Interview Questions for Public Investor

Time: Approximately 30 minutes

Important: When answering, please try not to have later questions influence your answers to previous questions.

1.     What size is your entire public portfolio? Private portfolio?

2.     Why do you invest in publicly traded incubator stocks?

3.     What are your criteria for choosing one incubator stock over another?

4.     What portion of your entire public portfolio is invested in incubator type stocks?

5.     Do you also invest privately, like an angel investor, or in a VC fund (assuming the VC fund would take your money), where there are preferred shares and liquidation rights for some downside protection? Common stock has no downside protection (assuming you have no option rights).

6.     Would you invest in the IPO or post-IPO of an incubated company of an incubator?

7.     Are you worried that these incubator are incentives to build to “flip” (e.g. IPO), rather than build to “last” (sustainable growth)? The incubator might need to take it’s incubated companies public (to “validate” it’s business model) so as to get a higher valuation in it’s own IPO.

Instructions:

Please copy and paste these questions into either an email or Microsoft Word document, and answer the questions. Please email them to me at omac@mit.edu. Thank you!

For phone and in-person interviews, I will ask to record the call/interview. This allows me to focus on the questions and answers rather than taking notes, and pecking on the keyboard while on the phone.

MIT is very strict on how these recordings are used and will only be used for my own academic purposes. If at anytime in the future, you or anyone within your firm would like the recording erased or destroyed, please let me know and I will comply. If you're uncomfortable in any way having it recorded, I can do without.  

All interview materials are considered confidential and proprietary to those companies interviewed. No direct references to the company will be made in the Thesis, other than in the "Contributors" section, unless otherwise requested. People and firms interviewed will not be quoted unless specifically requested by me and approved by the speaker.

Please be assured of complete confidentiality.