Those are great questions. Similar questions I've asked during funding and M&A interviews;
What do you not yet know, how are you developing information about that?
This is knowing what is risky and what isn't. Some problems are just 'engineering' you do work and get them done. Others need 'new physics' which is code for an imagined but not yet designed feature or capability to work. Too many of the latter can be a real problem.
How many people do you think you'll need to realize this vision? How many to keep it current?
One of the more sad failure modes of startups is over hiring. More people can be good, too many people is really bad, understanding what the people requirement is can bite you if you don't get it right.
How will customers find you? What does it cost you to be visible to them?
Customer acquisition, especially in a demographic that doesn't congregate (small/medium business fits this category) can be unduly expensive. If you have a product that would sell like gang busters at $X but it costs $X + $Y dollars to get a customer, you need to fund to n customers such that the $Y starts going down via word of mouth or other coverage.
Stack rank your feature set in 'lifeboat' order, explain how you got that order.
You should have more features imagined or lined up than you can deliver, that gives you follow on. But you also need to know what is the minimum set for a viable product. Understanding how you get to that minimum set says a lot about your priorities, your sense of the customer, and your reasoning about the business.
All great questions. Think ours are more targeted at YC/similar extremely early stage investor conversations, where the answer to some of those questions (and this is 100% ok) can be "I simply don't know right now", especially how many people you'll need to hire (just a core team to build the first product) and a detailed view on feature set (just a few features that you think people will really LOVE).
What do you not yet know, how are you developing information about that?
This is knowing what is risky and what isn't. Some problems are just 'engineering' you do work and get them done. Others need 'new physics' which is code for an imagined but not yet designed feature or capability to work. Too many of the latter can be a real problem.
How many people do you think you'll need to realize this vision? How many to keep it current?
One of the more sad failure modes of startups is over hiring. More people can be good, too many people is really bad, understanding what the people requirement is can bite you if you don't get it right.
How will customers find you? What does it cost you to be visible to them?
Customer acquisition, especially in a demographic that doesn't congregate (small/medium business fits this category) can be unduly expensive. If you have a product that would sell like gang busters at $X but it costs $X + $Y dollars to get a customer, you need to fund to n customers such that the $Y starts going down via word of mouth or other coverage.
Stack rank your feature set in 'lifeboat' order, explain how you got that order.
You should have more features imagined or lined up than you can deliver, that gives you follow on. But you also need to know what is the minimum set for a viable product. Understanding how you get to that minimum set says a lot about your priorities, your sense of the customer, and your reasoning about the business.