Entrepreneur interview kit
Confirm the founder and interview
The Final Group Project guide gives the eligibility rules: a founder (a new franchise location qualifies), a business at least two years old, roughly $500,000 or more in annual revenue, and at least two full-time employees or a full-time partner. Ask John before committing if the fit is uncertain.
Keep everyone’s full name, the founder, company, description, and interview access in your shared group document. When the interview date is confirmed, @mention John with that date in your team’s Slack thread/channel. These are progress checks, with no separate points or eLC upload.
Prepare questions that uncover decisions
Use the project’s six areas to find questions worth asking:
| Area | A useful opening question |
|---|---|
| Origin story | What made this opportunity worth pursuing, and what did you do first? |
| Business model | Who benefits, what problem do you solve, and how does the business earn money? |
| Resources and tradeoffs | Which resources were hardest to get, and what did you give up to get them? |
| Reducing risk | What did you test before committing more time or money? What changed your mind? |
| Founding team | How did you decide on roles, relationships, and rewards? |
| Challenges | What went wrong early, what did you do, and what happened? |
Assign who opens each topic. Begin with open questions; follow interesting specifics before filling gaps from the prepared list. Capture decisions and consequences, not just general advice.
Test the recording and keep the evidence accessible
The October 6 recording setups are suggestions, not additional grading requirements. Groups that already interviewed do not need to redo the interview.
- Confirm the interviewee is comfortable being recorded for your notes.
- Test the setup and play it back: both the interviewee and interviewers should be audible.
- For remote calls, check the account’s time limit and recording support. Use a tested backup when possible; screen recording may miss call audio.
- For in-person interviews, phone audio may be enough. A second phone can provide backup; use video when it serves your final product.
- Move recordings and transcripts into a shared, backed-up location. Check names and passages you plan to quote.
The October 6 class note asked one member to put the transcript under the group-project area of their personal course document and keep it accessible to the group. For the final submission, follow the current project guide: analytical paper plus clearly labeled creative-deliverable link in the shared group Google Doc, all names included, commenter access for John, and working links. No second eLC upload.
Turn the interview into themes
Identify specific evidence that supports, complicates, or challenges a lesson. Each final deliverable needs at least five themes, with at least two course stories or sources supporting each theme. Compare those sources with your founder’s experience.
AI may help summarize and initially analyze interview material. This permission is separate from the case-analysis rule allowing spelling/grammar help only; it does not authorize an LLM to write or rewrite your individual case analysis.
Current project requirements · Theme Journal · October 6 interview guidance
All groups submit both final deliverables by the first presentation day, November 10, including groups presenting later. Follow the schedule for current timing.