

Ask HN: Interviews during startup acquisition process - interview_prep

I am an early employee (not founder) and the technical lead for a startup with more than a dozen people. We have been invited to the Bay Area by a major internet company.<p>The company signaled a clear intention to make an acquisition offer following meetings and interviews.<p>As a member of the technical team, what should I expect from these interviews? Will I be implementing binary search on a whiteboard? Asked about architecture decisions we made last year? Carefully questioned about my willingness to work within a much larger organization?<p>Any experience would help, thanks!
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solost
I think it depends a lot on whether the acquisition is based on their desire
to have your product or their desire to acquire your team or both. The reason
the potential acquisition is taking place will have a lot to do with the
experience you have.

As far as the questions go, I would expect them to be appropriate to your role
and contribution to the organzation, however assume that everything will be
fair game and be sure to review with the founder of your company where the off
limits zones are.

I know it sounds bad, but if an offer doesn't materialize and they acquire
some piece of critical information from you your business could risk losing
some edge that you currently have in your space.

Good Luck!

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jonnathanson
This is very much an interview-type situation. They want to kick the tires a
bit on your company -- and quite possibly suss out whom they're going to be
serious about retaining, if and when a deal goes through.

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lbrandy
Having been in a similar circumstance, the answer is pretty much 'yes' to all
of the above. Expect it to be very much like a programming interview for a
job.

