About
I am Daniel Henschel, a solutions architect providing technical due diligence in Europe.
For a long time, I was the architect who was sent into high-stakes situations. Complex systems, stalled projects, expensive technology decisions, difficult or fuzzy strategic goals. Regardless of the sector of my client, I was the person who understood the full situation, found the actual problem, and guided my clients toward the right decisions for their objectives.
In January 2025 I founded Henschel Labs to do this work independently. Assessing software companies for investors and executives, and lead engineering as or supporting the CTO. Still building and hacking for fun and to keep in touch with the core technologies.
Core beliefs
I need to understand to deliver real value. Everything starts with your objective. The domains I examine, the time and effort it takes, and the depth it requires, all builds on that. The better my understanding of your objective and situation, the more specific I can answer the relevant questions instead of running a generic checklist.
In an ideal world, everyone would build perfect solutions. In reality, interests from business collide with development best practice all the time. In reality, perfect becomes the enemy of a perfectly good solution in the current situation. The goal is to understand both interests as well as the situational context and find a good solution that lives in the middle and does not put you into a corner in either direction. Something not being good practice is a finding but the severity only becomes relevant when rated against your objective and situation, not in itself.
I state facts and work with evidence. I explicitly state assumptions and provide confidence levels where appropriate. I also give recommendations or options on how to remediate findings. The final evaluation of these findings and how you act on them is your responsibility.
I don't have a hidden agenda. Clear boundaries, roles, and mandates are necessary to avoid conflicting interests. I require definition of them in writing before signature and disclose possible conflicts of interests.
I state what I will and will not do. You know what you get and how confident I am in writing before signature. If I can not do something, I will help you find someone who can and optionally manage the process and account for the result.
I still build and challenge myself. Not as a selling point in itself, but because judgement without contact to real system decays, and because doing lots of different things for the first time hones an intuition that I can rely on, and because the fastest way to really understand things is to do and break them from time to time.
Currently
Henschel Labs: Technical due diligence, engineering assessments, and lead engineering as or supporting the CTO. Independent, working across europe.
volo: founder of a safety-first social platform, currently in early development. Separate company, separate context.
Working with me
Benefits of working with me.
- You get me. I am senior, accountable and build alongside your team. No agency, no bench, no juniors doing the grunt work and partners, presenting someone else's work.
- You get what I think. Direct, fast, no filler. Including "I do not know" or "you do not need me for this".
Get in touch
If that sounds like a fit:
Book a call. 30 minutes, no charge. I will tell you what I think.