← Exa
Exa role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A search API built for AI, letting developers and AI apps get relevant web results and page content.
Who you'd be calling
Developers, AI engineers, and heads of engineering or product at AI startups and software companies building apps that need web knowledge.
Your opener
“Hi [Name], this is [You] from Exa. We make a search API for AI products. Do you have 30 seconds to tell me if your team uses web search in anything you're building?”
Problems you solve for them
- Regular search engines return results built for people, not for AI to use
- AI apps give out-of-date or made-up answers without fresh web data
- Teams waste time scraping and cleaning web pages themselves
Discovery questions to ask
- Where does your product get live web information today?
- How often do users get answers that are wrong or out of date?
- How much time does your team spend on scraping or cleaning web data?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ I get it, I'll be quick. I'm calling about the search layer behind AI features. Is there a better time this week?
“We're not interested.”
→ No problem. Is that because you don't need web data, or because your current setup is working fine?
“We already use something for this.”
→ Good. What do you use today, and how does it do on result quality for your AI?
“Send me an email.”
→ Sure. So I make it relevant, what are you building that needs search?
Competitors worth knowing
Tavily, Brave Search API, Perplexity
Interview tips for this company
- Understand what an API is and why AI apps need search: it helps them find facts instead of guessing.
- You'll likely call technical people, so ask short, curious questions rather than pitching features.
Written from public information about Exa to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.