I remember a similar list of questions being posted in the past that were for any engineering position. Couldn't find the one I was looking for but this was posted a while ago and seems pretty nice: https://www.keyvalues.com/culture-queries
Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
211–220 of 348 posts
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#212Major omission: Does the business model make sense to you? More specifically: Is there a demand for the product? Are there competitors? If not, why not -- are you sure the product is actually something that somebody wants? If there are competitors -- how will your startup compete with them? Do you trust the people running the company to guide it to success, either directly, or because they have plans to hire people w…
Agreed, but this is sometimes very hard for a candidate to assess if they themselves are nowhere near the target customer.
Asking about competitors is a great question though.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#213The only valid reasons for working at a seed-stage / series A startup: You are a founder. They are working with a technology or in an industry that you specifically want to work with and it is very hard to work on it professionally, and doing side projects are infeasible. You need experience and you have no other option to get experience. You are getting a significant title bump that moves your career forwards. Inval…
I'd add one more to the "valid reasons": rehab
You see guys working late at their little startup and maybe thing you should tell them it’s not going to happen. Because honestly for most of them it’s not.
But... I want to make the case that it's OK.
Even if it’s never happening they may be happy. If one stops viewing startups as $$$ opportunities and starts viewing them as rehab from the soulless corporate jobs full of soul-wilting mediocrity, politics, legacy, same old shit over and over, and backstabbing, then it might make a kind of sense to work at a startup instead. Take a pay cut and "try some different shit out" with a tightly-knit team.
It’s a chance to work with things that are greenfield and/or new/different/experiment. Maybe it works. It’s a chance to not be bored. You aren’t wedded to it and don’t need to do it forever. Stay up late and code for awhile. Have pizza. Debug. Try. Care.
The gotcha is if people focus on the IMGONNARICH including the management (where it translates to UNDERMARKETYOURCOMP, though maybe one doesn’t care). That’s poisonous but I think there are lots of options where this isn’t true.
The more people I talk to outside the Bay Area, the more I encounter who I think are doing it right. A lot of them are not crazy, they don’t really think IMGONNARICH. They don’t end up in the FEELINGSWILLBECRUSHED state after it doesn't work (because, honestly, it doesn't).
I like people and being around them. I love the feeling of a team pulling together and exploring the dark corners of a problem. So when a break is in order, the answer might be startup rehab. It's cheaper and better for your career than a full-on year off.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#214the answer to every question on this list: "We are a private company and don't share this information." Outside of the room, the Engineering team laughs at your questions, Operations and the CEO give each other quizzical looks before laughing too, and they go on to the next candidate. You get smug satisfaction for not going with "THAT Company who cant answer simple questions", until a reminder about the rent payment…
I'm sorry to hear about your experience.
Anecdata, but I interviewed for a marketing role at a 10-person startup in 2013. I asked questions #1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 - and the company was more than happy to 1) answer immediately, or 2) say "I don't know, but let me find out." I should have asked the other questions (especially the relo package!), but I was young, naive, and not tactful enough to ask tougher questions in a "cooperative" manner.
IMO it's insane to work for a company if they're evasive about the value of your equity (#4-8). That's tantamount to lying about comp. You can usually find out how much they've raised on Crunchbase, and you can napkin-math their burn by eyeballing the team (#9-13; payroll is the dominant expense for most startups). #14 seems like a weird question to ask, but YMMV.
I would take their answer to the product-market fit question with a heaping pinch of salt (what are they going to say, "no"? and PMF means something different to everyone), and listen closely to the "feedback from customers" answer.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#215the answer to every question on this list: "We are a private company and don't share this information." Outside of the room, the Engineering team laughs at your questions, Operations and the CEO give each other quizzical looks before laughing too, and they go on to the next candidate. You get smug satisfaction for not going with "THAT Company who cant answer simple questions", until a reminder about the rent payment…
I don't understand why this comment is the top one right now. Has this been people's experience? I have asked all these questions (pretty much) and have gotten almost everything answered. Answers regarding revenues where a little obfuscate or a range was given.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
The company doesn't have to answer every question but it would be a huge red flag if the company could not answer any of them.
and your lack of higher salary history will be a huge red flag to your rental, credit, auto, mortgage, and accredited investor application
Joining a startup is not how you get a higher salary. For many, it’s a pay cut.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
What happens if your cap table is public? I would imagine if your wooing investors, they will get to see the cap table + more even if they never invest. And VCs talk to each other, so they can probably find out if curious from other VCs. Why all the secrecy?
I've only ever heard of one company with a public cap table. After a bit of googling, I found them again: https://open.buffer.com/buffer-open-equity-formula/ . EDIT: lol the same link is in TFA. The problem with a public cap table is that it amounts to a public salary database. Usually companies (and employees) don't want everyone to publicly know everyone else's salary. When people do jobs you don't understand (like…
I think not revealing individual employees stocks is probably fine with most employees if the company doesn't have public salaries. You would put that in a summary 'employee stock' category in the cap table.
"difficulty recruiting as candidates get soured by the prospect that investor's real equity is better than their sweat equity."
So basically looking for useful idiots as they really realize that the startup is definitely not a good deal? They are investors after all, but investors without full disclosures.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#218the answer to every question on this list: "We are a private company and don't share this information." Outside of the room, the Engineering team laughs at your questions, Operations and the CEO give each other quizzical looks before laughing too, and they go on to the next candidate. You get smug satisfaction for not going with "THAT Company who cant answer simple questions", until a reminder about the rent payment…
This is ridiculous. The vast majority, of not all, of these questions are easily and readily answered by interviewers day in and day out. Not asking any of them is the read flag that makes people wonder if your even serious about taking the job or just there for interview practice.
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have... but you have to be within the first 10 employees or so.
well, within the first 10 employees you are coming in just before or just after series A. You can just assume what the stack looks like.
Not really. Two startups can have vastly different cap tables, even before the A round, if they even make it there. I have witnessed this first hand. Some have trouble raising seed money and blow 50% or more of their equity just in the seed round alone. Others are more promising, may only give up 10 or 20%...
Re: Questions to Ask Before Joining a Startup
#220These are mostly offer stage questions. If somebody asked most of these in the opening interview I'd probably pass.
My most important preliminary questions are all trying to get to root of one issue: Does this company follow a theory x vs theory y leadership model. So many companies out there claiming to be team oriented but in actuality are top down, my way or the highway operations.