D10X - A Technology Company for Startups

One key problem faced by Venture Capitalist and Angel investors goes like this. I/We have evaluated the business proposal and roadmap of this startup. It looks great. The concept is really promising. But how do we know that the technology developed is 'capable' of delivering the required Is the design/architecture/code ready for 'production' ? Will it scale as new users are added ? Is the development team capable of delivering the changes/features quickly while still maintaining the stability and quality ? If the startup is in-capable to deliver on the technology promise then we are wasting our money. A team that looks great on paper (or in power-point presentation) may turn out be really mediocre in delivering the results. A great business plan may not be backed by an equally good technology implementation and execution.  How to evaluate the technology capability (including the architecture, design, quality of source code, etc) and judge the probab

Last 25 years I have seen many customers asking for Fixed Cost project bids. However, I have not seen a single ‘successful’ fixed cost project. When I say, 'successful' I mean a project where customer and developer company, both, are proud and happy about that project.  I have not seen such a project. Main reason is ‘the concept of fixed cost’ results in perverse incentives to both customer and developer and invariably instead of ‘win-win’ the situation ends up ‘lose-lose’ with no possibility of recovery. This how a typical fixed cost project evolves from start to end. (If your experience has a consistently different outcome, I certainly like to know about it) Customer wants to get new software developed. He does not have an idea about what the total cost will be. Obviously, he wants to reduce/control his risk. He thinks that ‘fixed cost’ project will control his financial risk. He invites a ‘fixed cost bids’ to his project. Outsourcing companies know that fixed cost pro