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PE/VC9 min read

VC Technology Assessment: Beyond the Demo

What VCs should actually evaluate when assessing a startup's technology.

By Richard Ewing·

Beyond the Demo

What the demo shows: it works. What it hides: how well it scales, what breaks under load, how much it costs per user, how dependent it is on specific people.

Key assessment areas: Architecture scalability (can this handle 100x users?), Team bus factor (who can't leave?), AI unit economics (is the AI feature profitable?), Dependency risk (single vendor lock-in?), Testing maturity (what happens when something breaks?).

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Published Work

This article expands on ideas from my published work in CIO.com, Built In, Mind the Product, and HackerNoon. View published articles →

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Richard Ewing

The Product Economist — Quantifying engineering economics for technology leaders, PE firms, and boards.