Ask a founder what you would tell his mom about him
Investor Jeff Becker says the unexpected question produces an honest answer, and follow-ups reveal whether a founder seeks hard things and tolerates pain.
Antler Global · How Antler Invests at Inception with Jeff Becker | The Further, Faster PodcastWhen Jeff Becker of the startup investment firm Antler is trying to decide if a person can carry a company for years, he asks a question that has nothing to do with business. "If I met your mom, what would you tell me about you?"
Becker asks it, he says, because founders are caught off guard and answer with something true about themselves. Then he acts, in his words, like a therapist. He asks a second, third, and fourth question about that answer until he gets past the rehearsed story and into the person's history.
His best founders, Becker says, tend to have extreme stories. One "lost 300 pounds in high school." Others built a product as a kid, climbed tall peaks, ran grueling marathons, or moved to a new country at age 10 and took on adult duties early, speaking for parents who never learned the language.
Becker says he is not looking for any one story to be repeated. He jokes that the best founders are maniacs, with a wider way of seeing everything, who keep going when a problem looks impossible and even people close to them think they are misguided.
What he is looking for, he says, is "what is the psychology behind the story?" Can the person withstand pain and commit to something for a long time, hold a high bar for excellence, and "want to be number one in the world at" something specific.
Questions people ask
Why does asking about a founder's mom work better than asking about the business?
Becker says founders are caught off guard by the mom question, so they answer with a belief they were told and tell themselves. That honest answer gives him something real to dig into with follow-up questions.
Does losing a lot of weight or running marathons really predict startup success?
Becker says no, not by itself. He treats such feats as evidence of a pattern: someone who chose a painful, long effort and stuck with it. He says he is looking for the psychology behind the story, including pain tolerance, long commitment, and high standards, not the specific feat.