- How did you meet COFOUNDER and where did the idea for COMPANY come from?
- How long have you worked together?
- Where did the motivation for working on COMPANY come from?
- Why did you pick your co-founder?
- What does the cap table look like? (equity distribution between founders, in particular)
- When was the last time you disagreed on a meaningful business issue? How did you resolve it?
- Do you have a demonstrated history of building things (in whatever capacity you are capable of)?
- What is the specific problem you are solving?
- Who has this problem?
- Why is this a problem?
- How big / serious of a problem is it?
- How are people solving this problem today?
- Describe your solution to this problem and your product. What is your product's "wedge"?
- What is your product roadmap for the next 6-12 months? What is the larger opportunity you're trying to capture in your product roadmap?
- Why is now the right time for this product/company? Why hasn’t this worked / been done before?
- Describe your user persona(s) to me (end user, buyers, etc)?
- What does a day-in-a-life look like for these people?
- How much are people paying today? (range?)
- How much do you think you can charge in the future if you aren't charging today?
- How are customers discovering your product? Through what channels?
- How much does it cost you currently to get a user? And in which channel?
- What effort / timing is required to switch from a different solution to yours?
- How are customers going to discover your product in the future? Through what channels?
- How much does your solution/product cost to make?
- How much will it cost in the future?
- What is the sales cycle?
- How does the product team interact with current and potential customers? If so, how and how often?
- What do the unit economics look like? Margins?
- What differentiates your product from alternatives?
- Who do you see as competition? Why/why not COMPETITOR?
- How many customers/users/contracts do you have?
- What is the nature of any contracts (pilots, paid, enterprise etc?)
- How much revenue have you generated to date (is it real product revenue or services revenue)?
- What does retention or churn look like? (if you know)
- What does engagement look like?
- When will your company break even in terms of profitability and cash flow?
- How much have you raised to date? From whom?
- What were the terms of those raises?
- How much are you looking to raise now?
- What are you looking to achieve (milestones) with this round if everything goes well?
- Who do you need to hire during the next 18 months to be successful?
- How are you going to spend the money you raise?
- Where are you in the process of putting together your round?
- Have the current terms been set? And if so, what are they?
- What is your burn rate? How big is the team? How far does the new money get you?
- What is your top priority for the next 3-6 months?
- What do you want from your investors in this round?