One of the most important parts of preparing for an investor pitch is also preparing for the questions investors will ask you. We’ve hosted several pitch competitions over the years at our annual conference, and we took note of the most common questions investors ask so that you’re well prepared to answer them during your next pitch.
Question Categories
Technology, Security, Compliance
Company Background
- What was your inspiration for starting this company?
- What problem are you solving?
- What is your unique value proposition?
- Tell us about the leadership team you’ve assembled. What do they bring to the table?
The Market
- What is your ICP (ideal customer profile)?
- What is your TAM (total addressable market)?
- How many competitors do you have, and who are they?
- Where do you fit in in terms of pricing and target customer size compared to your competitors?
- What's your key differentiator?
- How do you plan to compete with big incumbents in this category?
- Do you foresee AI or other emerging technologies as a threat to your business?
Customer Acquisition
- Where does the majority of your revenue come from?
- How are you acquiring your customers? And how expensive is that? And how scalable is that?
- What's your marketing strategy?
- What is your sales process?
- How long is your sales cycle?
- What pushback have you received when trying to sell your product or service?
- What is your current pricing strategy?
- What’s your target contract value, and how much does this vary between customer types?
- What’s your average ACV (annual contract value)?
- How would you price a deal if a customer wanted only certain features or modules vs. all of them?
Customer Retention
- How many customers do you have?
- What is your burn rate?
- What does engagement look like? How often are people using your product?
- What are your usage, retention, and expansion metrics?
- How do you deal with graduation risk (AKA your SMB customers outgrowing your product)?
Implementation & Integrations
- How much setup is required by your customers?
- What’s your average implementation time?
- Do you require customers to use your entire suite of technology, or do you integrate with other technologies?
- If integrations are required, how does that affect onboarding?
Technology, Security, & Compliance
- What intellectual property do you own, if any?
- How do you approach compliance?
- How do you deal with security and privacy concerns?
- What’s your AI strategy? How are you using AI?
Financials
- How do you monetize?
- What are your margins?
- What was your revenue last month? And what's your contracted revenue?
- How long do you estimate until you’re profitable?
- How much capital have you raised to date? And what was the size of your most recent round?
- How much runway will this investment provide you with?
- What are your plans for the investment money?
Now that you know the most common questions investors ask, make you know how to answer all of these about your company.
If you found this helpful, you might enjoy our post on Startup Pitch Tips or reading how past Venture Atlanta pitch competition winners prepared for their pitch:
- Early-Stage Pitch Competition Winner: Citiri
- Seed-Stage Pitch Competition Winner: SmartWiz
- Growth-Stage Pitch Competition Winner Document Crunch
If you’re looking to raise capital or get your company more exposure, consider applying to pitch at this year’s Venture Atlanta conference. Contact us if you have any questions about the opportunity!
Frequently Asked Questions
How Can I Prepare for Investor Q&A?
Here’s how to prepare for common questions investors ask during a pitch:
- Review the most common investor questions, like the ones listed in this blog.
- Practice clear, concise answers backed by real data, where possible.
- Be ready to speak confidently about your market, competition, business model, and growth plan.
- Tailor your responses to your audience (e.g., healthtech investors may focus more on privacy and compliance).
- Highlight your traction, differentiators, and vision for the future.
- Anticipate follow-ups and be honest if you don’t know something, then offer to follow up.
- Most importantly, practice your delivery so your responses sound natural, not rehearsed.
