Questions for Someone Getting Involved in the Startup Community

In addition to spontaneous pitches, I’ve received a number of requests about how to get more involved in the startup community. Before talking about specific organizations, events, and programs, I start by asking a series of questions related to areas of interest and where they’d like to add value. Here are a few of the questions:

• What size and stage startup is most interesting to you? Idea stage? Seed stage? Early stage? Growth stage? Many senior executives say they want to help startups with at least $5 million in revenue, to which I reply that we’re working hard to grow more but that there aren’t very many.
• What markets and verticals do you have experience in? As an example health IT is different from marketing automation which is different from mobile device management.
• What technologies are exciting to you? Internet of things? Big data? Cloud computing?
• How specifically do you want to help? As an advisor? Mentor? Investor?
• What do you want in return? Cash? Equity? A job? Personal satisfaction from helping an entrepreneur?

After getting a solid understanding of what the person’s looking for and how they want to engage, it’s easy to point them in the right direction.

What else? What are some other questions to ask someone looking to engage in the startup community?