# The questions — English **For an interview you conduct yourself, standing up, at an event, with a recorder running.** Five to ten minutes. Not the ChatGPT interview in pack 09 — that one is for somebody at their own desk with half an hour. This one is for a noisy hall and a founder who has somewhere to be. --- ## Before you press record (20 seconds) > "I write for pt.newsroom.sgit.ai — we're mapping who's actually building AI in Portugal. > Five minutes, I'm recording so I get your words right, and nothing goes out without you seeing > it first. Alright?" Wait for the yes. **Then press record, and say the date and their name into the microphone** — it is the only timestamp you will trust later. --- ## The spine — ask these four, every time, in this order These four are what make twenty interviews into a dataset instead of twenty anecdotes. Same questions, same order, every startup. **Do not improvise these.** **1. "In one sentence, what do you make, and who pays for it?"** The second half is the one that matters and the one people skip. If they answer only the first half, ask again: *"and who pays?"* A startup that cannot answer who pays in one sentence has told you something. **2. "What can you do today that you couldn't do eighteen months ago?"** This is the AI question without saying "AI". It gets you the actual capability change rather than a positioning statement, and it is comparable across every company you ask. **3. "What's the hard part right now — and is it the technology, the money, or the people?"** Make them pick one. The distribution across twenty startups is a finding in itself. **4. "What's one thing everyone says about AI in Portugal that doesn't match what you see?"** The disagreement question. It is where the story usually is, and founders answer it honestly because it lets them disagree with a crowd rather than a person. --- ## Then pick two or three, by what they said Do not work through these. Pick the ones their answers opened. **If they build the models or the infrastructure** - What runs where — your own hardware, a cloud, someone's API? - What broke first when you scaled? - What would you need that does not exist in Portugal today? **If they apply AI to somebody else's industry** - Who is the buyer, and what were they doing before you? - How long from first conversation to money, and what makes it slow? - What does the regulation look like from where you sit? **If they are hiring, or trying to** - What role took longest to fill, and did you find them here? - How many of your team are in Portugal? **If they have raised money** - Who led it, and were they Portuguese? *(If they name a round, get the date and the lead — those are checkable, and everything else they say about it is not.)* - What did the money buy that you could not buy before? **If they are at the summit for a reason** - What are you actually here for — customers, hires, investors, or the room? - Who did you want to meet and could not? --- ## The closing question — always ask it **"Who else here should I be talking to, and why them?"** This is how twenty interviews become a map. It also tells you what this founder thinks is interesting, which is itself worth knowing. --- ## Before you walk away (30 seconds) Read back, out loud, and get a yes on each: - their **name**, spelled if it is not obvious - their **role**, in their words - their **company**, spelled - the **one-line** answer to question 1, in their words That is the whole of what this newsroom records about a person: the listed role, the listed organisation, and where it came from. **Do not ask for an email or a phone number** — if they offer a card, that is fine, but it does not go into any file here. Tell them you will send the piece through whoever introduced you, or through the event. --- ## What you must not do - **Do not promise publication.** "I'll send it to you before anything goes out" is the promise. - **Do not let them approve someone else's words.** If they characterise another company or person, that is theirs, and it does not go in a piece about them. - **Do not treat what they say as fact.** Every number, date and claim about the market is a **claim to verify** — the same rule as any research delivery. What they say is a primary source about *themselves* and nothing else. - **Do not ask about anything special-category** — health, politics, religion, union membership, ethnic origin. If it comes up, it stays off the record and out of the file. --- ## One sentence into the recorder at the end > "Recorded at the Startup Summit, , with of , who agreed to be recorded and > to review before publication." You will thank yourself in a week.