# Team Depth and Key-Person Concentration ## The founder is credible, but the engineering team is not clear The founder has a background in applied machine learning for manufacturing (research roles and applications roles in semiconductor and materials manufacturing). This background is the most credible technical asset of the company. The co-founders do the work in software, in operations and in the functions of Foreman. The advisors give credibility with the industry channel and with angel investors. > [!warning] Missing facts > - The organization chart names the person who controls AI algorithm development and infrastructure by title only. > > - The cap table shows a co-founder, but the team materials do not show this co-founder. > > - The company has fewer than ten staff and five to seven named leaders. Thus **the individual-contributor engineering capacity is probably two to four persons**. This number is an inference of a reviewer, and it is the most important team fact. A check must make sure that it is correct. > > - No document names specialists in machine-learning operations, in tests of the model, or in cybersecurity. ## Concentration - One founder is the technical originator, the decision-maker, the head of business development and the fundraiser at the same time. - The domain database is a core asset. The documents name an external advisor as the source of the domain database. The documents do not name an employee. - Only one team member has experience to close commercial deals. > [!important] Depth and claims > The team can credibly do two things in a small number of verticals. The first is applied machine learning for manufacturing. The second is enterprise integration. The team cannot plausibly do the stated roadmap at the same time with one seed investment. The roadmap has many more agents, some more domain models, physical AI, digital twins, and overseas expansion. [[Roadmap Budget Realism]] gives more information. ## Why it matters For a small company, the diligence on the team is the diligence on Foreman. A named list of each person who writes production code or trains models is necessary. The list must give the tenure of each person, what each person made, and the vesting. [[Key-Person Risk in Deep Tech]] and [[Founder Led Not Founder Lost - Why Ownership Matters]] give more information. ## Related - [[Foreman MOC]] - [[Delivery Economics and the Scaling Ceiling]] - [[Dispositive Questions]]