8 questions reported in Battery Ventures interviews, organised by the group that asks them. Every question carries a model answer and graded feedback on your own attempt.
Questions
Easy · Medium
Hard
Model builds
Built in the spreadsheet grid
Reference calls, technical diligence, term sheets and preference stacks. 4 questions
Portfolio reviews reveal whether candidates can recognise when a clean-looking metric is misleading.
A founder reports net revenue retention of 118%, but finance calculates 104%. How do you resolve the difference before using the metric in a board meeting?
Portfolio teams help companies prepare for strategic or financial exit processes well before a banker is hired.
A founder says the company is ready to sell. What do you assess before encouraging a formal process?
A portfolio-platform case asks you to create value through a customer introduction without substituting a warm email for real go-to-market work.
A Series A security startup asks its VC for introductions to enterprise customers. Build the workflow for deciding whom to introduce and how you would measure whether the support was useful.
A VC portfolio-diligence case where an associate must use scarce founder and finance-team access to decide whether a bridge round funds a financeable business.
You are diligencing a proposed $12m Series A bridge for RelayOps, a workflow-software portfolio company. The investment committee meets tomorrow, management can answer only a limited number of…
Cohort economics, CAC payback, net revenue retention and burn multiple. 3 questions
Used to test whether a growth investor can separate headline growth from capital efficiency.
A company burned $18m of cash over the last twelve months and increased ARR from $30m to $42m. Calculate its burn multiple. What would you investigate before using it to make an investment decision?
A practical diligence case for assessing whether a management plan is fundable.
Management forecasts ARR to grow from $20m to $40m next year. How would you test whether the forecast is credible?
A growth-investing case asks the analyst to decide whether management's pipeline and revenue dashboards can support an investment-committee forecast.
Management says it can add $18m of new ARR next year and provides a CRM export showing $54m of pipeline. Outline the workflow you would use to decide whether the pipeline supports the plan.
Founder assessment, market sizing from first principles and ownership maths. 1 question
A final-round diligence judgement case: decide whether the reported traction supports a seed investment before signing a term sheet.
A B2B software startup reports $1.2m of ARR, up 150% year over year, and is raising a seed extension. You learn that one customer contributes 55% of ARR, all contracts contain 90-day termination…
Write your answer, get it graded on technical accuracy, completeness and communication, and see exactly which mechanic you missed.
Company tags reflect where a question type is commonly reported in interviews. They are not sourced from, endorsed by, or affiliated with Battery Ventures.