Good coffee chat questions?

Does anyone have any good questions? Not your standard "what's your investment strategy?" "how much sourcing / diligence / portco?" "what's the culture?"

At the later rounds as well, I find a lot of it is open time for questions. What do you ask? Can't ask the whole team the same question

10 Comments
 

I typically ask them how they found their way to the firm or sometimes just ask them if they were involved in a specific deal their shop just completed. If the person is from the same school as me or from the same part of the country, I try to make the conversation more personable and just ask them what it was like growing up or what they were involved in at school. People generally like talking about themselves so it doesn't take much to get them going if they are interested in talking with you.

 
  • How would your x years of experience as an investor change what you were looking for in a fund coming out of banking?
  • Were you always been most interested in [your type of deal] or did you ever consider pursuing [other types of transactions], and is there anything you would have done differently when you were in our shoes recruiting for PE roles.
  • How do you (or your firm for juniors) foster a positive culture in an industry when there is always a ton work to be done at any given time?
  • For smaller funds:
    • How do you differentiate your fund as a home for a software company when you are competing against larger funds with operating teams and large professional networks?
 

When talking with jammbo places, do they get flustered or annoyed when you ask the question about differentiation? 

 

"ask me if I give a *ck about a thing/ ask me if I give a *ck about a diss/ ask me if I give a fck a doubt-a-diss [e'y'] recently I just don't give a fuckabouta thiing"

"ask me if I give a *ck about a thing/ ask me if I give a *ck about a diss/ ask me if I give a fck a doubt-a-diss [e'y'] recently I just don't give a fuckabouta thiing"

Fucking hate everyghing

f....fuck,man...
 
Most Helpful

As a general matter, I really prefer it if people made their intentions transparent. People who reach out to me don’t care about my life story - the real question they want to ask is “can you please give me a job”.

So instead of pretending to care about how I got to where I am, just be forefront and say things like:
*I am interested in exploring a career with your firm on your team
*This is my background - do you think my skillset would be complementary & accretive to your shop
*I read X and Y about your firm and that caught my interest as I’m looking for the next chapter of my career - can you please elaborate a bit more

Direct and transparent is my personal preference (though obviously don’t pitch too hard and come off as a hardo - someone did that recently and it became a bit of a joke on our desk).

Good luck.

 

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