Strategy question
Imagine I'm a VC, offering you $20M to build any technology-enabled product/service you'd like. Please walk me through how you would get started? (Problem, Solution, User, Monetize, TAM)
- Strategy
- Hard
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What this question tests
Structured startup thinking under an open ended prompt, covering problem, solution, user, monetization and market size in order.
How to approach it
- State the problem clearly and specifically, picking one you can defend with a concrete example of who suffers from it today.
- Define the target user precisely, for example a narrow segment rather than everyone, to make the solution credible.
- Propose the solution and explain why it is meaningfully better than current alternatives, not just a feature tweak.
- Explain the monetization model, such as subscription or transaction fee, and why that segment will pay.
- Size the market, TAM, with a rough calculation and explain how the $20M would be spent to reach initial traction.
What a strong answer includes
- Picks a specific, defensible problem and user instead of a vague AI for everything pitch.
- Walks through monetization concretely, naming a price point and why the target user would pay it.
- Gives a rough, assumption based TAM calculation rather than citing an unsupported large number.
Common mistakes
- Picking an idea too broad or vague to reason about concretely.
- Skipping monetization or market sizing despite the prompt explicitly asking for it.
Likely follow-up questions
- How would you spend the first $5M of that funding?
- What is your biggest risk to reaching product market fit?
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Learn the skill behind it
Chapters of the AI PM course that teach what this question tests.
- Chapter 4: Discovery and strategy for AI products
- Chapter 9: Prove it paid off: outcomes, economics, and pricing
- Chapter 14: Get the job: the AI PM interview loop