What to ask before you join a seed stage startup

This one is for candidates. We spend as much time on the candidate side of a search as the client side, because a placement only works if the person is still happy in it a year later. If you are considering a seed stage company, here is what we would ask before you say yes.

How much runway is left, and what has to be true for the next round

Ask directly. How many months of cash, what milestones the next raise depends on, and whether existing investors are likely to bridge. A founder who answers this clearly is telling you they respect you. A founder who deflects is telling you something too.

What does your equity actually represent

Ask for the number of options, the strike price, the latest preferred price, the fully diluted share count and the vesting and exercise terms. You cannot evaluate a grant without those numbers. Any founder who will not share them is asking you to accept a discount you cannot even measure.

Who was the last person to leave, and why

Small teams cannot hide their patterns. The answer tells you about management, about how conflict is handled, and about whether people leave feeling respected. Ask to speak to someone who has left if you can.

What will you own that nobody else does

The upside of joining early is scope. Make sure the scope is real. If three people already do parts of this job, or if the founder cannot describe what is yours alone, the title will be bigger than the job.

What is the hardest part of working here

Ask every person you meet. Consistent honest answers are a very good sign. Cheerful denials that there is any hard part at all are the reddest flag in early stage interviewing.

Joining early is one of the best career decisions available if you pick the right company, and one of the most expensive if you do not. The founders worth working for will respect you more for asking, not less.