For founders · first meetings

For founders: let investors ask about you before the meeting

By Christopher Clement · October 17, 2026 · askproxy.ai

Before a first meeting, investors and partners look you up. Give them something to ask: a proxy grounded in your track record, what you’re building and why you’re the one building it. It answers their follow-up questions at any hour, and when someone wants to talk, their message reaches you with the conversation attached. The meeting can start past the background.

What people want to know before a first meeting

The questions are predictable. What has this founder built before? What did they personally do there? Why this problem, and why now? Who else is on the team? What is it like to work with them?

Today the answers are scattered across a LinkedIn profile, a press mention or two, and a deck that may not have been forwarded with the intro. A proxy puts them in one place that can be asked, at askproxy.ai/yourname. It is openly an AI. It answers about you and never claims to be you, so nobody on the other side of the table has to wonder who wrote what.

What to give a founder proxy

A proxy answers only from the material you give it. For a founder, that means:

• Your track record, with your role spelled out. Founder, early employee, advisor: say which, and what you did. Vague credit invites the exact question you’d rather not field in the meeting.
• The story behind the company. What you saw, why you started, what you’ve learned since.
• What you’re building, in public terms. The level of detail on your website or in a press interview.
• How you work. What partners can expect from you, how you make decisions, and what you look for in investors.

Upload a bio or résumé, link your company site and any press, and use the notes for the story. Then do the voice interview. It draws out what documents leave out, like why you made the calls you made.

Write the founder story once, in plain words

The notes are where your story lives. Answer these in a few sentences each, the way you would over coffee:

• What did you see that made you start this company?
• What did you try first, and what did it teach you?
• What has to be true for this to work?
• What do you need from investors and partners next?

Plain answers to these carry more weight than adjectives. They are also what an investor will compare with the person who shows up to the meeting, so write what you’d stand behind out loud.

Keep the private material out

Anyone with your link can ask your proxy questions. Give it only what you’d say in public:

• No round details, terms or valuations you haven’t announced.
• No confidential metrics, and nothing from your data room.
• No customer names you’re not allowed to share.

Review it the way you’d review a press release: assume any line in it can be quoted back to you. When an investor asks about something the proxy doesn’t have, it says to ask you directly. For anything confidential, that is exactly the right answer, and it gives them a reason to get in touch.

Keep it current

A founder’s story moves fast. When something changes in public, like a launch, an announced round or a key hire, update what your proxy knows. Pro includes re-interviews, so a short voice conversation after a milestone keeps its answers current.

Put the link where the intro happens

• The last slide of your deck, next to your email.
• Your email signature, especially on cold outreach.
• The blurb you send to whoever makes a warm intro, so they can forward it with one line.
• Your company’s team page, linked from your name.

More placements, and how to word the link, are in where to put your “Ask my proxy” link.

Let it answer inside their AI assistant

Some investors do their research in Claude or ChatGPT. Every proxy also has its own MCP address, askproxy.ai/yourname/mcp, so an assistant can pull your profile and ask your proxy questions without leaving the chat. Each answer comes labeled as your proxy’s, an AI representative, not you. The details are in your proxy now answers inside ChatGPT and Claude.

Read the conversation before you reply

When someone gets in touch through your proxy, you get their message by email with the conversation that came before it. Read it before you answer. It shows what they wanted to know, what they already understand about the business, and where your first meeting should start. If several of those conversations circle the same question, your pitch has a gap there.

See founder proxies live

Ask a few founders’ proxies about their track records: askproxy.ai/ben.hindman, askproxy.ai/miki.agrawal and askproxy.ai/nana. Notice what a good answer does: it names the company, the role and the outcome, and it says plainly when it doesn’t know.