What to expect during a VC interview

Published in

Prospect Student Ventures

7 min readJul 22, 2020

Before walking into your interview, be prepared to answer the following questions. We can’t promise that this is exhaustive, but hopefully, it’s a good place to start. Let us know if we missed something important!

Personal Pitch

Tell me about yourself (Who are you? Why do you do what you do? Tie your experiences into a broader narrative)
How do your past experiences set you up to be the best possible fit for this role?
Why VC? Why now and why not after being an operator?
Why this firm?
Who is your favorite artist? Why? (totally random but I was asked this multiple times)
At the analyst stage, VCs are looking for people who are bright and good at sales, because you’ll need to both source and do diligence, but also convince your colleagues and win the deal. You’re obviously bright. Tell me about a time when you sold something.

Resume Walk

Partners will typically ask you about something specific on your resume.

Tell me more about the startup you founded
Why did you study your major? What made you decide to attend your university?
What have you found most interesting in your undergraduate career? Why so?
How would your parents describe you in high school? In elementary school?
Ooltewah, TN. Where’s that? (Tell me about your hometown)
What do you do for fun?
What have you done so far at your job?

Informational Interview/Coffee Chat

From Harvard Business Review

Know VC Lexicon. “Study up on industry lingo. Learn who the biggest players are. Be able to talk about the most important trends. You don’t want to waste your expert’s time asking Google-able questions. You will come across as a more serious candidate if you are familiar with the jargon and vocabulary”
Be Mindful of Your Tone. “You want to leave people with a positive impression and enough information to recommend you to others”
“Prepare a succinct explanation about your background and what you’re looking for”
Don’t go in cold. “Practice doing informational interviews with friends and family so you get used to asking great questions and listening.”
“Ask for advice on how to position yourself in the job market.” If the interviewer is impressed with the conversation, they will reach out to you.

Questions to consider asking your interviewer:

How do you get into this line of work?
What do you enjoy about it?
What’s not so great about it?
What’s changing in the sector?
What kinds of people do well in this industry?
What are the worst parts of your job?
What didn’t you know before you got into this industry that you wish someone had told you?
Send a thank you email (check out our section on sourcing which includes tips on writing a follow up email)

Pitch Me a Company That You Would Want to Invest In

How to source interesting startups to talk about for a VC interview (Check out our article here)

What to consider in your response

What does this firm care about? What is this interviewer’s background?
Industry trends, value chain, competitive landscape, market sizes, value proposition for key players.

Sometimes firms will ask you to do the sourcing exercise before the interview. Here are some sample prompts:

For a generalist VC firm, what are 3 B2B and 3 B2C companies that you’d invest in and why?
For a firm focusing on enterprise software company, what kinds of startups can compete with AWS, Salesforce, Google, etc and why?
For a firm focusing on DTC, propose three trends that you’ve seen in this space and a company that is leading each trend.
What’s the Best and Worst company in our portfolio, and Why?
Let’s do some retrospective analysis. Can you explain why a successful company in our portfolio was a win? Explain some of the market forces, the product offering, and the exit.

For each prompt, here are the key things to keep in mind:

Do your research, so that you can pick companies that you truly believe in. You’d be surprised how much information you can find online beforehand.
Try to select companies that are different from each other and are also not already commonly known. It’s more impressive if you can find a company that is off the beaten path, but still sounds like a good investment.
Relate the company or trend that you’re going to talk about back to your investment thesis. It’s more important to explain yourself and say why you’d invest versus what the actual company is.
Deeply understand their portfolio and investing style/theme. Choose a few portfolio companies you know have been historical winners and losers and rationalize a path for each. You might have to dig into some SEC S-1 document (used for IPO listing) to get a better sense of how much they invest, at what stages, on what basis, etc.

Would You Invest in this Startup?

Typically the interviewer will share relevant information about a current portfolio company. This is your chance to show your interviewer how you break down companies and give a recommendation for whether or not you would invest in the given company. Refer to questions from our investment memo for inspiration.
Growth firms might ask for a paper LBO.

Mock Sourcing Call

You may be asked to walk the interviewer through a mock sourcing call, where you play the role of the analyst and your interviewer plays the role of the CEO/Founder. During this call, consider asking questions from our investment memo.

From Lux Capital, open with:

“I am from firm X. We were investors in x, y, z and have backed prominent founders like a, b c in the past. Love your space and what you are doing, and would love … to learn more and share our insights in the space”.

How would you generate deal flow?

Think about leveraging your personal network, past experiences involving cold outreach, and our sourcing tips. Consider sharing how you found the startup that you just pitched. While they don’t necessarily need to be sourcing companies outright, provide real tangible examples to illustrate your ability to network.

Investment Presentation

Check out Investment Memos for VC Interviews

What is Your Preferred Area of Focus/Vertical

Not all programs will ask this, especially if you’re interviewing for a general analyst program
Do your research on the partners — what are their areas of expertise?
Where is the firm looking to grow?

Questions Specific to Biotech

Explain the underlying platform for Company X? What is the competitive advantage of using that modality? Is the platform defensible?
Would you invest in an asset-centric company or platform company? Why and under which scenarios? Please provide examples.
Let’s say the company develops a drug that is promising but is preclinical, does that justify a step up in valuation? Under what circumstance?
Why is the greatest step up in valuation in clinical development?
Why do certain biotech companies become undervalued when a product is ultimately commercialized?
Explain the capital intensity of life science companies. Why is that so? Why is going “public” so much more important?
Compare an early stage investor (e.g. Polaris Partners) to a late-stage investor (Bain Capital Life Sciences). What are some of the key differences?
Who do you admire in the life sciences industry? Why is he or she such a great leader?
Are you familiar with Deal X? Why did Big Pharma Y acquire Biotech Z? Explain the M&A in the grand strategy.
If you had to acquire one company right now as Big Pharma Y, which one would it be and why?

A Compilation of Behavioral Questions

Our List:

Leadership/Teamwork: Tell me a time you’ve lead a group of people and executed a vision
Tell me about a time when you failed
Are you a leader or a follower?
Tell me about a time when you encountered an ethical dilemma
Tell me about a time when something did not go as planned
Tell me about analytical experience/Tell me a time you approached something logically
Tell me about a time in which you came in touch with someone with a different background or perspective than you, and how did you work together
What’s Your Biggest Accomplishment?
Tell me about your most interesting networking experience. How did that come to be?
Strengths/Weaknesses? (3 each!)
If you were a startup, what would be your competitive advantage?
What do you bring to the table that other candidates can’t? (aka what’s your superpower)
Do you have any questions for me?

From What happens in a VC informational interview

What opportunities for investment do you see in the space you worked in prior to business school?
How did you do academically in your undergrad program?
Discuss your involvement in vendor selection at your previous jobs.
Talk about a leadership experience you’ve had.
Tell me about what you perceive to be the functions of the job.
What do you think about the long term trajectory of your former employer?

Investopedia’s Top 9 Venture Capital Interview Questions

What Are Some Recent Developments in Our Industry?
What Has Been the Most Interesting IPO or Acquisition in Our Industry in the Past Year?
What Columns/Blogs Do You Read?
Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?
How Would You Evaluate a Possible Portfolio Company and Its Business Plan?
Tell Me About Your Most Challenging Professional Experience.
What Industries Are of Greatest Interest to You?
What Have You Personally Invested In?

From What is the analyst/associate hiring process like for VC firms?

Forget the venture business for a second, tell me your story. Start wherever you like.
What kind of student were you at school?
What books do you read?
I see you are working in the operating team of a “hot startup,” tell us what it’s like and what exactly you are doing day to day.
How is X investor at “hot startup.”
What industries have you interested? Would you invest and why?
If we gave you a business plan, how would you assess it? (analytical question)
What blogs do you read?
What are your thoughts on StartUp Britain?
Why didn’t you want to become a [journalist, investment banker, entrepreneur] instead?
Where is the industry you are working in headed? Why do you think that? What do you predict will happen in the next five years?
Have you seen a balance sheet before (don’t worry, I never saw one when I was 22 either)?
Tell me where you are going on holiday this year?