

Ask HN: most essential questions to be able to answer about your business? - zxcvvcxz

Say you're sitting down for coffee with a potential investor.<p>What questions should you absolutely be able to answer?<p>What should you cover when introducing your business/idea?<p>I think having a more formal list of topcis to answer will better help at least me, and likely others, communicate more effectively in this area.<p>Cheers
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gatsby
Sequoia has a really good outline on their site of things that every
entrepreneur should know or be able to explain about their company:

COMPANY PURPOSE -Define the company/business in a single declarative sentence.

PROBLEM -Describe the pain of the customer (or the customer’s customer).
-Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.

SOLUTION -Demonstrate your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s
life better. -Show where your product physically sits. -Provide use cases.

WHY NOW -Set-up the historical evolution of your category. -Define recent
trends that make your solution possible.

MARKET SIZE -Identify/profile the customer you cater to. -Calculate the TAM
(top down), SAM (bottoms up) and SOM.

COMPETITION -List competitors -List competitive advantages

PRODUCT -Product line-up (form factor, functionality, features, architecture,
intellectual property). -Development roadmap.

BUSINESS MODEL -Revenue model -Pricing -Average account size and/or lifetime
value -Sales & distribution model -Customer/pipeline list

TEAM -Founders & Management -Board of Directors/Board of Advisors

FINANCIALS -P&L -Balance sheet -Cash flow -Cap table -The deal

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t0
Shark Tank has a nice standard set of questions they ask nearly every pitch.

What is the product? Do you have sales? What would you do with my money? ...
[http://liftdevelopment.com/2012/05/fifteen-valuable-
question...](http://liftdevelopment.com/2012/05/fifteen-valuable-questions-
from-the-tv-show-shark-tank/)

