10 questions reported in Benchmark interviews, organised by the group that asks them. Every question carries a model answer and graded feedback on your own attempt.
Questions
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Hard
Model builds
Built in the spreadsheet grid
Founder assessment, market sizing from first principles and ownership maths. 6 questions
A foundational VC interview question that tests whether the candidate understands why an investor asks for follow-on rights.
What is a pro rata right in venture capital? Give a simple example of why an early investor may value it.
At seed stage there are no financials, so this is most of the decision.
At seed stage there's no revenue and no product-market fit. How do you assess a founding team?
Tests whether you understand what venture is actually optimising for.
A $200m seed fund makes 30 investments. How does it return 3x to its investors, and what does that imply about how you should evaluate any single deal?
A take-home style task for analysts supporting a seed investment committee memo.
You complete five customer calls. Two love the product, two say it is useful but non-essential, and one stopped using it after a month. How would you turn that into a recommendation rather than a list…
The question that decides whether early traction becomes a durable business.
A startup is growing fast but the product could be rebuilt in six months by a competent team. Is that a problem? How do you assess defensibility?
An investment-committee follow-up when a compelling seed company has little revenue history.
A developer-tools company has a strong technical founder, 12 active design partners, no paid revenue, and is raising at a $24m pre-money valuation. How would you decide whether that price is…
Reference calls, technical diligence, term sheets and preference stacks. 4 questions
Portfolio associates are expected to explain simple cap-table changes clearly to founders and investment partners.
A portfolio company has 8.0m fully diluted shares before a financing and needs to create a 400,000-share option refresh immediately before the round. Calculate the dilution to existing holders from…
Tests whether you understand that follow-ons compete for finite capital across a portfolio.
Why does a VC fund reserve capital for follow-on rounds, and how would you decide which companies receive it?
A board-level portfolio case involving founder incentives, governance and an unusually large secondary request.
A Series C company is raising $60m primary capital at a $500m pre-money valuation. The founder asks to sell $15m of personal shares in the same round. Growth is strong, but the company has missed two…
Tests whether you know which terms are economic and which are control.
Beyond valuation, which term sheet provisions matter most? Separate the economic terms from the control terms.
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 Benchmark.