
7 Uncommon Questions I'd Ask A Startup If I Were A Venture Capitalist - brk
http://onstartups.com/home/tabid/3339/bid/4419/7-Uncommon-Questions-I-d-Ask-A-Startup-If-I-Were-A-Venture-Capitalist.aspx
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aneel99
_What will you do to find and retain the best people possible for the
company?_

What has worked for your company? What did you do to retain the best possible
people?

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Flemlord
The questions feel like tricks to get the entrepreneur to reveal negative
information about himself or his company that he wouldn't otherwise reveal. If
I were an entrepreneur sitting through a round of questions like these, I
would be a bit offended. I suppose for a fledgling entrepreneur who actually
may not have thought everything through, these may be appropriate. For
everybody else, I'd skip them.

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edw519
"What is the longest debate the team has had in the last 30 days?"

Whether or not to answer your next 6 questions.

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electric
Ha! That made me laugh!

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aneesh
"2. If your equity/salary was based completely on the accuracy of your
projections, what would your forecast be?"

Is it even relevant that the entrepreneur be able to make accurate
predictions? Shouldn't you just focus on making stuff people want? And isn't
speculating on how the size of company X the VC's job anyway? I bet Larry and
Sergey didn't see Google getting THAT big on day 1.

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dshah
It's less about the actual forecast and more about the way someone thinks
about the business. If someone adamantly believes they're going to be a
billion dollar company in a couple of years, that would be a signal. Either
it's a really, really big idea and they're super-ambitious -- or, they're
being unrealistic.

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aweissman
I like to ask where the founders grew up - I actually like to know alot about
people's backgrounds as kids

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pchristensen
Great list of contrarian questions everyone should ask themselves!

