The 10-Point Company Quality Checklist
Ten hard metrics to judge whether a company is worth betting your career on
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 95%
A repeatable due-diligence scorecard Carilu Dietrich keeps on a Post-it note to decide which companies are strong enough to join or advise. Instead of gut feel, it forces you to check ten specific health signals across product, revenue, capital, and culture before committing.
Origin
Developed by Carilu Dietrich over years of advising hypergrowth B2B companies and trying to identify 'the next Atlassian' after leaving it.
Core principles
- 01A great logo on your resume transforms a career, so company selection is a high-leverage decision
- 02Momentum of the company drives how fast your career can move
- 03Recent funding rounds matter more than early-stage pedigree because a company can slow down
- 04Healthy retention and love for the product predict durability better than headline growth
How to run it
- 1
Check the Rule of 40
Add the company's growth rate and profit margin; a healthy software business should total around 40 or above.
Pro tip This single number screens for the balance between growth and efficiency in one glance.
- 2
Assess investor quality and recency
Confirm the backers are genuinely top-tier, and look specifically at the most recent rounds, not just impressive early-stage names.
Watch out A company can have phenomenal early investors and have since slowed down; the latest round is the truer signal.
- 3
Read net promoter / customer satisfaction
Determine whether customers rapidly love the product or feel lukewarm about it.
- 4
Check net dollar retention
Measure how fast existing-customer revenue grows without new logos; 100 means flat renewals, and figures like Snowflake's ~165-180 mean customers nearly double their spend.
Pro tip Strong net dollar retention means the business can nearly double without acquiring a single new customer.
- 5
Check growth rate and burn rate
Look at last year's growth and whether the burn rate means they risk running out of money.
- 6
Verify market leadership
Confirm they are number one in their market, ideally validated by a Forrester or Gartner magic quadrant.
- 7
Check Glassdoor and culture
Read employee reviews to see whether it is a bad place to work where people are unhappy.
Watch out Companies where people are unhappy do not survive as long as companies where people are happier.
In the wild
Dietrich cites Snowflake's net dollar retention peaking around 165-180, meaning existing customers were almost doubling their spend on the product alone.
→ A retention figure that high signals a strong, healthy business that can grow without needing new customers.
Common mistakes
Judging on early pedigree alone
A company with famous seed investors may have decelerated; failing to check recent rounds and current metrics leads you to bet on faded momentum.
Ignoring culture signals
Skipping Glassdoor because the metrics look good misses that unhappy companies survive less long, undermining the very career momentum you joined for.
Is it for you?
Best for
A mid-to-senior operator or advisor choosing which company to join or take on as a client
Not ideal for
Pre-product-market-fit seed companies where these metrics do not yet exist or are not yet repeatable
From the transcript
“rule of 40 right which is your profitability and your costs together”
“their net dollar retention which is how fast is their revenue growing”
“are they like number one in their Market do they have a Forester or a Gartner magic quadrant”
“I look at their glass door like is it just a bad place to work”
From the episode
How to achieve hypergrowth in your business and career
Carilu Dietrich (Atlassian, Miro, Segment, 1Password)