You don’t meet many people who’ve gone from LA acting school to launching a remote-first tech due diligence firm – but then again, you don’t meet many people like Dan Bender. As the co-founder of Code & Co., Dan spends his days translating complex technology into investor-ready insights, all while scaling a next-gen, AI-first advisory firm with global reach.

I sat down with Dan to talk about AI’s real impact (beyond the hype), reinventing consulting from the ground up, and why snowboarding with toddlers might just be the ultimate leadership training.

About Dan Bender

Dan Bender is the founding partner of Code & Co., a remote-first consultancy specializing in Product & Technology Due Diligence for private equity and growth funds. Since 2016, he has scaled the firm to serve leading global alternative investment funds, advising on hundreds of deals and having “seen it all” in terms of technical debt, architectural risks, product/engineering maturity, AI capabilities, post-merger integration, and exit readiness. Before joining Code & Co., Dan was a product leader at Rocket Internet, building companies that reached millions of users across more than 70 countries, completed an Executive MBA, and founded an award-winning startup in the digital publishing space.

About Code & Co.

Code & Co. is a leading tech and product due diligence firm founded in 2016 by Dan Bender and Lukas Ingelheim, with a remote-first team distributed across Europe, the UK, Asia, and the US. The firm partners with private equity, growth equity, and venture capital investors to assess technology-driven businesses worldwide.

Code & Co.’s expertise spans buy-side and sell-side due diligence, AI resilience and opportunity assessments, competitive benchmarking, cyber, and IT DD. Known for its ability to “translate” between the worlds of finance and technology, the firm combines deep technical insight with a constructive, forward-looking approach that helps investors unlock long-term value.

Building global firms at Rocket Internet

Before co-founding Code & Co. in 2016, Dan served as Director of Product at Rocket Internet, a German startup incubator and investment firm.

Speaking about his job building, incubating, and accelerating startups, he describes starting with his team and a whiteboard. They would “launch a product in a couple of countries within 50 to 100 days, and then roll out to 30, 40, even 50+ countries – often in emerging markets – over the next 50 to 100 days. After that, we’d hand over the incubated product to the management teams.”

“Some of the companies became really big and went public. Others folded. It’s all part of the game when you’re an entrepreneur. Back then, I believe Rocket was a place with truly unique global challenges – we built and scaled internet businesses across every region of the world, including emerging markets in Asia and Africa.”

From acting school to due diligence

Before working at Rocket Internet, Dan earned an Executive MBA and also ran a digital publishing startup that won several Red Dot Design awards. But his unconventional path goes back even further.

“I actually went to acting school in LA after school,” he laughs. “It taught me to face discomfort and connect with people emotionally and intellectually. That’s something I use every day.”

Today, Dan works in tech and product due diligence for private equity and growth investors. With Code & Co., he and his team do buy-side and sell-side DD, as well as things like AI resilience and opportunity assessments, cyber due diligence, and IT due diligence. “Whenever technology is important, investors turn to us”, Dan states.

“We work with brilliant people on both sides of the table. We translate between the worlds of business, finance, and tech/product.”

The DNA of Code & Co.

Founded with his friend Lukas, Code & Co. has grown into a global consultancy with a remote-first model and clients spanning Europe, the U.S., and MENA. While some firms pride themselves on red-flag hunting, Dan says their differentiator is a more constructive approach.

“Most tech gaps can be mitigated,” he says. “Our job isn’t just to say what’s broken – it’s to ask: can it be fixed, how long will it take, and what would it cost? That’s where we can positively impact the value creation roadmap.”

When asked what gets him up in the morning, Dan said that “the beauty of tech investing is that value creation lies in the future. You’re betting on the team, the market, and the belief that their technology enables growth. That’s what makes this job so exciting.”

Another superpower? Translation. “We dive deep into geeky topics such as algorithms, databases, MLOps, and software architecture, but we surface insights in a way that’s relevant to investors – no computer science degree required.”

AI and the future of Due Diligence

When asked how due diligence is changing, Dan doesn’t hesitate, “The impact of generative AI cannot be overstated – a new way of interfacing with computers and data. I don’t see it serving as a universal app layer with capabilities spun up just in time, but rather as a critical part of the application stack – much like SQL on the data persistence layer or REST or GraphQL when communicating with other systems”

But beyond the hype, Code & Co. looks at three things when evaluating companies’ AI readiness:

Resilience to AI – Will this company still be needed in five years?

Response to AI – What’s their plan to leverage it for growth or efficiency?

Readiness for AI – Do they have the data architecture and governance to succeed? Are there any moats?

AI, he notes, is also transforming operations internally. “Tools like GitHub Copilot and Cursor are changing how developers work, and chatbots can now draw on full knowledge bases to deliver customer support that actually feels smart.”

Consulting done differently

Dan believes the traditional consulting model is overdue for disruption and is taking a different approach with Code & Co.

In his opinion, “the old model – partners selling, tons of analysts grinding – is broken.” “With AI and automation, you can build the next-gen version of a large consulting firm with one-tenth or one-hundredth the workforce,” he explains.

For the past 9 years, Code & Co. has been investing heavily in its own development team to automate the “non-value-adding bits” of due diligence and deliver better work faster. The goal is to continue to scale globally without losing the firm’s tech-first DNA.

The opportunities and challenges of a remote-first company

Everyone at Code & Co. works globally. “In addition to Europe and the UK, we have a large client base in the U.S. and MENA,” he explains, “and we’re super privileged to advise funds and assess targets globally.”

“The time zones can be a bit brutal sometimes. When you’ve already worked a full day, and then you’re on a Pacific time deal that starts at 10 pm, German time. But it’s all fair’n’square and that’s why we’re building teams across different global regions. We’re excited to now have our first colleagues in the US and even in Asia.”

When it comes to building and upholding a strong team culture for his remote-first team, he says that team members are encouraged to visit each other. “For example, we have people in England, and others will travel there and meet up for dinner or spend time together. We also do a few off-sites each year.”

“Before COVID, we had a nice office in Berlin, he reminisces. “We had this rule that everyone who went on vacation had to bring back a whiskey from that location and then had “Whiskey Wednesdays,” where we’d all hang out, share a drink, and swap ideas. Obviously, we miss that but we try to spend as much time as we can virtually and in-person”

Going global and staying grounded

Despite long hours and late-night U.S. calls, Dan treasures the balance remote work brings. “I get to have lunch with my family, and most days I can put the kids to bed. That’s something I really cherish.”

Outside of work, Dan really enjoys snowboarding and surfing and says he wouldn’t mind having more time on the slopes or paddling into waves. The best is when he gets to combine both. “My daughter was on a snowboard at 13 months. She even did her first little turns! It was so sweet – this tiny human in a giant helmet on a mini snowboard. I loved that moment.”

Quick Fire Round

Tools you can't live without?

Our internal web-based tool suite, which powers our work; a bunch of AI tools like Gemini Pro, ChatGPT, and Cursor; black coffee; a standing desk; RescueTime; and Superhuman as an email client.

Founder or startup you admire?

LeBron James. Perhaps not a typical founder, but an athlete, icon, and entrepreneur who exceeded impossible expectations and stayed the course regardless of headwinds. In the tech world, Tobi Luetke, founder of Shopify: ambitious bets, tech-first leader, and one of the most impactful contributors to Ruby on Rails, my favorite web framework.

Recharge ritual:

Gym, mountains, and family + friends.

Best advice you’ve ever received:

"Guilt lives in the past. Worry lives in the future. Peace lives in the present." (from: unknown but seen in James Clear’s newsletter)

“Don’t hope for better. Just be better. Be something better. Be more compassionate, more resilient, more humble, more disciplined.” (from: Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson)

Looking Ahead

As Code & Co. continues to expand into the U.S. and Asia, Dan remains optimistic about the future of tech and tech-enabled consulting.

For Dan, the answer lies at the intersection of tech, product, and strategy where Code & Co. has carved out its niche. And if history is any guide, he’ll keep carving new tracks, both on the slopes and in the boardroom.“Historically, technical innovation automates the tedious stuff. That frees up time for human ingenuity. The question is just: how do we adapt fast enough?,” he says.

If you, or anyone in your network, is in need of Product & Technology Due Diligence for private equity and growth funds, get in touch with Dan and his team at Code & Co.