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NETWORKING AND SOFT SKILLS
What to Ask an Investor: 30 Questions for Getting Acquainted and Networking
questions that will help you get to know your conversation partner better
What are the questions that help build a smart and meaningful conversation?
A conversation with an investor is not small talk. It’s a moment when, in just a few minutes, you need to show the scale of your thinking, your maturity, and your ability to see the business beyond your own product. That’s why the right questions help not only to get to know the investor, but also to demonstrate the entrepreneur’s level.
Here are 30 questions that help build a smart and meaningful conversation.
What questions to ask an investor when you first meet
1. What has been the most unexpected lesson for you during your time as an investor?
2. At what moment did you realize that you wanted to become an investor?
3. Which investment do you consider your most successful, and why?
4. Which project has taught you the most?
5. What has changed in your approach to investing over the past years?
2. How to understand an investor’s mindset
6. What qualities do you value most in startup founders?
7. What makes you say “no” even if the idea is interesting?
8. What is more important for you: the team or the market?
What mistakes do founders most often make at first meetings?
9. What distinguishes strong entrepreneurs from ordinary ones?
3. What to ask an investor about the market and trends
11. Which industries are currently underestimated by investors?
12. Which markets do you consider overheated?
13. Which trends will define the next 5–10 years?
14. Which directions are most investors looking at right now?
15. Which niches are only beginning to emerge?
4. What questions to ask an investor about a startup
16. What makes a startup truly attractive for investment?
17. At what stage do you usually enter projects?
18. Which metrics are most important to you at an early stage?
19. How do you assess the team’s potential?
20. How quickly do you understand whether it’s worth investing or not?
5. How to discuss the relationship between founder and investor
21. What is the best way for founders to stay in touch with investors?
22. What do entrepreneurs do wrong after receiving investments?
23. When is the best time for a startup to start looking for investments?
24. What do you expect from a founder after the deal?
25. What kind of relationship between an investor and a founder do you consider ideal?
5. What to ask an investor about the future and new ideas
26. Which technologies inspire you the most right now?
27. How will the venture capital market change in the coming years?
28. Which companies would you invest in if you were starting today?
29. Which ideas look crazy today but could become huge?
30. If you were launching a startup now, what would it be?
Sincere interest as the foundation of strong networking
Good networking is built on genuine interest.
People are more willing to share their experience and ideas when they feel that the conversation is not an attempt to sell them something, but a desire to understand how they think. It’s exactly these kinds of conversations that most often turn into strong business relationships.
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