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hehe
Student
Singapore
16
Questions
Asked
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Finding out about the company: How to ask about the company's financial health (without asking outright)?
For context, this is a startup company that does not publicly disclose it's financial information anywhere.
For companies that have been operating for many years, are there ways candidates can gauge financial stability without directly asking if the company is struggling?
What indicators should job seekers reasonably pay attention to?
Trying to link it back to the company culture because it does affect this in one way or another.
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1 answer
Margherita Pieretti
Technology consulting
3
Answers
New York, New York
Updated
Margherita’s Answer
You can get all the information you need by asking about runway, priorities, hiring strategy, and product focus:
1) “How do you prioritize investments across product and growth?”
This exposes: where money is going, what the company sees as most urgent, whether spending is disciplined or reactive
2) “How do you decide which initiatives get resourced versus deprioritized?”
Great for understanding: how lean they are, whether they’re spread too thin
3) “What does success look like in the next 12–18 months, and what resources are in place to support that path?”
This gives insight into: whether they have the money to reach those goals, how confident leadership is in their roadmap
4) “How is the company thinking about scale, hiring, and sustainable growth?”
You’re looking for signals like: freezing hiring, inconsistent hiring
5) “How does leadership communicate business performance and company milestones?”
This tells you: transparency culture, alignment between leadership and employees, whether employees know what’s happening financially
6) (For early‑stage startups) “How has the company grown or evolved since the last funding round?”
You’re not asking for dollar amounts, you’re asking for trajectory.
A healthy startup has crisp milestones (e.g. customer growth, revenue progress, product maturity)
1) “How do you prioritize investments across product and growth?”
This exposes: where money is going, what the company sees as most urgent, whether spending is disciplined or reactive
2) “How do you decide which initiatives get resourced versus deprioritized?”
Great for understanding: how lean they are, whether they’re spread too thin
3) “What does success look like in the next 12–18 months, and what resources are in place to support that path?”
This gives insight into: whether they have the money to reach those goals, how confident leadership is in their roadmap
4) “How is the company thinking about scale, hiring, and sustainable growth?”
You’re looking for signals like: freezing hiring, inconsistent hiring
5) “How does leadership communicate business performance and company milestones?”
This tells you: transparency culture, alignment between leadership and employees, whether employees know what’s happening financially
6) (For early‑stage startups) “How has the company grown or evolved since the last funding round?”
You’re not asking for dollar amounts, you’re asking for trajectory.
A healthy startup has crisp milestones (e.g. customer growth, revenue progress, product maturity)