A lot of tech due diligence is obsessed with what’s broken — but what if we paid more attention to what’s working?
When we look at companies that scale smoothly — double the team, launch new products, enter new markets without burning out — we tend to see the same patterns. They’re not always flashy. But they’re foundational.
Here are the three green flags I look for when assessing if a company is really built to grow.
1. The Team Has the Three C’s: Communication, Consistency, and Care
Forget the hype. What separates great tech teams from average ones isn’t just raw talent — it’s how they work together when things get hard.
- Communication: Everyone knows what’s going on. Engineers can explain why they’re doing something, not just what they’re building. There’s clarity, not chaos.
- Consistency: They show up the same way every sprint, every project. It’s reliable progress, not hero moments.
- Care: They give a shit. About the product. About each other. About the customer. And that shows up in everything — from code reviews to roadmap debates.
Teams like this scale because they don’t burn out, and they don’t fall apart when things get messy.
2. The Tech Has Been Designed to Scale
This builds on the last observation: people need to care, usually quite early in the product’s conception.
You can spot it pretty quickly: the platform isn’t held together by duct tape. It’s been designed with growth in mind.
- Environments are easy to spin up
- The architecture supports parallel development
- It’s easy to hire into, onboard fast, and make changes without fear
This doesn’t mean it’s perfect. But it means the foundations are solid. The system isn’t a bottleneck — it’s a springboard.
If adding users, products, or team members starts to slow the company down, then scale turns into slog. The best platforms invite growth. They don’t fight it.
3. Management are Comfortable Sharing Problems — and Solving Them Together
This is the quiet superpower of scale-ready teams. You hear things like:
“We’re struggling with X, and here’s what we’re trying.”
“Can someone help me pressure-test this idea?”
“We don’t have a clear owner for that — let’s fix it.”
There’s psychological safety and shared accountability. People raise issues early — not after they’ve exploded. They’re not covering up, they’re fixing forward.
This matters more than most investors realise. Because scaling isn’t just a technical challenge — it’s emotional. Teams that trust each other move faster, adapt quicker, and build stronger systems.
Scaling is tough.
Great teams don’t just handle scale — they invite it.
If you’re looking at a product, platform or company and wondering, “Can this actually grow?” — check for these:
- Strong communication, consistency, and care
- Tech that’s built with scaling in mind
- A culture where problems are shared, not hidden
If all three are in place, there’s usually something special happening.
Want help spotting these signals in a deal, or strengthening them in your portfolio?
That’s exactly what we do — clear, fast, growth-biased Tech DD.
