP #59 — Technical Due Diligence That Repriced a SaaS $80k

SOP #59 — Technical Due Diligence That Repriced a SaaS $80k

$420k micro-SaaS, $14k MRR (monthly recurring revenue). The code is the asset. We audited it before offering:

1. Get read access to the repo — check commit history, last meaningful update, dependency age.
2. Flag end-of-life dependencies — list anything unsupported or insecure. Result: payment library was a deprecated version, two majors behind.
3. Test the deploy — have the seller deploy a fresh instance from the repo while you watch. Result: it failed twice; build steps were undocumented and in the seller's head.
4. Estimate the cost to make it maintainable — get a developer quote.

Outcome: a contractor quoted $80k to modernize the stack and document the undeployable build. We deducted that from the offer — $420k to $340k. Hidden technical debt is a real liability you pay for after close.

Save this — run it every deal.