Boards and investors
You oversee a pre-seed or Series A company on the way to Series B. The fundraise, transaction or rebuild needs a senior technical opinion before you commit. Simon advises your board or investors without taking an operating role.
UK · Simon Piscitelli, technology directorBook the exploratory call
Technical adviser to boards and investors.
You sit on a board or invest in a company. A fundraise, a transaction or a rebuild is on the table. You need technical due diligence before the money moves.
Simon gives you a senior technical read on the software, team and roadmap. No operating role. The senior opinion before you commit.
Who it is for
You need a read before a decision.
Larger companies with a CTO
Your CTO wants an independent read before a decision. Simon brings a senior view of the software, team and roadmap, with the risks and the recommendation in terms your board can judge.
What the adviser gives
The senior opinion before the money moves.
Simon reads your codebase, team and roadmap and gives the board a recommendation on the decision in front of it.
- The decision before the money moves
- Is this codebase fundable? Is the rebuild quote right? Is the team delivering? What should the next hire be? You get a senior technical recommendation in business terms: cost, speed, risk and growth.
- Technical due diligence
- A rebuild, a vendor decision or an acquisition. Simon reads the software, team and roadmap behind the proposal and names the risks before you commit.
- A standing adviser on the roster
- The questions do not all arrive with a date. Keep a senior technical adviser on the roster for the decisions ahead, without an operating role.
How it starts
Three steps. The first one is free.
Every engagement starts the same way, whatever mode it ends up needing. You always know what the next step is, how long it takes, and what you walk away with.
- 01
The exploratory call
Free. Thirty minutes.
No slides, no pitch. One question: is the Technical/Strategic Review the right next step for the decision in front of you. When it is not, you hear that on the call.
- 02
The Technical/Strategic Review
Two weeks. Fixed fee, agreed on the call.
One senior technology director inside your codebase, team and roadmap, then a written verdict you own outright. It is useful if you never speak to PIMASI again.
- The verdict: the decision the board brought, answered plainly with a recommendation.
- The state of the engineering function: what the code, team and delivery mean for cost, speed and risk.
- The risk register: what is most likely to hurt the business, ranked by cost, with mitigations.
- The 90-day plan: what to do next, in sequence, sized, whoever executes it.
- The mode call: the leadership needed, whose engineers do the work, and how much of Simon's time it needs, for how long.
- 03
The engagement
In the mode the Review named. The Review's fee is credited against it.
A proposal that opens on the Review's findings, not a cold document: advise the board, hold the CTO or CPO seat, stand up the department, or write the code. When the Review says you do not need PIMASI yet, that is the answer you get.
Proof
Proof, no client named.
A standing technical adviser
Simon holds a standing technical-adviser seat with a UK software company.
The judgement behind a turnaround
A 27-engineer project about a year behind schedule. Simon took charge as interim engineering director. Inside four months it shipped on the date the business had set.
A product the founder could demo again
A founder who went from avoiding his codebase to demoing it to customers, in under two months. Simon fixed the engine with the founder's team.
Not a fit
When you need someone to own the work.
If you need an operating leader to own the roadmap, the hiring and the build team, see the fractional CTO and CPO page.
Equity-only advisory is not a fit for PIMASI.
Questions we get asked
Frequently asked
What does a technical adviser do that a NED does not?
A NED holds a director's duties across the whole business. A technical adviser reads one part of it in depth: your codebase, team and roadmap. The board gets a written recommendation on the decision in front of it.
How does technical due diligence differ from an audit?
An audit lists what is wrong with the code. The Review answers the question your board brought: is this codebase fundable, is the rebuild quote right, is the team delivering. You get a recommendation, the evidence behind it and a 90-day plan, in business terms.
What does a board or investor get without an operating role?
A senior technical opinion before the money moves: a fundraise, a transaction or a rebuild on the table. The adviser role is built for pre-seed and Series A companies on the way to Series B.
What does the board keep?
The written Review and the working notes behind it belong to you. The five parts are the verdict on the decision you brought, the state of the function, the risk register, the 90-day plan and the mode call. You keep them whether or not you engage PIMASI. If the right answer is that you do not need PIMASI, the Review says so.
How fast do we get the verdict?
The first step is a free thirty-minute call. The Technical/Strategic Review takes two weeks from access to the walkthrough of your written verdict. Bring the decision and its deadline to the call. The fixed fee is agreed on the call and credited against the engagement that follows.
Does Simon then take the CTO or CPO seat?
Only if the board asks and the Review says it fits. The adviser role has no operating responsibility. If you need Simon to hold the fractional CTO or CPO seat, the engagement follows the Review's findings.
Bring the decision before the money moves.
A free thirty-minute call with Simon. Bring the board's decision and its deadline. We decide whether the two-week Technical/Strategic Review is the right next step.