What I look for in the first meeting with a founder

Creek Equity backs founders at the earliest stages, when a company is often still a plan and a person. By the time I meet them, I have usually read whatever they sent. The meeting is not about the deck. It is about the founder.

Do they know their numbers cold?

I will ask about customer acquisition cost, gross margin, cash on hand, and how many months that cash buys. A founder who answers without looking knows their business. A founder who reaches for a spreadsheet may still be worth backing, but it tells me where they are spending their attention.

Have they already thought about what could go wrong?

Every founder can describe the upside. The ones I back can also describe the two or three things most likely to kill the company and what they would do about each. That is not pessimism. It is preparation, and it is the single best predictor I have found of how someone will behave in a hard quarter.

What do they ask me?

The best founders interview me as carefully as I interview them. They want to know how I work with the companies I back, what happens when we disagree, and what I expect in the first year. A founder who asks nothing is either not serious or has not been through this before. Either is worth knowing.

Can they explain the business in a sentence?

I have written before about our one-page investment memo. The founder's version is one sentence: who the customer is, what they get, and why they pay for it. If the sentence needs a diagram, the business may be real but the founder has not yet found the words, and words are how you recruit, sell, and raise.

Would I want to work with this person for ten years?

This is the one I weigh most. We invest our own capital, we hold for the long term, and I work directly with the people leading each company. The relationship will outlast the business plan. I need to believe that when the plan changes, as it will, this is someone who will tell me early, tell me straight, and keep going.

If that sounds like you, and you are building something in Michigan or anywhere else worth the trip, send me a note.