Date: 2026-08-25 Channel: Megaphone Thread: https://ryevalley.slack.com/archives/C06UJ3V2HEV/p1787668781376319 Parties: Michael Houck, Blake Emal (account lead)
Signal
Michael shared a large batch of past Jeffrey Evans interview questions that had worked well, and instructed Hermes to analyze the differences between his question bank and Hermes’s current approach, then update future content interview sourcing accordingly.
Michael’s Question-Quality Framework (inferred from the examples he shared)
Questions that performed well for Jeffrey share these traits:
- Anchored to a real, specific news hook - a specific article, headline, or event (SpaceX IPO, WSJ piece, Hemant Taneja interview, specific LinkedIn post Jeffrey shared). Not generic trend questions.
- Personal stake or opinion demanded - “What’s your honest opinion…” / “Do you buy that? Why or why not?” - not invitations to explain the news, but to take a position.
- Follow-up chains built in - multi-part questions that go deeper: “a. …, b. …” so the interview does not skim surface.
- Jeffrey’s own content loop - referencing posts/articles Jeffrey himself shared or engaged with. Makes him feel seen, reduces prep friction.
- Portfolio and LP relevance - questions about specific Mantis portfolio companies, LP dynamics, or fund-raising context are consistently high-signal for him.
- Avoids entertainment, music industry, creator economy - Blake Stewart flagged these as topics where prepared questions became void. Steer away.
Instruction to Hermes
Michael confirmed future batches should also incorporate this updated approach. The question framework above should replace or supplement the prior default sourcing logic for Jeffrey Evans content interviews.