What is the onboarding interview?
The interview is in the form of a chatbot with ThatRound's AI. It will only ask you questions that are relevant to finding your investor fit.
The interview starts after you've uploaded your pitch deck and we've analysed it. You'll be asked follow up questions to verify information from your deck, and to cover anything your deck didn't include that we'll need to know.
The answers from your interview then build out your pitch page.
How long does it take?
The length of the interview depends on how much information is included in your pitch deck.
If your deck is comprehensive and contains all the necessary information, the interview should last around 30 minutes. If it's a light deck with key information missing, the interview can take longer.
You can always pause the interview and pick it up again whenever suits you. It's also a one-time only thing, once you've completed it once, you won't need to do it again.
Do I need to prepare anything beforehand?
You don't have to. If you'd like to prepare in advance, there's a rundown of what we'll ask you about in Preparing for your startup interview.
Why do you need all this information?
In short, because the matching only works if we know enough about your round.
Every investor on ThatRound has told us exactly what they're looking for, in detail. We compare your round against those criteria to work out how well each investor fits your round, and we show you the reasoning behind every fit percentage.
Say an investor has a strong preference for backing female founders. If your deck doesn't make that clear, we'd have no way of knowing you're a fit. The interview would question you on this and picks up the things a deck might leave out.
Our AI is informed by the preferences of over 90 investors and grounded in real market data. It's only as good as the context it's given.
Read more about the score out of 100 in How investor fit works.
What happens when I finish the interview?
After your interview is complete, we'll use your answers to build your pitch information and compare your round against all the investors listed on ThatRound.
This can take a few minutes. When it's ready, you'll get a chance to read it through and submit your pitch page for approval. After that, one of the team does a final check before it is approved and goes live, usually within 48 hours.
Do I have to do this for every investor?
No, the one interview covers every investor you apply to, so you won't be writing a fresh application each time.
Who can see my interview transcript?
Nobody but you. Your answers help us build your pitch page, and investors only ever see the finished pitch, never the conversation behind it. So it's worth being straight with us, including about the parts that aren't finished yet.
And don't worry about how it reads. You don't need to answer with polished copy, rough is fine, and we'll turn it into the finished page.
Tip: If you use a voice dictation tool that transcribes your answers, you can speed the interview process up and answer as you would in conversation.
Why does it ask about things that are already in my deck?
This will be to confirm that what we picked up from the deck is right. We also look at what's publicly available about you online and use it to pre-fill answers, so a chunk of the interview is you confirming the information we have, rather than typing new answers.
The interview is also a chance for you to sort out anything that doesn't line up. For instance, if your LinkedIn says 1 to 10 people and your deck says 12, we'll ask which is right to make sure we have the correct information to find you the right investors.
What happens if I don't finish it?
You won't appear in ThatRound's marketplace until we have everything we need, as it's a mandatory part of your account set up. Your progress is automatically saved, and you can take a break and pick up exactly where you left off.