Front Office Investing interview prep.

Behavioural questions to expect

1. Walk me through your CV.
2. Tell me about your most impressive project, deal, or company you've worked with.
3. Tell me about a weakness, a failure, or feedback you've received and worked on.
4. Why venture capital? Why not growth equity or operating?
5. Why the firm?
6. What sector or thesis are you most excited about, and why now?
7. How would you describe the firm's thesis and edge in your own words?
8. In a competitive round against a top competitor, why does a founder pick the firm?

Technical concepts to master

• The Series A pitch — the scaffold

  Team · Market + why now · Traction · Ownership + entry · Return-the-fund + risks

• Evaluating founders + teams

  Founder-market fit · Execution + velocity · Recruiting + storytelling · Red flags

• Market sizing + why now

  Bottom-up TAM · Top-down sanity check · SAM / SOM · Why now

• Venture math

  Power law + return-the-fund · Ownership + dilution · The VC method · Reserves + follow-on

• Early-stage diligence

  Retention + cohorts · Burn multiple · CAC payback + unit economics · Defensibility / moat

Practical drills

• Pitch me a Series A you'd lead, in the firm's thesis. 5 min prep, 5-7 min delivery. Be ready to be probed for 10-15 min on the team, the market, and the return-the-fund math.
• Size the annual market for a B2B SaaS product that sells to mid-market companies (100-1,000 employees) in one country. Build it bottom-up, then sanity-check top-down, and state your 'why now'.
• Your $300m fund leads a Series A: $10m for 20% at a $50m post-money. By exit you're diluted to ~12%. (a) What exit value returns the whole fund? (b) What's your MoM at that exit? (c) What does this say about which companies are worth leading?

Smart-question anchors

• Sourcing model — where the firm's best deals actually come from and how an analyst / associate contributes to the pipeline
• Decision + conviction — how the firm decides (partner-led vs consensus) and what it weights (team / market / traction)
• Value-add platform — what founders get post-investment (talent, GTM, BD) and how associates engage with portfolio companies
• Portfolio construction — ownership targets, reserves / pro-rata strategy, and how the fund thinks about returners
• Thesis development — how the firm forms and refreshes its sector theses, and whether associates own thesis work

Sourced from

Mergers & Inquisitions — Venture Capital Interview Questions · Growth Equity Interview Guide — VC questions · Hustle Fund — power law in startup investing · Equidam / Kruze Consulting — VC method + startup valuation · Dialllog / GoingVC — venture capital metrics · Wall Street Oasis (WSO)