ENTR/MNGT 321-001-Entrepreneur Interview Assignment-Help with My Homework Online
Entrepreneur Interview Assignment
This assignment is due by 11:59 pm on Sunday, March 25th.
Selection of Interview Subject:
Social capital is a vital resource for entrepreneurs and networking is an important ability,
regardless of your career path. To encourage development in both of these areas, you are
asked to locate and interview a post-founding entrepreneur. Besides the willingness to be
interviewed, the criteria for selecting an interview subject include the following:
The subject entrepreneur needs to have been either the sole founder or a member of the
founding team for one or more ventures launched within the last 10 years.
The venture(s) may or may not have been successful. If a venture is still a going
concern, that’s great; but ventures also may have failed, been sold, or liquidated for
other reasons. As long as a venture reached the point of generating revenue from sales,
the founder qualifies as a candidate for this assignment.
Franchises are okay if the interviewee was the first franchisee in a new territory and
actually responsible for opening one or more new location(s). However, independent
ventures are preferred.
Family members and other people you already know are fine, as long as they meet all of
the founding and venture criteria listed above. Please note the requirement that the
start-up experience may be no more than 10 years ago.
Because development of social capital is part of the assignment, you may not “interview”
yourself, another member of the class, or your partner in a current venture, even if you
or they are an entrepreneur who otherwise meets the criteria.
It seems obvious, but don’t neglect to get explicit permission to use the interview in fulfilling a
class assignment. It will not be published beyond this course, but the interviewee will not be kept
anonymous and the interview may be read by other members of the faculty and staff.
Interview Guidelines:
There are two general areas that you should try to explore as you conduct the interview:
1. What was the process leading from opportunity recognition to the (hopefully) successful
launch of the venture?
2. What did the entrepreneur learn and how did they change/grow/develop as they
moved through the startup process?
You should certainly be looking for anything in the entrepreneur’s story that is surprising or
unique; however, at a minimum, you need to address the following questions:
How did your interviewee reach the decision to become an entrepreneur?
Is there anything in the interviewee’s personal background or personal characteristics
that motivated them to become an entrepreneur (or were obstacles to overcome)?
Did the interviewee decide to become an entrepreneur before or after recognizing the
opportunity that they developed into a business?
ENTR/MNGT 321 Interview Assignment Page 2
What caused the entrepreneur to select the specific opportunity they developed into a
business? (Address how the opportunity was recognized as well as the evaluation
process leading to the decision to attempt launching a venture.)
What did the entrepreneur know about the relevant industry, market or technology
before beginning the startup process? (Related hobbies or personal interests?)
Have there been other business ideas – either before or after founding this venture – the
entrepreneur chose not to pursue?
Had the interviewee been involved in other startup ventures, either as a founder or
employee, before attempting to lead a startup themselves?
How was the new venture financed?
Who has been the most significant source(s) of assistance in getting the venture up and
running?
What were the biggest obstacles that had to be overcome in getting the venture up and
running?
What has the entrepreneur learned – or how have they changed – that affects how the
business is being managed now compared to its startup phase (assuming the business
attained a somewhat stable operation and/or growth trajectory).
Lessons learned; if they were launching a new venture today, what would they do
differently?
I strongly recommend that you bring a list of questions and some sort of recording device to the
interview. (Make sure that the interviewee agrees to be recorded.)
