You may be considering making an investment in a startup that claims to use machine learning/AI and would like an impartial assessment of their technology.
We can perform an evaluation of a company’s technology stack. This should be done in tandem with a traditional due diligence exercise.
You can download our AI due diligence checklist.
Some of the points we will look at include:
- is the product a real product and capable of being sold as is, or just a demo?
- how viable and scalable is the technology long term?
- where will the data for the AI come from? If from users, then does the product suffer from the cold start problem?
- can the product scale in the real world?
- how reproducible is the product?
- how sustainable are the development workflows?
- are code and models documented and under version control?
- are the founders’ credentials and experience valid and as claimed?
- how robust is the organisational structure, does the company have a low bus factor?
- how is the technology licensed?
- how will costs scale as the operation scales?
- if we are talking about a healthcare or medical device, is the product likely to need licensing?
- how reproducible is the technology, irrespective of patents and legal protection?
- what are the future risks from a technology perspective?