How much do you actually know about starting a business?
These questions cover the practical side of entrepreneurship — the decisions that matter before you register a company, hire anyone, or spend a single euro on marketing.
Each question reflects a real situation that founders face. There are no trick questions, but some answers are more nuanced than they first appear.
Ten questions on entrepreneurship basics
Pick the answer that best matches your understanding. When you're done, check your score at the bottom.
A business model describes how a company plans to generate revenue. Which of the following is NOT a core component of a business model?
A founder wants to test whether customers will pay for their product before building it. What is this approach called?
Cash flow and profit are different things. A business can be profitable and still run out of cash. Why?
Which document is most useful when pitching to an investor for the first time?
What does "bootstrapping" mean in the context of starting a business?
A startup has a high customer acquisition cost and a low customer lifetime value. What does this signal?
Which legal structure limits a founder's personal liability for business debts?
A competitor enters your market with a lower price. What is the least effective response?
What is the primary purpose of a break-even analysis?
An early-stage founder spends most of their time perfecting the product before speaking to customers. What risk does this create?
W h a t t h e s e q u e s t i o n s a c t u a l l y t e s t
Each question maps to a decision area that founders face in the first 12 to 18 months of building a business.
Financial literacy
Understanding cash flow, break-even, and unit economics before you need them.
Legal structure
Choosing the right structure affects liability, tax, and your ability to bring in investors.
Competitive response
How you react to market pressure reveals whether your positioning is built on substance.
What founders say after working through these concepts
"I thought I understood cash flow until I saw my first profitable month with an empty bank account. That question about profit versus cash — that one stung a little."
— Oisín Farquhar, product founder
- Business model design and validation
- Customer discovery before building
- Investor communication and pitch structure
- Pricing strategy and margin management
- Early-stage legal and operational decisions
Customer validation
Testing demand before committing resources is one of the most consistently skipped steps.
Investor readiness
Knowing what a pitch deck needs to accomplish is different from knowing how to build one.
Growth mechanics
Acquisition cost relative to lifetime value determines whether growth helps or hurts you.
Where most people get stuck
The questions with the lowest average scores in self-assessments like this one tend to cluster around the same three areas.
These are not obscure concepts. They appear in almost every business conversation once a company reaches its first real test — whether that is a difficult month, a competitive threat, or a funding conversation.
The Meraqyu masterclasses on entrepreneurship basics address each of these areas through worked examples, not theory. If you scored below 6, the programme overview explains what each module covers and how the sessions are structured.
If you scored well, the upcoming programmes include more advanced topics — pricing psychology, founder equity decisions, and scaling operations without losing margin.