Ask HN: What is a CTO's responsibility when a startup prepares for exit?

Depends on the size of the startup & the acquirer and the role that you played. Usually:

- Prepare a master presentation explaining the architecture, infrastructure, security, usage stats among other things. You will have to present this to different stakeholders (CTO, CIO, VP of Engineering, Product Management) - so keep it generic, but be prepared to dive into specific topics depending upon the audience.

- Get documentation in order. Design documents, Use cases, processes, all services used along with cost per month/year

- Get Copyright issues in order. Ensure that you are in compliant with licenses of all components that you are using. You should have a document assigning copyright to the company from all employees and contractors.

- Be prepared for a code review.

Make sure you're technical house is in order. If you're selling/changing ownership make sure access to systems/services are documented. While you're at it, make sure you're not paying for stale services or over paying on existing services and infrastructure.

Ensure a proper and complete master flowchart is in place of the entire business, for each step in the flow chart that a document is attached to it to explain each area, or step itself. Incoming team will have a starting point to keep busy. I tend to use confluence + gliffy for an integrated wiki and diagram, it's highly productive and easy enough to use and maintain.