For Technology Leaders

Start a new technology leadership role

As a new CIO, CTO, or IT Manager, you’re expected to deliver results immediately. StackUp gives you a comprehensive understanding of your entire technology function in hours, not weeks - helping you hit the ground running and prove your value from day one.
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30-minute assessment to uncover hidden risks and opportunities
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Deliver a professional, comprehensive, unbiased report in under 24 hours
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Build trust with your team, CEO & board with clear insights
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Making a great first impression isn’t easy

A man rests his head on his desk, appearing fatigued due to failure of CIO/CTO and IT department

So many disciplines to understand

Understanding the technology function including legacy systems, unidentified weaknesses, shadow IT and inefficiencies usually takes weeks of exploratory meetings. And that’s just the start – you then need to get the rest of the C-suite or board aligned with that understanding.

Building trust with a team and evaluating their skills

You want to establish credibility with a team who may be sceptical about new leadership, and evaluate whether they have the skills to achieve what the business needs.

Urgent issues and fire fighting

Discovering and addressing urgent problems - or worse, failing to uncover them - while also ensuring long-term solutions can be overwhelming, especially when you are still getting to know the organisation.

Proving value with early wins

How do you objectively demonstrate the value you’ve provided, particularly with critical items that may not be visible to the rest of the business.

Without StackUp

Traditional technology leadership onboarding:
Slow, biased and expensive
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Go it alone

Asking questions solely based on your own experience can lack independence, take weeks, and potentially overlook critical risks. For example, if your expertise is in security, you might lack depth in software development, or if you specialise in vendor management, you might not have strong insights into staff training. This approach can waste valuable time that could be better spent focusing on and improving the areas that truly need attention.
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Hire a consultant

High calibre consultants are hard to find, rarely available and expensive. Once engaged, they’ll still typically take weeks to produce a report, which can be inconsistent and biased to sell services.
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Assuming ISO or SOC2 means ‘healthy’

Whilst these are useful standards, compliance does not always reflect the underlying health of the technology function. 

How StackUp helps you succeed

Fast effective technology leadership onboarding: Make a great first impression and hit the ground running.
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Get a clear, unbiased view of your technology foundation in hours, not weeks

StackUp’s comprehensive assessment takes less than 30 minutes so you’re not wasting weeks getting across the fundamentals, freeing up your valuable time to drive improvement.
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Don’t let areas you don’t have deep experience in hold you back

Most technology leaders are stronger in some areas than others (eg a leader from a software development background may be great at innovation, but not networking or risk management, another may be great at security, but not vendor management or staff & training). StackUp helps address this, as its 50 specific questions and algorithm are comprehensive and cover the entirety of the technology function including:
  • Data Security & Privacy
  • Innovation & Strategy
  • Staff & Training
  • Technology Performance
  • Cloud & Network
  • Risk Management
  • Policies & Procedures
  • Vendor Management
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Identify immediate opportunities for improvement

The report identifies hidden dangers the organisation was not previously aware of and opportunities for improvement including cyber risks, cost savings and innovation improvements. It also helps prioritise these issues.
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Impress and educate your stakeholders, creating aligned understanding

Impress your stakeholders with a comprehensive report available within 24 hours. The report can be distributed to your CEO, board or investors to create an aligned understanding of the entire technology function – an agreed understanding of the facts, enabling informed decisions.

This aligned understanding makes it easy to justify budget for investment in your (and your teams) learning and professional growth.
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Prove your value over time

The StackUp score can be used to track the impact you’re having over time, and is a useful inclusion in board reports and performance reviews. Overall, StackUp enables you to make a great first impression, to focus your time and attention on the right areas, and to prove the impact you’re having over time.

Get started free, in under 10 minutes

You don’t need to prepare anything, just answer the questions based on your current understanding. You’ll be emailed your personalised free report and a sample of the comprehensive StackUp report.

It's fast, free and confidential.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the challenges of starting a new role – we’ve got your back.
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Case studies

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Telecommunications Organisation

Identified 5 critical issues, and 15 improvements they added directly into their roadmap within 24 hours.
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Cybersecurity Organisation

Identified 2 critical issues, and saved over $20,000 annually.
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Hospitality Organisation

Identified 3 cyber security risks that could have broken the business.
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SaaS Organisation

Prepared for seamless technology due diligence in advance of acquisition.
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Non-Profit

A budget-conscious non-profit needed to maximise technology investments. A fractional CTO sought a clear tech assessment to drive smart decisions.
Read more
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Banking and Financial Services

The incoming CTO faced a blank slate, with no existing documentation in place, requiring a full discovery of the organisation’s current technology landscape.
Read more

What our clients are saying

The insights and recommendations on where our technology needed improvement were so clear & useful we fed them directly into our backlog for actioning.
Andrew Smith, CTO at Launtel

Andrew Smith

CTO @ Launtel

StackUp helped us identify critical risks in our tech infrastructure, including future obstacles to scaling. They provided clear priorities to mitigate those risks - essential in securing our technology and ensuring we’re prepared for growth and corporate engagements.
Image of Dhruv Jolly, Founder and CEO at TapOnn

Dhruv Jolly

Founder & CEO @ TapOnn

A really helpful product to give context to CEOs, CTOs and Founders to validate where they are up to and where they can improve.
Mark Lynch

Mark Lynch

CTO & Founder @ Learnosity

StackUp provided us with invaluable insights helping us to identify opportunities for improvement. The recommendations in the report along with the insights and verification service have been a game changer for driving our tech strategy forward.
Image of Cody Harmon, Founder and CEO of Cruz

Cody Harmon

Founder & CEO @ Cruz

You don’t know what you don’t know even when you are the best in your game, StackUp's assessment unveiled crucial blind spots and areas for enhancement. The report's clarity and depth provided us with valuable, actionable insights for continuous improvement
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Ajay Unni

Founder & CEO @ StickmanCyber

We're a scaleup focused on rapid innovation and feature development. StackUp helped us find opportunities to make our offering more robust without sacrificing speed.
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Rafael Niesten

Co-Founder @ Proptech Labs

Preparing for our next fundraise, StackUp's report identified critical areas for improvement and independent validation of our strengths. The insights and verification service provided tailored advice to revise our strategy and enabled us to approach future investment discussions with confidence. Strongly recommend these guys.
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David Hayes

CEO @ Babeltext

The StackUp assessment is comprehensive and fast. It provided insights enabling us to uplift our technology quickly.
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Justus Hammer

Co-Founder & CEO @ Mad Paws

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You're in good company

FAQs

What makes StackUp different?

StackUp provides a comprehensive evaluation of all aspects of technology and technology function processes, including strategy, employee engagement, service delivery, and innovation—not just security and compliance.

Our platform provides human-led, actionable insights, and supports informed decision making at every level, from Technology Leaders, to C-Level Executive to Board Members and Investors.

What if my technology leader makes a mistake on the assessment or doesn't know all the answers?

The assessment is designed to support accurate submissions regardless of knowledge level with "Don't Know" options ensuring no one feels pressured to guess.

This gap in knowledge being identified is valuable - a gap in knowledge which can be addressed through our insights and recommendations.

Who can benefit from using StackUp?

Technology leaders, C-level executives, board members and venture capital and private equity investors from companies of all sizes will find value in StackUp. It’s especially beneficial for those looking to identify areas for improvement, justify budget requests, and enhance overall technology performance.

How secure is our data with StackUp?

We employ robust security measures to ensure that all user data is encrypted, securely stored, and only accessible by authorised personnel. For any comparative purposes, all data is aggregated and anonymised to protect your privacy and confidentiality.

What is the StackUp Certification?

The StackUp Certification is a badge that organisations can earn by using our platform and achieving a level of excellence.

This certification can be shared publicly to attract investors, customers, and employees. It showcases your commitment to technical excellence and leadership in your industry.

How does it work?

StackUp asks your technology leader 50 carefully selected questions from a pool of over 500 technology due diligence questions. These are presented in a specific order to ensure objective, comprehensive insights.


The responses are analysed through our scoring algorithm to produce a detailed report, which includes:


- A risk profile
- An overall rating of your technology function's health
- A score
- Prioritised recommendations for improvement
- Celebrations of areas where your organisation excels


This report can be shared with C-level executives, the board, investors, or potential customers to build trust and confidence.


Achieving a score of 80 or higher earns your organisation a StackUp Certification, which you can use to publicly showcase your excellence.

You can resubmit at any time to monitor progress and track improvements.

This seems too good to be true—how do you assess our technology function in just 30 minutes?

The StackUp assessment is built on 30 years of experience in technology, including 20 years in CIO and CTO roles.

This extensive expertise has been distilled into 50 carefully curated questions, designed to be completed by your technology leader in under 30 minutes.

While the assessment itself is quick, it reflects decades of experience and insights that make it both impactful and efficient.

The questions are objective and include a "Don't know" option for any unknowns, helping to identify areas where improvement is needed. In a high-performing technology function, a leader should be able to answer these questions confidently.

Once gaps are identified, your technology leader can take actionable steps and return to re-submit the assessment at any time to track progress and improvements.

Will StackUp's assessment identify a bunch of problems that are going to cost a fortune and take ages to fix?

StackUp's assessment will identify any gaps in the fundamental technology health of your organisation.

However, most of these problems are relatively fast and cost effective to fix, and have an enormously positive impacts on the organisation: risk reduction, cost reduction, efficiency improvements, security improvements etc.

The StackUp algorithm provides a prioritised list of items to improve so you don't have to boil the ocean - tackle one high priority item at a time and resubmit to track your improvement. You can do this internally, or leverage our independent network of specialist suppliers.

The assessment is balanced - so it also highlights areas that are performing well and that should be celebrated.

How does StackUp relate to SOC 2, ISO, and other certifications and frameworks?

StackUp complements frameworks like SOC 2 and ISO by providing a broader perspective on technology maturity.

While certifications focus on meeting compliance and security standards, StackUp bridges the gap between compliance and excellence.

It helps organisations prepare for certifications by identifying areas that need improvement and offering actionable recommendations, making the certification process smoother and more efficient.

For certified organisations, StackUp delivers additional value through benchmarking, tailored insights, and practical guidance aligned with business goals.

By fostering continuous improvement, innovation, and scalability, StackUp enhances the value of certifications and aligns technology capabilities with broader business objectives.

While it does not replace formal certifications, it strengthens the foundation for achieving and maintaining them.

Why should I use StackUp if my technology function is already performing well or if I am already addressing a few known issues?

Even if your technology function is performing well or you are actively working on a few known issues, StackUp helps you verify and showcase your excellence. By benchmarking against industry best practices and peers, you can uncover hidden strengths, validate your strategies, and gain certification that highlights your leadership.

StackUp also identifies 'unknown unknowns'—potential risks or opportunities you may not have considered—ensuring you stay ahead of the competition and continuously improve. Every technology leader is on a journey of improvement. While you may excel in areas like software development or cloud infrastructure, there may be gaps in others, such as data privacy or training. StackUp provides a holistic view of your entire technology function, enabling informed decisions and giving you the credit you deserve for your progress and performance.

Does the StackUp platform perform source code reviews?

No. StackUp is focused on technology foundations including strategy, and operational excellence, governance and risk management, not line-by-line code quality.

Our assessments help decision makers: C-Level Executives, Board Members, Technology Leaders and Investors identify and mitigate strategic, operational and security risks - the areas that cause real business pain. 

Most code reviews are subjective and depend on specific languages/frameworks and developer opinions (and code quality is not particularly helpful if the strategy is flawed). StackUp is fiercely platform independent, helping leaders make objective, high level technology decisions that drive results. 

If you require a code review, our community of independent service providers can assist - contact us and we'd be happy to connect you with a trusted specialist in your language.

Will the StackUp platform review my tech stack?

No. StackUp focuses on technology governance, risk management and operational resilience, not evaluating specific programming languages, frameworks or tools. While the tech stack matters, it's rarely the root cause of major technology failures - poor leadership, security gaps, vendor lock-in and lack of risk management are. 

There's no universal "best tech stack" as the right choice depends on your business goals, scalability and security needs, team and hiring ability etc. Instead of saying "Use this stack" StackUp ensures your decision making process is solid so whatever stack you choose services your business effectively. 

Choosing the right tools is a tactical decision - StackUp helps you ensure your technology governance, risk management and operational strategy set you up for long term success.

Is StackUp just for assessing technology companies or can it be used on any company?

While technology companies benefit from StackUp, our platform is valuable for any organisation that uses technology to operate, innovate, or serve customers (so most companies, not just 'technology companies'.

StackUp helps CEOs, Boards, Technology Leaders and Investors across all industries assess their technology foundations, identify risks, and prioritise improvements—whether you’re in finance, healthcare, retail, education, or any other sector.

If technology is important to your business, StackUp can help you strengthen it.

Still have questions?