Interviewing
an Entrepreneur
Goal: To come away
with an understanding of what it takes to start and build a company, on a
personal level on the part of the entrepreneur and operationally.
Get
in the habit of never leaving a good opportunity like this without getting two
other contacts that will be useful in the future.
Paper
should be 2-4 pages and include:
- History of the entrepreneur:
Experience, education and path to current position.
- Origin of the business. Where
the business idea came from. Previous job? Hobby? Serendipity?
- Resources required. How much
money did it require? How did the entrepreneur get the money? If other
people put money in how was that structured? What sort of company did they
set up (Partnership, LLC, S-corp, C-corp?)
- Customer: Who is
the customer? How did the entrepreneur get (or plan to get) the first few
customers?
- Hurdles: What were
the biggest hurdles to date? How did he/she overcome them?
- Future: What are
the future goals for the firm.
- Networking: Get two
other contacts and their contact
information to follow up on
some aspect of your talk. This information is required.