Questions to ask when someone pitches product

4 points·andrewtbham··5 comments

i am planning to meet with a guy.... he has a background in sales and before that, design. he is trying to pitch me on the idea of being a partner in a business he has planned. generally i just plan to listen to the pitch and think it over... any ideas on questions to ask?

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One thing he needs to have figured out is: how are you going to get people to come to your site. Since he has a background in sales, he should already have a solid plan for how to get visitors and turn them into users. If he doesn't that is a huge red flag. You can have the most awesome value proposition ever, but if you don't know how to get users (not just traffic), then it doesn't matter at all. Most people underestimate how hard it is to get people to use stuff on the internet.

Also, if you gave us a general idea of the market or general area the idea falls under, we could provide more specific advice.

Good luck!

If he wants you to be a developer, I'd ask for hourly rate plus large equity stake. If someone's only looking for free labor to execute their idea, they usually back out when hearing this.

What have you done to get this business going other than contact me and write a pitch? How have you attempted to validate the assumptions of your business so far?

- what problem or gap in the market are you addressing?

- who are your competitors, how are you different?

- whats the business model, path to profitable, and when?

- what's the biggest hurdle the venture faces - in your opinion?

- show me the analysis/numbers? (to see that due diligence has been attempted)

these are good questions...

when you say "path to profitable"... do you mean.. how to get traction or sales?

what kind of analysis/numbers should i be looking for? market size?

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