Interview Questions for Visionary

Time: Approximately 30 minutes

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

1.     What do you think of incubators in general? Do they provide value beyond what a top-tier, or non-top-tier VC provides? Can VCs and incubators work together?

2.     If you see or don't see value in general incubators, how about vertically specialized ones that have deeper domain expertise in a certain area? Would you be worried about cannibalization within the incubator?

3.     What about VCs and incubators? Are they the same, different, and can they work together?

4.     If you don't see value in current forms of incubators, is there an ideal form that you think might work in today’s market place?

5.     Do you think the incubators of today are new business models that will stay? If not, what model do you foresee?

6.     Say for instance that Darwinian Theory applies to capital deployment and that the smart entrepreneurs with great ideas find smart capital (e.g. a top-tier VC firm with a big rolodex – question: is this smart capital?). This then means by the process of elimination that the next-level down of ideas/entrepreneurs go to the incubators. Or, perhaps the market is big enough that the incubators will have some successes as well.

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.