VC Due Diligence — What Investors Actually Look For

- **Domain expertise** — Have they worked in this space? Do they have unfair knowledge? - **Founder-market fit** — Why are THESE people building THIS product? What's the personal connection? - **Coachability** — Do they take feedback? Have they pivoted based on data? - **Technical depth** — Can the technical founder actually build it, or are they a project manager? - **Relationship dynamics** — How do co-founders work together? Any previous working history? - **Reference checks** — Backdoor references (people who know the founders but weren't listed) matter more than provided references