Using an FAQ to Answer the Questions Every Investor Asks

Every raise has a set of questions that come up again and again. How do you make money? Who are your competitors? How much have you raised so far, and on what terms? Why now? Why you?

Founders answer these questions dozens of times over the course of a raise. Some answer them brilliantly. Others, caught off guard, say the words no investor wants to hear: “I’ll have to check.”

The cost of an unanswered question

Picture a founder in a first meeting. The investor asks about the SAFEs the company raised last year. What were the valuation caps? Were there discounts? Any most-favored-nation rights? The founder hesitates and promises to follow up.

It seems small. But every question a founder can’t answer about their own company chips away at an investor’s confidence. It can delay a process, and sometimes it can derail one. Investors are evaluating the business, but they’re also evaluating whether the founder has command of it.

Answer the predictable questions upfront

An FAQ on your sharing page does two things. It answers common questions before investors have to ask, so they get the information they need at the moment they need it. And it shows, before you’ve even met, that you know which questions matter and have clear answers to them. Every question an investor has to email you about is a small delay. Every question answered on the page keeps momentum going.

What to include

Build your FAQ from the questions investors actually ask you. Common ones include:

Business model. How you make money, how you price, and who pays.

Traction. Your key numbers, and how they’ve changed over time.

Competition. Who else solves this problem and why customers choose you.

The round. How much you’re raising and what it will fund.

Prior financing. How much you’ve raised and on what instruments. You don’t need every term in a public FAQ, but you should know every term cold.

Team. Who’s building the company and why they’re the right people.

Why now. What has changed that makes this the right moment for your company.

Keep it short and current

FAQ answers should be brief, a few sentences each. If an answer needs a page, it belongs in your deck or a supporting document. And like everything on your sharing page, the FAQ must stay current. When your numbers or round details change, update the FAQ the same day.

Only include what you’d be comfortable sharing with anyone who opens the link. Detailed financing terms, for example, may belong in a private link or a data room rather than an outreach page.

Use it to prepare yourself, too

Writing an FAQ is also a discipline. If you can’t write a clear, two-sentence answer to “How do you make money?”, you’ve found something to fix before your next meeting. And if you can’t answer questions about your own prior financings without digging through documents, that’s a sign your records need attention before diligence begins.

How DocChief helps

DocChief lets you add an FAQ to any sharing page, alongside an AI chatbot that answers questions beyond it. The questions investors ask the chatbot show you what to add to your FAQ next. And because DocChief organizes your corporate records and builds the history of your financings from the documents themselves, the answers to questions about prior rounds are always at hand.

Related guides

Why Investor Questions Are Your Best Pitch Deck Feedback
Controlling What an AI Chatbot on Your Pitch Deck Knows
What a Professional Pitch Deck Sharing Page Looks Like