100 questions investors WILL ask

During a whirlwind trip to Hong Kong, I was asked to talk on raising a seed round, something we recently .

*Groan worthy event title, I know :)

During it I mentioned prepping likely investor questions.  Here is my list of 100 in no particular order:

1. Who else has committed?
2. How much is the customer acquisition cost?
3. What is the LTV and LT?
4. How does this change with volume?
5. When would you get to market saturation?
6. How much runway do you have?
7. What about you makes you suited to start this company?
8. Who is your target user?
9. How did you customers find you?
10. What is your go to market strategy?
11. Have you tested your go to market strategy?
12. What do you want out of your startup?
13. What is the return multiple you expect for investment?
14. What are the possible exits for your startup and when?
15. Have you invested personally in the company?
16. If so, how much?
17. What is your runway?
18. What is your burn rate?
19. What is your cash flow situation?
20. What is the team now?
21. What will be the use of proceeds?
22. Why are you raising the money you are?
23. Why are you planning to spend like that?
24. What’s the cap table now?
25. What’s the cap table post close?
26. What’s your ownership percentage?
27. What’s the valuation, pre and post?
28. How much have they committed?
29. How are the unit economics?
30. What is unique about your team?
31. What are the team backgrounds?
32. What is unique about your technology?
33. Can you describe your technology in more basis?
34. Who are your closest competitors?
35. How are you different from them?
36. What is the competitive barrier?
37. Are you competing on price, product, UX  etc etc?
38. Has this business model been proven elsewhere?
39. What is your target market?
40. What is your addressable market?
41. What is your branding strategy?
42. Will you partner up with other companies?
43. Why are you based in USA / Hong Kong?
44. What is your expansion plan beyond…?
45. What platforms are critical to your success and why?
46. How have you constructed your business projections?
47. When is expected breakeven timeframe?
48. If you had half/double/triple the funds how would that change your plan?
49. Why are you using a convertible note / equity vehicle?
50. How do you justify the valuation / cap?
51. What are the comparables for your valuation?
52. What are the comparables for exit?
53. What is the projected revenue and profit over the next 3 years
54. Do you have any debts or liabilities
55. Do you have any licensing requirements?
56. What is the IP ownership and exclusivity on your technology usage?
57. Are your original seed investors following on?
58. How will you get to 100k / 1M / 1M customers?
59. What is the conversion rate to register/download?
60. What is the conversion rate to pay?
61. What is the ARPPU first day, week, month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year
62. What is the retention rate first day etc
63. What has been the user feedback so far?
64. Can I talk to some users?
65. Would you consider a tranche investment?
66. What type of investor are you looking for?
67. Will you increase the round size?
68. When are you closing the round?
69. Do you have a prototype of the next project?
70. What’s to stop Tencent/Zynga/Google etc entering the market?
71. How far will this round last you?
72. When will you start to raise the next round?
73. Who are you going to raise the next round with?
74. How do you monetize?
75. Are there any other alternative monetization techniques?
76. What are your biggest challenges at the moment?
77. What are the terms of the deal?
78. What is the downside protection of the deal?
79. What is the upside opportunity for the deal in the next round?
80. What is there is an acquisition before the end of the next round?
81. How much have employees got in your company and on what terms?
82. Why are you personally the right CEO for the company?
83. What are the unknowns in your business model?
84. What is your directly addressable market?
85. What is the likely revenue share/terms of go to market partnerships?
86. Do you have experience growing businesses?
87. Can I invest later on?
88. When do you need the funds by?
89. What will the board and management structure look like post closing?
90. What is your China entry strategy?
91. Is your localization strategy?
92. What is the company structure?
93. Who has authority/veto for this funding round?
94. What is your co-founder’s share situation?
95. Can I get access to your metrics dashboard?
96. Who are your existing investors?
97. What is your ideal investor?
98. How much do you want me to invest?
99. Do you have any contractual commitments we should know about?
100. What is the minimum/maximum investment block?

*I was the vast majority of these at one point or another during the round…

Full slides:

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