Questions to Ask in a Venture Capital Interview
For candidates interviewing for an analyst, associate or principal seat at a venture capital firm: questions to ask the partners and investors across the table. The list starts with the fund itself, then covers how deals are found and decided, what the seat involves day to day and what the firm does for its portfolio, and ends with career, pay and carry and a few questions to close on. Each comes with a note for the candidate: what a full answer sounds like at a venture firm, what a thin one may be hiding, or when in the process to ask it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
The fund
How would you describe the firm's thesis to a founder who has never heard of you?
Why ask it
A firm's website is often written with its own investors in mind, and the version told to founders is the one you would be repeating on calls every week. Be wary of a line any firm could use, such as backing great teams in large markets. A real thesis rules things out, so a good answer includes a kind of company they would not back.
What stage do you invest at, and what does a typical first check look like?
Why ask it
Stage decides what evidence you would work with all day. At the earliest rounds there is little more than the founders and a deck to judge, and at growth rounds there is customer data and a model to build. It also matters whether the firm usually leads its rounds, because a lead investor generally runs the diligence and negotiates the terms, which is more work and more to learn.
Which recent investment are you most excited about, and what convinced you?
Why ask it
Partners like this one, and the answer is the thesis in practice. The useful part is what tipped it: something the founder said, a customer call, a number. Go through the firm's last few announcements beforehand, and notice whether the reasons you hear match the thesis you were just given.
How large is the current fund, and how much of it is still set aside for new investments?
Why ask it
Fund size is often public and the uninvested share rarely is. Plenty left for new companies means live deals to learn on from your first month. A fund that is nearly all committed spends its time on the companies it already holds and on raising the next one, and a new hire there may wait a while for a first deal.
Which fund is this for the firm, and what year did it start investing?
Why ask it
A first or second fund usually means a firm still making its name: a small team, everyone doing a bit of everything, and no certainty of another fund. A later one tends to have settled habits and more people ahead of you. The year shows how far through its life the fund is, and since that life differs by firm, ask what the team's work looks like in the later years.
How much of a company do you aim to own, and how much do you hold back for later rounds?
Why ask it
A firm that can state both numbers has a plan for the whole portfolio, down to roughly how many companies the fund will hold. They also explain a lot of passes, since a good company can be turned down when the stake on offer is too small to matter to the fund. An 'it depends' on both usually means decisions are made one deal at a time, which makes it harder for a junior to guess what will get through.
Who are the fund's limited partners: mostly institutions, family offices or a corporate parent?
Why ask it
Limited partners are the investors in the fund, and who they are shapes the firm. A corporate parent may want deals that fit its own business and can change its mind about venture altogether. Names are often confidential, so the type is enough, along with whether the investors in the last fund came back for this one.
Which investments have returned cash so far, and which do you expect to matter most to this fund?
Why ask it
A markup on paper and money returned are different things, and a partner who separates the two without being pushed is one whose talk about carry you can weigh. Keep it for a later round with a partner and read up first, since many exits are announced. Having only markups to show is no failing in a young fund, where the record is simply not in yet.
When a founder has several offers, why do they pick this firm?
Why ask it
Whatever they say is what you would be telling founders yourself, so check that you could say it and mean it. Usual answers are one partner's time, a quick decision, contacts in one industry or a higher price. If it is mostly price, ask how often the firm walks away when a round gets expensive.
Deals
Where do most of your investments come from: founders you already know, other investors, cold outreach or inbound?
Why ask it
The mix tells you what sourcing would mean for you. A referral-led firm needs you to build relationships with angels and earlier-stage funds, while an outbound-led one means lists, emails and a lot of first calls. Nearly every firm says it has a strong network, so ask how the last three deals arrived.
What do you look for in a founder, and what rules one out?
Why ask it
Expect this to come back at you in a case study or a 'who would you back', so the answer is also the standard your own picks will be held to. Good answers are things you could observe in a meeting: how a founder takes a hard question, how well they know their customers, who has agreed to work for them. The second half is where partners differ most, and it often traces to one deal that went wrong.
How does a deal get from a first meeting to a yes here?
Why ask it
Have them walk through the most recent one: who met the founder first, when a memo was written, how many partners met the company and how long it took end to end. A firm with a clear path can describe it in a minute. Where every deal seems to take its own route, the thing to learn is who decides when one is dead, since someone has to tell the founder.
Does a deal need every partner to agree, or can one partner with conviction carry it?
Why ask it
Each system changes how you would argue a case. Where everyone must agree you have to answer every objection in the room, and where one partner can carry a deal you need that partner as your sponsor. Neither is wrong, and the story of the last deal the partners disagreed on will show which one the firm really runs.
How many new investments does the firm make in a year, and how many companies does it meet to get there?
Why ask it
Most of the job is saying no, and the ratio tells you how much. A handful of deals a year means each one matters and that you could go a long time before one you worked on gets done. You would be writing many of the pass messages, so it is worth hearing how the firm likes a no to be delivered.
What does diligence look like for a company with little revenue and no track record?
Why ask it
There is not much to model at that point, so listen for what takes its place: reference calls on the founders, conversations with early customers, a technical review, a view on the market's size. That list is close to your task list. 'We go on instinct' with nothing behind it leaves a junior with little to learn from.
Who writes the investment memo, and what does a good one contain here?
Why ask it
At many firms the memo is the main thing a junior investor produces, so its shape is the shape of your work. Find out whether it argues both sides or sells the deal. A house format with a section for the case against suggests disagreement is welcome, and once you have an offer it is fair to ask to see an old one.
How much modeling does the job involve, and what question is the model trying to answer?
Why ask it
Early-stage models are often about ownership, dilution and how large an exit would have to be to matter to the fund. Later-stage work is closer to forecasting a real business. The answer also hints at what a case study in the next round would test, so use it for your own preparation.
Could I bring in a deal of my own, and what happened the last time a junior person did?
Why ask it
This separates an apprentice seat from a support seat. A good answer has a company in it, the partner who sponsored it and whether the junior stayed on it afterward. Where juniors find companies and partners take over from the second meeting, ask how credit is recorded, because credit is what promotion cases are built from.
How do you decide whether to put more money into a company you already back?
Why ask it
Saying no to a founder you know is harder than passing on a stranger, so this is where discipline shows. A good answer describes a process as strict as the one for a new deal, with someone other than the sponsoring partner asking the hard questions. A firm that waves follow-ons through has less left for the companies that earn it.
Which company did the firm turn down that it now wishes it had backed?
Why ask it
Firms with a few years behind them nearly always have one, and some tell the story against themselves gladly. The reason they passed shows where the firm's blind spot is: price, a market they did not believe in, a founder who did not fit the usual pattern. A partner who says nothing comes to mind may not look back at old decisions at all.
Which markets is the team most excited about right now, and is there one nobody covers yet?
Why ask it
The first half tells you what to read before the next round. The second is the quickest way for a new hire to become useful, because nobody outranks you on an area with no owner. If they name one, the follow-up is what a first piece of work would be: a market map, ten founder calls, a short memo.
How has the past year changed how fast you invest and what you are willing to pay?
Why ask it
Bring one recent round in their area that you have a view on, because this works best as a conversation. Slowing down is not a bad sign in itself. What matters is whether the partners can say what changed their minds, or whether they are simply moving with other funds.
The seat
How would my time divide between finding companies, working on live deals and helping the portfolio?
Why ask it
Ask for last month and not the ideal. Decide which of the three you came for before you hear the answer, because a week of cold outreach, a week of memos and a week of chasing portfolio metrics are three different jobs under one title. If the split is nothing like the posting, say so and see how they explain it.
What does a strong first six months look like for someone in this seat?
Why ask it
Venture gives slow feedback, so early targets are usually about activity: a market mapped, a number of founders met, one company taken to the partner meeting. Those are things you can hold yourself to. A firm where nobody has pictured the first six months will leave you to set your own agenda from the first week.
How many investors are on the team, and how many of them are at my level?
Why ask it
Team pages go out of date, so ask. One junior among several partners gets a wide view and every odd job going, while a group of analysts and associates means company, some competition and less time with each partner. In both cases, count how many people would be handing you work.
Which partner would I work with most, and how is work handed out?
Why ask it
At a small firm you are really joining one or two people. Being attached to a single partner means your fortunes follow theirs, including their sector and their standing in the partnership, while a shared pool gives more variety and no natural sponsor. Try to meet that partner before you accept anything.
How do junior people learn the job here: is anything taught, or do you pick it up by watching?
Why ask it
Many venture firms are too small for formal training, so 'by watching' is a normal answer and not a bad one. What counts is what you get to watch: founder meetings, partner debates, term sheet negotiations. Ask who last read a junior's memo and gave notes on it, since that is where much of the teaching happens.
Would I sit in on the partner meeting, and would I be expected to speak?
Why ask it
The partner meeting is where you hear how decisions are argued, which is hard to learn any other way. Being in the room and asked for a view is about the best training a firm can offer. Juniors who present and then leave the room get most of the reasoning second hand.
Would I be expected to become the firm's person on one market, or to cover whatever comes in?
Why ask it
A specialty gives founders a reason to call you and gives you something to be known for when promotion comes up. Covering everything is broader training and a slower way to build a name. If a specialty is expected, find out whether you would choose it or inherit it.
How many first calls with founders would I take in a week, and would I take them alone?
Why ask it
The number tells you how much of the week is spent talking and how much trust comes at the start. Taking calls alone early is real responsibility, and it also means the firm uses its juniors as the filter. Founders will want to know where they stand, so check what you would be allowed to say at the end of a call.
What does the team use to keep track of companies it has met and why it passed?
Why ask it
One for an associate or analyst, not a partner. A shared record that everyone keeps up means you inherit the firm's memory on day one. When it all lives in partners' heads and inboxes, expect to rebuild it yourself and to be the person asked to fix it.
How much of the job happens outside office hours: events, dinners, travel, writing in public?
Why ask it
Part of sourcing is being where founders are, at demo days, conferences and dinners, and at some firms online as well. A fair answer gives a number of evenings in a normal month and says whether you would be expected to post under your own name. Some people love this side of the work, and if you would not, better to learn now how much of it there is.
Why is the firm hiring for this seat now?
Why ask it
A firm that has just raised a fund is hiring for new work, and a firm replacing someone is hiring for work that already has a shape. If someone left, where they went is the useful part. A startup, another fund or business school are all ordinary, and several short stays in a row deserve one more question.
What backgrounds have done well in this seat, and which have struggled?
Why ask it
The answer shows what the firm thinks the job is. A firm that prizes former founders and operators wants credibility in the room with founders, and one that hires from banks and consultancies wants the analysis. If your background is the one that struggled, ask what those people were missing, then say how you would cover it.
Portfolio
What does the firm do for a company after the money is wired?
Why ask it
The brochure will say hiring, customers and strategy. What you want is last month: an introduction made, a hire closed, a pricing session run. Examples that all come from one partner's best-known company suggest the rest of the portfolio gets less.
Is there a platform team, and where does its work stop and the investors' begin?
Why ask it
Some firms employ people for recruiting, marketing or customer introductions, and others leave all of it to the investors. Where there is no such team, the junior investor often is the team. Founder requests can be good training, and they compete directly with sourcing for your hours, so get a rough number per week.
How many boards does each partner sit on, and do junior people attend?
Why ask it
A partner with many boards has less time for new deals and for teaching you, so the count is about your access as much as theirs. Sitting in as an observer, or preparing the partner's notes, is how you see what happens after the investment. A firm where juniors never see a board meeting keeps a large part of the job out of view until much later.
What happens when a portfolio company is running out of money and cannot raise?
Why ask it
Most venture portfolios have a few, and a firm's reputation with founders is largely made here. Listen for a real case: a bridge, help finding a buyer, an orderly wind-down, and who picked up the phone. A firm that goes quiet on its failing companies will expect you to go quiet too.
How would a founder you backed describe working with the firm in a bad quarter?
Why ask it
Then check it: portfolio founders are easy to find, and asking to speak with two of them once you have an offer is a normal request. It is a good sign when the interviewer volunteers someone whose company had a hard time. Compare the interviewer's adjectives with the founder's.
Would I be the day-to-day contact for any companies, and what would that involve?
Why ask it
Being a founder's first call teaches you a great deal about how companies really run. It can mean monthly check-ins, help with the data room for the next round, or collecting metrics for the fund's reports. Only the last of those is reporting with a friendlier name.
How does the firm help its companies raise their next round?
Why ask it
For an early-stage fund the next round is the first outside sign that an investment is working, so most have a method: introductions to later-stage funds, pitch practice, a view on timing. You would probably help, and it builds your own contacts at other funds. It is worth knowing which later-stage investors most often follow this firm's deals, since those are the people you would be calling.
Career and pay
Is this seat meant to lead to partner, or is it a two or three year program?
Why ask it
Both kinds exist and both are honest, and the trouble comes from finding out which one you are in during year two. For a program, ask where people go afterward and whether the firm helps them get there. If they call it a path, the test is whether anyone has finished it.
Has anyone here gone from associate to partner, and what did it take?
Why ask it
If every partner founded the firm or was hired in from outside, the ladder has not been climbed yet. Where someone has done it, listen for what counted: companies they found, one clear win with their name on it, or years served. Partnerships are small, so a new seat usually needs a bigger fund or a departure, and it is fair to ask which they expect.
What does someone at my level need to show before leading a deal or taking a board seat?
Why ask it
Leading a deal and holding the board seat is the real promotion, whatever the title says. Some firms tie it to a title and others to the partners' trust. The best answers describe a principal or senior associate who led one, and how the partnership stood behind them when the founder asked who decides.
How do you judge a junior investor's work when the investments will not show results for years?
Why ask it
It is an honest problem across the industry, and the answer shows whether the partners have thought about it. Good answers name things someone could observe: the quality of your memos, the companies you brought in, whether founders return your calls, how your passes look a year on. An answer that is all about fit means one partner's impression decides.
Do analysts and associates share in the carry, and if not, at what level does it start?
Why ask it
Carry is the slice of a fund's gains that goes to the investment team, and firms differ widely on who gets any, so save this for a late round or for whoever makes the offer. If it is on the table, get the share, how it vests and what happens to it if you leave. Tax on carry differs from country to country, so ask how this firm handles it and check with your own advisor.
What is the bonus based on at my level, and who decides it?
Why ask it
Fund results arrive years late, so a junior's bonus usually rests on something nearer: a formula, the firm's year or a partner's judgment. Pay at a venture firm generally comes out of the fees the fund charges and not from its winners, so a small fund can have little to spare however good its companies look. Once an offer is being discussed, it is fair to ask what the range was last year at your level.
Can team members invest their own money alongside the fund, or make angel investments on the side?
Why ask it
Policies run from encouraged to forbidden, often because the fund expects first look at anything you find. The points to settle are what has to be disclosed and who approves it. If you already hold angel stakes or advise a startup, raise it before the offer and not after.
Does the firm expect people to go to business school or work at a startup before coming back at a senior level?
Why ask it
Some firms see operating experience as the missing piece in a junior investor and will say so. The telling number is how many of the people who left for a startup or a degree were invited back. A count of none means leaving is leaving, and you can plan around that.
If the next fund is smaller than planned or late, what happens to this role?
Why ask it
It is blunt, so give your reason: you are planning several years ahead. A partner who answers with how long the current fund pays for the team is being straight with you. A change of subject is information too, most of all at a first or second fund.
Closing
How did you get into venture, and what made you pick this firm?
Why ask it
There is no standard route into venture, so the story usually shows what the firm values: time as a founder, a start in banking or consulting, a specialty nobody else had. It works with any interviewer and at any round. Notice whether the reasons for choosing this firm are about the people or about the name on the door.
What do you know now about working in venture that you wish you had known when you started?
Why ask it
What comes back is usually a warning in friendly form: how slowly feedback arrives, how much of the work is selling, how solitary sourcing can be. Use it to test your own reasons for wanting the job.
Is there a company or a market you would like my view on before the next round?
Why ask it
It turns the end of the interview into an offer of work. If they name one, send a page within a few days, since a short written view on a company is the job in miniature. If they wave it off, you have lost nothing.
What would make you hesitate to put me in front of a founder tomorrow?
Why ask it
The firm lends you its name on every call, so this is the doubt that matters most to them. Common worries are no operating experience, a thin network or no clear point of view. Answer once, briefly and with an example, and do not argue the point.
What are the next steps, and is there a case study, a memo or a sourcing exercise to prepare for?
Why ask it
Later rounds in venture often include a written memo on a company of your choice, a pitch of a startup you would back or a map of a market. Knowing which lets you start tonight. Ask who will read it and how long it should be.
How to use your questions in a venture capital interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interview
Read the public record first
The firm's site, the announcements of its recent rounds and whatever the partners write in public will usually give you the stage, the sectors and often the size of the fund. Spend your questions on what that record leaves out: how much is left to invest, why a founder chose them, what went wrong. Finding public information quickly is part of the job you are applying for, so a question the home page answers costs more here than in most interviews.
Bring companies with you
Expect your questions to be turned back on you: which company would you invest in, and why? Prepare two companies from the firm's portfolio you can talk about and one outside it that you would back. Many questions on this page land better with one of them attached, such as 'I saw you led the round in a logistics company last spring. How did that one reach you?'
Match the question to the person
An analyst or associate can tell you about the week, the tools and which partner teaches. A partner can speak to the fund, how decisions are made and where the role leads. Someone on a platform or operations team knows what portfolio companies really ask for. Most of The seat belongs with peers, and The fund and Career and pay with partners.
Plan for a long, loose process
Venture hiring can run to many conversations, some of them over coffee or on a walk, with no set slot for your questions. Work out beforehand which few answers you could not accept an offer without, and make sure those get asked even if the conversation wanders. The rest can be spread across the people you meet, as the subjects come up.
In the conversation
Hang each question on a named company
'How do you make decisions?' invites a description of the process as it is meant to work. Asked about the firm's most recent investment, the same question brings out who championed it, who doubted it and how long it took. Most of the questions under Deals and Portfolio can be asked this way.
Say why you are asking about the fund
How much of the fund is left, when the next one will be raised and what happens to the seat if it is late can sound like doubt about the firm when they come from a candidate. One sentence of context fixes that: 'I am hoping to stay several years, so can I ask how far along the current fund is?' Partners put harder questions to founders every week, and most will answer plainly.
Know what is confidential
A partner may not name the fund's investors or give exact returns, and that is ordinary. Ask what they can share, such as whether earlier investors came back or how old the first exits are, and move on. Pressing for a private number shows them how you might treat a founder's.
Reading the answers
Listen for a company, a date and what was done
'Founder friendly' and 'high conviction' are phrases you could hear at almost any firm. An answer that names a company, says when and describes what the firm did is one you can check afterward. When you get only the phrase, ask which company it was last true of.
At a small firm, the people are the job
Many venture firms have only a handful of investors, so one partner's habits can shape your whole experience. Weigh how the person you would work for answers: whether they share credit when they tell a deal story, whether they admit a miss, whether they asked you anything back.
What a first or second fund changes
A new firm tends to give a junior more to do, sooner, with fewer people to learn from and no certainty of a next fund. An established one offers a name that opens doors and a slower climb. The same answer, such as 'you would take calls alone from the first week', reads differently at each, so decide which trade you want before judging it.
Compare a partner's account with an associate's
Ask both how a deal gets approved, or how the firm describes its thesis. Partners tend to describe the firm they are building, and juniors the one that exists on an ordinary Tuesday. Where the two differ, the junior's version is nearer to the job you would be doing.
Check with founders and former colleagues
Founders in the portfolio and people who used to work at the firm have no reason to sell it to you. Once there is an offer, ask to speak with a founder or two, and look up where earlier associates went. Pay most attention to anything they tell you that nobody inside mentioned.
Mistakes to avoid
Asking as a founder would
Check size and stage matter to a founder because they decide whether the firm will invest. They matter to you for what they do to the seat: what you would spend your days on and where it leads. Follow each fund question with what it means for a junior person.
Opening with carry
Asking about profit share in a first conversation suggests you are counting money that, if it comes at all, is many years off. The fund, the deals and the seat tell you most of what you need to judge the pay anyway, since a small fund and a program seat set limits that negotiation rarely moves. In a final round, or with whoever makes the offer, the same question is expected.
Agreeing with everything
A good question about the thesis invites 'what do you think?' in return. Have something ready: a market you find interesting, a company you would back, one of their investments you would have questioned. A candidate who can disagree politely about a company shows more of what the job needs than one who only collects answers.
Going home without their reservations
Venture hiring is often settled by a few partners in one discussion, and a doubt nobody raised with you gets settled there too. One of the Closing questions brings it into the open while you can still answer it.