Get my free new Biz Jumpstart Kit!<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nQuestion #6: Are there any intentions to raise money in the next year or the next few years?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The sixth question that I asked is, are there any intentions to raise money in the next year or the next few years? The reason why you want to ask this question is because it can give you a better understanding of what exactly this organization is working towards some stuff. We’ll take the venture capital route. And when they do that, it means that there will often be raised expectations from outside investors who have come into the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so as a result that might lead to certain pressures that you may or may not want to be a part of, but if you don’t have a clear understanding of what it looks like in terms of what the aspirations of this startup are, well, then you won’t have a better understanding of exactly how the goals throughout the year, if you were to actually join this startup might look like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A lot of times, if you join a startup that has just raised a big series, A, B, C, or D round, you’re going to find that there are renewed expectations for that company. And that’s because investors have funneled millions of dollars into this business and they’re expecting some form of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so what that might mean is that certain priorities are changing, which means you have to understand whether or not those change priorities align well with the role that you are potentially considering. On the flip side of things, if you’re talking to a startup that is completely bootstrapped or has limited funding, well, that will also change the way that that startup approach is building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that situation, that startup is probably going to be a little bit more conservative, but what that allows the startup to do as well is because they don’t have the outside expectations of additional investors, they’re able to play potentially longer-term games on certain strategies which gives you even more runway in terms of working towards whatever it is that you might be building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So by asking this sort of question and what are the goals and the intentions, as well as whether or not there’s any intentions to raise capital, we get a clear understanding of how things might change when we actually get into the role itself. I’ve had friends in the past who have joined Starbucks before raises and they didn’t ask this question, and so it became really problematic later on because in their first 12 months on the job, the company actually raised a big round. And as a result, it’s changes happened in the company that they didn’t necessarily agree with, and if they’d known that this would have happened beforehand, well, then they would have factored that into their decision to take the particular job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Question #7: What are three words that you would use to describe this startups culture?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The reason why this question is great is because it’s forces people to take a step back and just reflect on what they think embody some of the core values of the culture of this organization. And what you should be looking for is whether or not there are trends between the different folks of the organization and what they’re saying or using in their words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you’re seeing a lot of similarities in terms of things like we work really hard, but we like to have fun as well, or we are intellectually curious or we approach iterating really quickly and we use agile approaches. These are sorts of keywords or triggers that you can think about when deciding between different opportunities that you might have. If on the other hand, you see complete differences in how people are describing the culture, well, then that’s probably a signal for you that maybe the culture isn’t as strong as what’s being pitched to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So by asking this sort of question, you give folks an opportunity to reflect on their experiences with this particular organization. And also take that into your own evaluation criteria of whether or not you’re going to join this company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you liked this article, be sure to\u00a0check out my YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0to get new videos every single week. I\u2019ll help take you from zero to self-starter as you grow your business, get more customers, and hone your business acumen. Also, feel free to share this with anybody that you think might benefit from learning the exact questions you can ask before joining a startup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n