Key takeaways
- Ask every founder at the same stage the same core questions, so their answers can be compared.
- Each question pairs with the evidence that would back up the answer, from a customer list to a bank export.
- Questions are about the business. None asks about age, family, nationality, religion, health or appearance.
- Judge the substance of an answer and its evidence, not accent, fluency or how polished it sounds.
How to use the founder interview question generator
- 1Pick the company's stage: idea, pre-revenue or post-revenue. The stage decides which questions apply, so a post-revenue company is asked how it defines revenue rather than what would prove demand.
- 2Pick the sector. Health, fintech, hardware, marketplace, consumer and B2B software each add questions of their own, such as approvals, licences or unit costs.
- 3Tick the topics you want to cover, from problem and customer to use of funds.
- 4Set how many questions you want, between 3 and 15. The tool shows the expected length at about two minutes per answer.
- 5Turn reviewer guidance on or off, then copy the list into your interview notes, a form or an email.
How the questions are chosen
The library holds about 45 questions, each tagged with a topic, the stages it suits and, for some, a sector. The tool keeps the questions that match your choices, then takes one from each chosen topic in turn until it reaches your count. Within a topic, a question written for your sector comes first, then the general ones in a fixed order.
Because there is no random step, two partners who make the same choices get the same questions in the same order. Change the stage or sector and the list changes in a predictable way.
| Stage | Focus | Example question |
|---|---|---|
| Idea | The problem, how the founders found it, and the test that would prove demand | What would you need to see in the next three months to know this is working? |
| Pre-revenue | Signals short of revenue, the first customers and how they decided | What evidence do you have that people want this, short of revenue? |
| Post-revenue | Revenue with its definition, paying versus free customers, growth, margins and payback | How many customers pay you, and how many are on free pilots or trials? |
Why every founder gets the same core questions
Comparable questions make comparable answers. If one founder is asked about churn and another about vision, a reviewer ends up comparing conversations rather than companies. Hiring research points the same way: the US Office of Personnel Management describes structured interviews, with the same predefined questions and benchmarks for scoring, as showing higher rater agreement and reliability than unstructured ones.
A founder interview isn't a job interview, and a fixed list is a floor, not a script. Ask follow-up questions where an answer is thin, and note the evidence you asked for so the next reviewer can see what is still open.
What the questions leave out
No question in the library asks about a founder's age, family plans, marital status, nationality, religion, health or appearance. They tell you nothing about the company, and in many places asking them is unlawful or unfair. A test in the tool's code checks the library for these topics.
The reviewer guidance describes the content of a good answer, never the delivery. Accent, fluency, confidence on camera and presentation polish are not part of the assessment, and the copied text says so at the end.
Limits of a fixed question library
- The questions don't know what is in the founder's deck. Read the deck first and add questions about the specific claims you want checked.
- The tool doesn't score answers. The guidance helps you judge them, and the decision stays with you.
- Two minutes per answer is a planning assumption, not a measurement. Some answers take longer, especially ones that need numbers.
- Seven sector options cover common cases only. For anything else, choose Other or general and add your own questions.
- The library is in English.
Founder interviews in Delsivo
Founder interviews are planned for Delsivo's first release. By design, each is a live call the founder starts when it suits them: a screen-share pitch of about 5 minutes, then an AI interviewer asks the fund's fixed questions and follow-ups drawn from the pitch, the deck and open claims, within a cap of 15 to 20 minutes the fund sets. A text interview under the same rubric is always available. AI suggests an assessment of substance and evidence, with timestamped transcript citations; analysts decide who advances and can override any assessment with a reason. Read how founder interviews will work.
Sources
- US Office of Personnel Management: Structured interviews (checked 6 November 2026)
Facts about other companies and services come from the pages listed, on the dates shown, and can change.