Securing investment or completing an acquisition is never the finish line. It marks the beginning of a critical execution phase.
In practice, many companies experience significant challenges in the months following a deal: missed delivery deadlines, overstretched engineering teams and rising employee turnover. Maintaining momentum requires flexibility.
In an opinion piece published by Maddyness, Xavier Lernould, CEO of Novity, explores practical ways to structure software delivery and maintain operational continuity during these pivotal stages of growth.
The Illusion of Closing: The Reality of the Tech Market in 2026
Venture Capital Investors Are Raising Their Expectations
The days when companies could secure funding based solely on promising concepts or experimental prototypes are over.
Today, investors and acquirers increasingly prioritise measurable performance, established products and clearly defined markets.
Robust software architecture has become a critical consideration.
Investors provide financial backing and open doors to strategic opportunities.
However, the responsibility for building, delivering and maintaining a sustainable product remains firmly with the engineering teams.
For technology leaders, this means demonstrating that their organisation can turn financial investment into reliable, scalable software.
The Risks of Rapid Permanent Recruitment
Faced with commitments made to the board, the immediate response is often to expand the internal engineering team.
However, rapidly increasing fixed payroll costs can put pressure on a company's financial runway.
There are alternatives.
A flexible staffing model, supported by technology and product engineering partners, allows companies to adjust their capacity according to the demands of each growth phase.
Whether the priority is a platform migration, a major product release, international expansion or new regulatory requirements, engineering resources can be adapted without permanently increasing the organisation's fixed cost base.
Delivery Gaps and Team Fatigue: Common Post-Funding Challenges
After ten years as CTO of software companies and more than seven years supporting French technology businesses, Xavier Lernould has repeatedly observed a growing gap between product ambitions, actual engineering capacity and team wellbeing.
Xavier Lernould's perspective from the field:
« Six, twelve or eighteen months after closing, teams risk becoming overstretched. Expecting the original team to absorb accelerated product development on its own leads to delays and painful scaling challenges. Losing the engagement of key talent comes at the highest cost to your organisation's product knowledge.»
The challenge is not simply to deliver more features. It is to maintain engineering quality, preserve institutional knowledge and ensure that teams can sustain the pace of development.
Planning Engineering Capacity Around Strategic Hiring Windows
To avoid these bottlenecks, CTOs can use key periods throughout the year to anticipate resource requirements and bring in the right expertise.
- January — The start of the year: An opportunity to launch priority initiatives and establish the engineering capacity required for the first quarter.
- June to August — The summer period: A chance to reduce backlog pressure and bring the product roadmap back on track while much of the wider business ecosystem slows down.
- September — The return to business: A strategic opportunity to strengthen engineering teams and secure delivery against annual objectives during the final quarter.
Anticipating these periods helps technology leaders avoid reactive recruitment decisions and maintain greater control over delivery schedules.
Need to accelerate your technology project?
Discover how Novity's tech, product and data engineering model supports post-acquisition growth and delivery commitments following a funding round
→ Explore Novity's expertise
How to secure software delivery without operational friction
The limitations of traditional IT Service models
Relying exclusively on freelancers, development agencies or traditional IT services providers can introduce risks to project continuity.
These may include unexpected departures, limited visibility into development activities caused by intermediary project managers, or additional administrative responsibilities.
To structure technical execution effectively, CTOs need a more flexible approach.
One that provides access to senior engineers who can become operational in less than a week, while supporting their long-term commitment to the project.
Collaborative engineering: The integrated team model
Since 2019, Novity has developed an integrated engineering team model designed as an alternative to conventional nearshore and offshore outsourcing.
Through our two engineering hubs in Mauritius and Madagascar, we build stable, long-term technology partnerships.
Our teams are 100% French-speaking and operate in closely aligned time zones, with only a one- or two-hour difference.
Rather than working as a separate external delivery function, our engineers integrate directly into clients' development environments, workflows and existing processes.
This approach reduces cultural and language barriers while maintaining continuity across the technology stack.
It also supports the long-term evolution of existing systems and encourages stronger technical collaboration, particularly during acquisitions or when coordinating development across multiple subsidiaries.
✅ Checklist: Assessing the Resilience of Your Tech Delivery Model
- Financial runway and fixed costs: Can you increase or reduce your engineering team by 25% within 30 days without significantly affecting fixed operating costs?
- Administrative workload: Does your management team spend less than one working day per week sourcing engineering talent?
- Collaboration and alignment: Do your external technology partners collaborate synchronously and in real time with your internal teams?
- Project continuity: Are your technical documentation and product knowledge protected against the departure of a key team member?
These questions help identify potential weaknesses in engineering capacity, operational efficiency and long-term product stability.
Technology Market Trends: Investors Are Becoming More Selective
Market data reflects the growing emphasis on measurable performance and operational discipline.
According to KPMG's Tech Insights report, published in January 2026, fundraising activity is returning to growth, but investors remain highly selective, favouring companies that demonstrate strong operational discipline.
Meanwhile, the EY Venture Capital Barometer 2025, referenced by Le Monde Informatique, highlights an adjustment in French IT investment activity.
Analysis published by Les Echos also points to a decline in non-strategic mergers and acquisitions.
Together, these developments reinforce the importance of assessing technical resilience both before and after a transaction closes.
For startups and software companies, the ability to maintain delivery performance, adapt engineering capacity and protect product knowledge is becoming increasingly important.
The real challenge after closing is not simply to grow faster. It is to build an engineering organisation capable of sustaining that growth without compromising financial flexibility or technical quality.
Sources
- Maddyness, Xavier Lernould - Post-levée, post-acquisition : le vrai test des scaleups commence ici
- Baromètre EY du capital-risque 2025 - L’IA, un accélérateur de particules
- Les Echos - French Tech : le grand effondrement des fusions-acquisitions
- KPMG - Tech Insights 2025 : les tendances de l’écosystème tech français pour 2026
- Podcast Tech 45’ - Retour d’expérience post-levées et rachat du CEO de AssoConnect
