Advice on how to get the most from your application.
Below you will find advice on how to answer each question in your Startmate application.
Included also are real examples from the best applications for the last Startmate cohort.
General Advice
1. Keep it short. Be clear and concise in your answers.
2. Check your spelling. Pay attention to the details when you’re making a first impression. Weather or not you mean it, if you’re application is not being proofread alot along the way than it will definately be a looser and seem truely wierd.
3. Numbers are better than adjectives. “We have 11 paying customers and an NPS of 75” is better than “our customer base is happy and growing”.
Question-Specific Guidance
1. Give a link to a short (~3 minute) video of your founders presenting the opportunity. Production value is not important.
Production quality isn’t important. Don’t send a product video. Just record you and/or your founders on your phone speaking directly into the camera about what it is you do.
2. How did the founders meet and how long have you been working together? How do you delineate your roles and responsibilities? Why did you choose to work together?
We are looking for teams that will stick together through thick and thin.
Example: “Andrew (RF IC Design Engineer) and Michael (Digital IC Design Engineer) have worked together for 6 years at Broadcom developing low power WiFi chips for mobile phones. With well over a billion of their chips out in the field both Andrew & Michael have demonstrated their capabilities execute.”
3. Why are you pursuing this particular idea? Do you have domain expertise in it? Have you tested it with customers? What unique insight or belief(s) do you have about this market?
We are looking for founder/market fit. We are looking to see that this could become your life’s work. We’re trying to understand why you are particuarly suited to building this particular company. And we’re trying to learn about your unique insights into your customers.
Example: “ — At an individual level, the right connection can change a life, but not everyone can get access to the right connections. — At an organisation level, companies that properly connect their people to build a mentoring culture have more engaged workforces, and lower staff turnover. — At a macro level, we need to build a society where the experienced have a clear way to impart their expertise back into the workforce via reciprocal professional relationships.”
4. What is the most impressive thing that each founder has done, other than founding this startup? Any hacks, discoveries, creations awards, or insights that you’re particularly proud of?
We see a repeating pattern of exceptional founders displaying outlier capabilities in their past and in other parts of their lives.
Example: “At the age of sixteen <name> won the UK championships for the strategical card game (Magic the Gathering). At both the UK and the follow on world championships he was the youngest competitor by more than a decade.
5. Describe your company in 140 characters or less.
Can you explain simply and clearly what you do?
Example: “Morse Micro is a wireless chip startup enabling IoT.”
6. How much progress have you made so far as a company?
We are looking for measures of traction. Keep it short. And if you don’t have much traction, don’t try and make up for it by writing a lot.
Example: “We have 9 paying clients, representing ~1500 users. We’re now at $4k MRR, growing 30% month on month.”
7. Who specifically will be your first customers and how will you find and sign others like them?
We are trying to understand who your customer is and whether you’ve thought deliberately about how you’ll get to them.
Example: “Our first customers (n=95) have been 50:50 businesses and consumers. We acquired them via PPC, PR, word of mouth and growth hacks. Long term we see the majority of our customers coming from PPC, direct sales and referral programs.”
8. How do you plan to get a sustained/growing amount of customers or users?
We are trying to see how you think about how your company will scale and grow.
Example: “Last month we closed 18 new clients @ $1,400/m. We’ve now tripled our sales team and next month anticipate signing another 24 clients. However, the real prize in this market will come from being the platform all merchants depend on and this will be primarily product, rather than sales-driven.”
9. How do you plan to make money?
Generally, we prefer to learn about the one, main way you’ll make money. Lists of five ways you’ll eventually make money are a red flag.
Example: Flaunter operates on a SaaS pricing model. Brands subscribe to tiered subscription packages. Media enjoy free and unlimited access.
10. What’s new about what you’re making?
Why is what you’re doing different?
Example: Mentorloop is light, configurable, and enables organisations to get their mentoring programs up and running in minutes with no formal training required.
Our competitors’ solutions are not accessible. They require paid consultants to install and training to use. Rather than requiring a 50-question psychographic analysis to match people, Mentorloop’s opt-in model allows individuals to self-organise in mentoring relationships and drive their own outcomes.
11. What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn’t exist yet?
We are trying to understand who your competition really is.
Example: “— For our clients — the organisations running mentoring programs — they’re often using spreadsheets and emails to track and manage their mentoring programs, resulting in a manual admin burden.
— For our end-users — the mentors and mentees — they’re either manually seeking and requesting introductions, or connecting on Linkedin, with no indication of the potential quality of a relationship or the other party’s willingness to be involved in mentoring.”
12. Is the company incorporated? What percentage of the company does each team member own (or will own)? Are there any other shareholders besides the founders and, if so, how much do they own?
If you have a wasteland cap table, you will 100% get asked about it in the interview process. The general cap table structure we like to see is:
The founders own the majority of the company eg. 75%+.
10–15% is set aside for employees.
Early investors don’t own more than 20%.
There are no advisors with holdings greater than 1%.
There are no non-operational team members who own more than 5% of the company.
At the early stage, lots of entities on the cap table (More than 5–6) is a red flag.
We know how messy this stuff can get, especially for first-time founders. We can (and often do) help you to get things right.
13. Do any of the founders have any commitments between July and August of 2017 where you wont be able to be in Melbourne or Silicon Valley? Will any of the founders be working as employees or consultants for anyone else? Is anyone restricted by non-competes or intellectual property agreements with past or current employers? If so, please briefly describe.
The correct answer is: “No, no, and no.”
However, please note that we make exceptions related to family. If you are pregnant, having a baby, or have specific family commitments, we will 100% work with you to accomodate those.