At a start-up, sure. At any company past Series C, you should know this before talking to anyone. The other questions here are fine, especially the revenue and DAU one. Even better questions are "what's your payback period?" and "what's the company's path to profitability?" Revenue doesn't matter if the company is burning 2x the money to get it.
> How much runway does the company have? Does their spending look within reason?
Kinda the same as asking about the path to profitability except also takes into account if the company can live to get there.
> What's the culture like?
I get asked this question and similar questions to the ones listed by almost every engineering candidate I've interviewed in the past 5 years...
> How strong is the team?
I think it's a good question but if you're just looking for someone to tell you how great the team is then you're better off not asking it. I think almost all interview questions should be asked with some level of doubt and in hopes of getting an honest answer. Also, the level of honesty matters. If you ask the engineering manager this question and they throw certain folks under the bus then you should run.
> What's in store in the future?
This (and more frequently the first 2 questions under it) gets asked in plenty of interviews. People want to know what they'll be working on and what kind of impact they'll have.
The "Do you plan to sell the company?" question under this one makes it seem like these were all supposed to be directed at a CEO/founder. I wouldn't ask this question because even if the answer is honest it'll be ambiguous. No one is going to say they're dead set on selling the company if there's still funding rounds on the horizon but they also won't rule it out because they need to give the compensation package some hope for liquidity.
>If you ask the engineering manager this question and they throw certain folks under the bus then you should run.
I one declined an offer for this very reason. I had the option to join one of two teams, and each team's manager took the opportunity to crap on the other team.
There were other indicators as well. The office was in an old warehouse building on the waterfront of the city, with massive windows and high ceilings. I walked in to amazing water views from the lobby. When I descended one floor to the dev area, every single window was covered by a blackout curtain. It was a cave with no natural light, and barely any artificial light.
When I declined the offer, the recruiter was totally offended that I would pass up on such an opportunity.
Ask about work life balance. One of my coworkers mentioned work life balance in front of the owner. The owner immediately said work life balance was for lazy people who didn't want to work.
I would not have asked that question simply because I'd assume everyone was smart enough to give the right answer, even if they don't believe it. I would never have expected your boss's answer.
From my experience, there's a strong overlap between companies that don't respect work-life balance and companies where interviewees (for anything below the C-suite) talk directly to the owner.
I joined a start up with a great amount of equity. They got offered 100 million buyout offer after I'd been there a year. I would have been extremely happy with that outcome. But they had no interest -- they weren't interested in a 100 million dollar company. Been there, done that, that wasn't their goal. Now I ask that question. Or more generally, same line as the profitability one. What are your exit strategies (with many follow ups). You want to know if this is a multi billion dollar boom or bust play because it has serious impact on your risk and payout.
Just out of curiosity: how many startups are willing to talk so openly about their finances to a candidate? I don't see how this is such a viable thing. How do you know the candidate isn't sent by the competition to sniff you out?
> Just out of curiosity: how many startups are willing to talk so openly about their finances to a candidate?
If you are gonna take a cash paycut in exchange for stock options you better damn well know this stuff. I think these questions are perfectly okay to ask.
You should also ask about preferred stock and when it converts to common stock. Since you are common stock, you won't get shit until the valuation of the company goes above whatever threshold is set for the preferred stock to convert.
If you're being offered a cash paycut for stock options, you might as well ask for the paycut in lottery tickets because you're too far diluted to make anything off of the options.
At a start-up, sure. At any company past Series C, you should know this before talking to anyone. The other questions here are fine, especially the revenue and DAU one. Even better questions are "what's your payback period?" and "what's the company's path to profitability?" Revenue doesn't matter if the company is burning 2x the money to get it.
> How much runway does the company have? Does their spending look within reason?
Kinda the same as asking about the path to profitability except also takes into account if the company can live to get there.
> What's the culture like?
I get asked this question and similar questions to the ones listed by almost every engineering candidate I've interviewed in the past 5 years...
> How strong is the team?
I think it's a good question but if you're just looking for someone to tell you how great the team is then you're better off not asking it. I think almost all interview questions should be asked with some level of doubt and in hopes of getting an honest answer. Also, the level of honesty matters. If you ask the engineering manager this question and they throw certain folks under the bus then you should run.
> What's in store in the future?
This (and more frequently the first 2 questions under it) gets asked in plenty of interviews. People want to know what they'll be working on and what kind of impact they'll have.
The "Do you plan to sell the company?" question under this one makes it seem like these were all supposed to be directed at a CEO/founder. I wouldn't ask this question because even if the answer is honest it'll be ambiguous. No one is going to say they're dead set on selling the company if there's still funding rounds on the horizon but they also won't rule it out because they need to give the compensation package some hope for liquidity.