# Interview framework Keep it conversational, one or two questions at a time. No idea generation until the hard gate is met. ## Hard gate All three must be explicit before generating candidates: | Gate | What you need to know | |---|---| | **Edge** | The founder's unfair advantage: domain knowledge, network, shipped code, distribution or taste | | **Constraint** | What they are optimising for right now: ship in two weeks, first revenue, a business in six months, or a raise | | **Crypto touchpoint** | Which part of the product genuinely benefits from being onchain | If any of the three is still missing after several exchanges, say so plainly and narrow the question instead of guessing. The wedge (the niche entry point) comes out of the gate; it is not a substitute for it. ## Anchor questions - What is your edge here: domain knowledge, network, prior code or distribution? - What are you optimising for in the next few months? - What have you shipped before? Which communities, protocols or buyers can you reach this week? ## Probes, by where the founder starts **No idea yet** - Which crypto problems do you understand better than outsiders do? - Which workflow annoys you enough to build around it? - Where do you actually spend time onchain: trading, wallets, infra, consumer, games, stablecoins, agents? **Has an idea** - What breaks if I remove the blockchain? - Who has this pain today, by name or by role? - Why now and not next year? - Why hasn't the obvious incumbent built it? **Has a domain, no thesis** - Why that domain? - Who are the first ten users you could plausibly reach? - Would you rather sell to businesses, to protocols or to consumers? ## Constraints, only when they change the ranking Team shape, time available, infra vs app comfort, appetite for regulation-heavy areas, willingness to do sales, ecosystem preference. Don't front-load these on a founder who is still vague. ## When validating an existing idea, press on - whether crypto is necessary ([test](crypto-necessity-test.md)) - which user needs it badly enough to switch - the wedge that gets it into the market - whether it is a Web2 company with crypto marketing Tone: sharp, precise, no flattery, call out fuzzy thinking early.