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Comment by pg | Hacker News Reader

Anyone curious what interviews are like can get an idea from the office hours we've done at TC Disrupt and Startup School. Interviews are similar, but with more questions (partly because there are more of us asking them, and partly because we need to arrive at a decision, not just have a conversation).

http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/25/absolute-must-watch-office-...

http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/12/tc-disrupt-office-hours-wit...

http://www.justin.tv/startupschool/b/298808297

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Almost everybody seems to miss the mark in the "What do you do?" type questions. What do you think it is about these interviews that prevents them from describing it in the way you want them to? Or do you try to make everybody be more specific than their first pitch?

It's a big problem. We sometimes spend half the interview trying to figure out what the startup is doing. A lot of people are bad at explaining this type of thing. In fact I'd say most are.

The solution is to practice beforehand, preferably on people who will tell you candidly when you haven't yet explained yourself clearly.

The test of how well you've explained a startup idea is how accurately the listener could reproduce it from your description.

You might be interested to know that the German guy you instructed to launch immediately back in September has not launched yet.

But I should not be too sarcastic. I really liked these. A lot of the interviewees were very promising even after your well meaning attempts to shoot holes in their business models. And your comments are very informative.

But it seems that your comments and questions also indicate how hard it is to build a successful start-up. It is not merely about making something useful or better than the competition, you have to make something that cures a significant pain point so that your customers are actually motivated to go out and get it. It really does make one take a pause and question things.

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