Venture Capital interview preparation

Questions

100

Traced to a firm

31

Firms

12

Updated

September 2026

Asked at

All firmsGeneral Atlantic9Insight Partners7Silver Lake6Vista Equity Partners4Bessemer Venture Partners3ACAccel2Advent International2Battery Ventures2Andreessen Horowitz1Coatue Management1Sequoia Capital1WPWarburg Pincus1

Topic

All topicsSourcing and deal flow5Market sizing and estimation8Founders and teams5Unit economics and cohorts11Term sheets12Cap table and dilution7Early-stage valuation7Portfolio construction6Board and governance4Down rounds and secondaries4Exits and liquidity4Fund economics5Sector theses and markets6India venture market6Fit and motivation10

Level

AnyCoreIntermediateHard

Type

AnyTechnicalFitCaseMarket viewBrainteaser

1. 004What companies are you excited about right now?Sourcing and deal flowIntermediatefirst roundBattery VenturesVenture Capital · Boston · 2019General AtlanticTechnology, Media and Telecom · New York · 2016

   Say this

   Have three ready, deliberately different, and lead with why each one matters rather than what it does. One private company in the firm's stage and sector, one public company where you have a real view, and one that is early and slightly contrarian.

   Then walk it

   1. For each, the same four-beat structure: the shift in the world that makes it possible, what the company does, the evidence it is working, and the one thing that would kill it.
   2. Keep it to ninety seconds each. The failure mode is a five-minute product description with no investment view attached.
   3. Make at least one of them a company the firm could plausibly invest in next quarter. That is the real test: whether you can see through their lens, not just yours.
   4. Have a number for each. Revenue run rate if it is public, headcount growth or download trend if it is private, and say where you got it so they know you are not guessing.
   5. The contrarian one earns the most credit and carries the most risk. Say what consensus believes and why you think consensus is wrong. If you cannot state the consensus view accurately, do not use the slot.
   6. Then be ready for the flip: the interviewer will ask why they should not invest. Having the bear case ready is what makes it look like judgement rather than enthusiasm.

   Where candidates lose it

   Naming the same three companies every candidate names, or naming something the firm already owns without knowing it. Read the portfolio page before you walk in. And never pitch a company in their portfolio as a new idea — it happens constantly and it ends the interview.

   Expect next

   • Why should we not invest in that one?
   • What would you need to believe for it to be a ten-bagger?
   • What do you think about our portfolio?

   Reported by candidates at Battery Ventures (Venture Capital, Boston, 2019); General Atlantic (Technology, Media and Telecom, New York, 2016). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

2. 082What do you think about this portfolio company?Sector theses and marketsHardsuperdayInsight PartnersGeneralist · New York · 2025Battery VenturesVenture Capital · Boston · 2019

   Say this

   Give a real assessment with a view, not a compliment. Say what you think the original thesis was, what evidence you can see about whether it is working, the one risk you would watch, and what you would want to know that you cannot see from outside. Flattery is the wrong answer and so is dismissal.

   Then walk it

   1. Reconstruct the thesis first: at the stage they invested, what must they have believed? That framing shows you can think like an investor rather than a customer, and it gives you something concrete to test.
   2. Then the observable evidence. Hiring trend and which functions they are hiring into, pricing page changes, customer logos on the website, review volume, app rankings, whether they have raised since and at what reported price. All public, all checkable.
   3. Then a view with a number attached where you can: my guess is they are somewhere between $20m and $40m of ARR based on headcount and the segment, growing well but slowing, and the interesting question is whether they can move upmarket before the incumbent bundles the feature.
   4. Then the risk. Pick one and make it specific — a competitor bundling, a channel dependency, a regulatory change, customer concentration. One well-argued risk is worth more than five generic ones.
   5. Then the question you cannot answer from outside, which is the most useful thing you can offer: 'what I would really want to see is net retention in the sub-$25k cohort, because everything about the pricing page suggests they moved upmarket and I cannot tell whether they kept the long tail or shed it.'
   6. And keep it genuinely respectful. These are their companies and the founders are their relationships. Critical is fine, dismissive is disqualifying, and there is a real difference between 'here is the risk I would watch' and 'I don't think this works'.

   Where candidates lose it

   Praising it, which shows nothing, or trashing it, which shows no judgement about the room you are in. Also: do not guess the numbers if you have not looked. This question rewards half an hour of preparation on three or four of their most prominent companies, and the candidates who do it are immediately obvious.

   Expect next

   • Would you have invested at the last round price?
   • Which company in our portfolio would you not have done?
   • What would you want to diligence about it?

   Reported by candidates at Insight Partners (Generalist, New York, 2025); Battery Ventures (Venture Capital, Boston, 2019). Source: Wall Street Oasis.

Firm tags come from public, anonymous candidate reports on Wall Street Oasis: strong signal, not sworn testimony. Firms are named as the places a question was reported, not as partners of Fin Maverick. Answers are written for this page to show how to think out loud; they are not scripts to recite.