According to legendary investor Vinod Khosla, “90% of investors add no value…70% of investors add negative value.” In addition to being the founder of Khosla Ventures and co-founder of Sun Microsystems, he was an early investor in Square, DoorDash, Instacart, Affirm, and OpenAI.

Start-ups need money, but they also need guidance. The top three things a start-up needs to be successful are 1) a strong core team, 2) a solid business model, and 3) an effective go-to-market strategy.

More often than not, your earliest investors lack the experience to help you in these areas. Beyond capital or a few connections to other experienced founders, getting guidance that moves the needle is hard, especially in GovTech.

But there are great investors out there who can do both. Here are a few questions you can ask to find those investors:

1. What specific experience do you have with government procurement and public-sector sales?
2. How have you supported portfolio companies navigating hiring, sales, and regulatory or policy challenges in the past?
3. Can you provide examples of meaningful introductions or partnerships you facilitated for govtech or civic-tech startups previously?

So, make sure you ask potential investors how they can add value.