Here are some questions I asked founders at actual meetings this week. Draft some answers to these, and you’ll be better prepared for your investor meetings!

1) “What’s your vision for [Startup]?” This is the first question I ask every founder. I put it first because it’s the most important.

I want to hear not just about where the company is, but where it’s going. Here’s an example:

“My vision for Uber is to make it easy for anyone to get a ride anywhere, anytime.”

That’s ambitious. That has the potential to be a world-changing company. That’s what I want to back.

You want to get the vision down to a single, clear sentence with zero jargon.

2) “What made you want to start this business?” I’m gauging how deeply interested the founder is in the problem they’re solving.

Building a startup is so hard and pays so poorly that only a nutjob would do it. A nutjob who’s obsessed with a problem they just have to solve.

My job is to find those nutjobs and give them money.

3) “Tell me about your team.” I’ve already done some research on this before the meeting. But I want to hear from the founder why he assembled this team and why they’re the right people to take on this problem.

I’m especially interested in learning about his co-founders. How do they know each other? Why are these the right people to partner with?

4) “Who writes the code for this startup?” I want at least half the founders writing code.

It’s pretty hard to create a software company if you don’t have anyone who can build software. This is a core capacity that we cannot outsource.

If the company runs short on cash, that hired help will be gone. Can the founders keep building and getting closer to product-market fit?

If not, the startup is dead in the water.

5) “How do you find customers?” I don’t expect an early stage founder to have his entire sales process worked out. But I do want to see some early success in winning customers.

I also like seeing how the founder approaches this problem. Do they throw money at it, buying a bunch of ads? Or do they find creative ways to get in front of their users for free, like a Facebook group?

Those creative, resourceful founders will win.

6) “What are your early customers telling you?” I’m judging how close the founder is to their customers and how well they listen.

If you look at any great startup like Mercury, Superhuman, or Intercom, they know their users inside and out. They talk to them constantly. And they continuously ship new features that make those customers happy!

I want to see the founder doing that. They should know what their first customers like about the product and what they don’t. And they need a plan for addressing the latter.

7) “Can we run through a demo of your product?” I’m always flabbergasted when an investor doesn’t ask for a demo. How would you know what you’re even discussing when you haven’t seen the product?

I’m looking for how well it solves a user’s problem. I also want to see how good the design is. Pretty products sell.

The founder should know every inch of that thing as if it were his own living room.

Sometimes a founder is unable to give me a demo. Whenever that happens, I start to wonder…

“They told me this thing is live. Is that really true? Is this vaporware? Or does the founder of the company not even know how to log into their own product?”

In any case, no demo, no check.

Wrap-Up

Try to draft an answer to each of these. The answer should be brief, concise and specific. Take about as much time to answer the question as it takes me to ask it.

The questions every investor asks you will be a little different. But if you can answer some of these common ones, you’re a lot closer to getting a check!

What do you ask founders?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

More on tech:
The Question No Founder Asks
My Top 5 Pitch Deck Pet Peeves

Meet My Latest Investment: North

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