i agree with you, interviewing the founders is not a proper way to go about it. paul is full of it. there is no way past 50 or maybe 100 employees that you are going to have or be able to request an interview with the founders. and if you did pull it off, your time allotment to ask questions of them would be 10 minutes.
but, how would you do a reference check on larry, sergey, or holmes? none of whom held a job before they founded their respective companies. as will be the case with most startup founders. are you going to stalk their college friends?
So in the land of journalists, this is what we do every week. Something like this can be an effective strategy.
Find a couple current employees or associates who come across as stable and thoughtful. Invite them out for coffee, dinner, a long walk, etc. You want to talk alone, outside the office. Spend a little time on social rapport, including taking an interest in them as fully-rounded people. Candor needs a foundation of trust and mutual respect. Then ask open-ended questions that make it easy for people be helpful without feeling that they are on the spot.
Some examples are:
- What attracted you to the company?
- What's the work tempo like?
- What's some advice for the best way of getting along with the founder/CEO? (This is a safe way for flaws to surface)
- We all make mistakes occasionally. What mistakes are forgivable at this company? What's unforgivable? (Think how the Theranos answers would have differed from Google answers.)
- What's surprised you since joining?
- What delights the boss? What gets the boss angry? (Plenty of chances for signaling here, too.)
- What kind of people stay here and thrive? What kind of people quit?
- What would I need to do to be successful here?
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but, how would you do a reference check on larry, sergey, or holmes? none of whom held a job before they founded their respective companies. as will be the case with most startup founders. are you going to stalk their college friends?