TOP Venture Capital Internship/Analyst interview questions

4 min readOct 23, 2018

I have started my internship with Flashpoint Venture Capital in June 2018, and now as we are looking for someone to replace me, I think there are some basics every applicant should know. I wish I had a list like this when I was looking for a VC intern opportunity :)

NEW : Book a slot for a training interview with me here.

(last update 04/2023)

Here are some basic questions. The same type of questions goes for an analyst, but of course, an analyst should have deeper knowledge. I’ll try to keep this list updated, so please, if you have any other relevant questions, comment below or contact me. Also, I will probably write another article with a couple of advice/answers for the interview (you can now find this article here + a new and fun one about a daily life in a VC fund here). At the end of the article, you’ll also find a couple of interesting ressources, see you there.

First, a couple of general advice to succeed:

You need to have some basic knowledge about the startup world (and VCs) like business models, trending markets and industries, success stories, and so on.
You need to have analytical and critical thinking skills.
Don’t be afraid if you do not know the answer, but please NO bullshit. If you do not know the answer, say it and ask for an explanation. What I liked about all my interviewers is that they always took time to explain some notions and concepts I was not familiar with.

About you

Can you introduce yourself?
Can you tell me more about your time at …?
During this experience, which KPI was important during your work?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Why do you want to work for a VC?
And why us?
What industries are of greatest interest to you?

About VC

What are some recent developments in the VC industry?
What are the most important criteria to consider when assessing a startup?
How do you assess an early-stage startup VS a later-stage startup?
How would you find/source new startups?
What are 1 or 2 important KPI for a VC firm?
How do you calculate the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)?
Can you tell me what Lifetime Value is? Take a simple example and calculate it.
What can you say about the ratio LTV/CAC?
How do you calculate a churn rate?
What has been the most interesting IPO in our industry focus in the past year?
What is the difference between pre-money and post-money?
What is the difference between Private Equity and VC?
What is the most important thing in VC?

About startups

How do you follow startup news?
Choose one startup that you admire. Why?
Can you describe its business model?
Do you know other business models?
What is the more important between the idea and the execution?
What is the more important between growth and profitability?

About Finance

Do you like finance and investing in general?
Do you have a portfolio (of any kind)?
How would you value a company in general?
And how would you value a startup?
Walk me through a P/L.
What is the difference in the first lines of the income statement between Deliveroo and HelloFresh? (for example)
Which one is generally the most relevant for a startup, EV/EBITDA or EV/Sales?
Do you know the market cap of XXX? If no estimate.
Did you follow the recent IPO of XXX? What was the stock price, valuation, etc?
How is the stock market doing?

Cases / Brain teasers:

Market sizing (for ex, how many Starbucks in NYC?)
Invest or not? General introduction of a company. I give you 5 questions to decide whether you should invest in a company or not. What are these questions? Make a decision.
Open a business? Imagine you have to open a XXX business in XXX. How do you plan to attract your customers? How do you plan to be profitable? to grow? etc

About the VC you are applying for

What do you know about the XXX market? (a target market for the VC)
According to you, which startup is the most promising in our portfolio and why?
And the least promising? why?
According to our investment thesis, do you have a startup in mind that we should look at? Why?
Who are our VCs competitors?
Do you have any questions?