One of the common outcomes from Technology Due Diligence is this: the business is solid, but the tech isn’t. The product is selling, customers are happy, and the market is there — but under the hood, the platform needs rebuilding.
This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, investors usually aren’t alarmed. They know one of the biggest value-adds they bring is governance and funding — the ability to reshape tech foundations so growth can scale safely.
So, when is an expensive SaaS re-platform actually worth it?
Good Reasons to Re-Platform
- The tech stack is too old
Think Martech platforms still running on VB.NET. At some point, the cost of finding engineers and plugging gaps outweighs the cost of modernisation. - The tech stack doesn’t meet the business needs
Maybe workflows are stitched together with duct tape, limiting product development speed. Every new feature is a six-month project. - The tech stack cannot scale
A system fine at 1,000 users collapses at 100,000. Investors see growth bottlenecked by architecture. - Compliance or security risk is unmanageable
If regulatory exposure is high and the system can’t be hardened, it’s not just a tech problem — it’s a business liability.
Bad Reasons to Re-Platform
- Customers are happy (low churn)
If the platform is ugly but sticky, replacing it for aesthetics or “modernity” is wasted money. - Shiny new tools
“We need Kubernetes!” is not a business case. Neither is “everyone’s on microservices now.” - Chasing architectural fashion
Moving from monolith to microservices without a business driver just creates complexity.
The Trap: Soulless Tech Projects
A pattern we see too often is teams presenting expensive platform projects that are all tech justification and zero business benefit. These are soulless rebuilds — impressive on a whiteboard, minimal in market uplift.
Remember: banks run on COBOL, one of the oldest programming languages around, and those systems work perfectly well. They’re not going anywhere because they deliver business value.
The Business Lens
The decision is simple:
- If the market is large and demand is high, the cost of a re-platform is nothing in comparison. Growth will pay it back.
- If the market is flat or churn is low, the cost is a distraction. The platform might be ugly but it’s good enough.
Tech is never the reason to re-platform. Business outcomes are.
