Business interview questions from student to programmers/software business owners

Question

I plan on starting a software business when I graduate and as such would like to get to know my community a little better. Plan on meeting with other people who are working along very similar lines. In the interest of not looking like a total idiot I want a few questions to ask when they can fit me in their schedules. Trying to get in touch with the company founders to start but would like to get ahold of software managers/etc as well. Note: if I can find the answers by digging on their websites beforehand I won't ask, that would be a waste of time for both of us. And yes I realize that most of these people are extremely busy and probably won't speak with me but it won't hurt to try.

1. Background: what got you into this field, how long have you been doing it etc.
2. What does your company do?
3. How does that help the community?
4. What exactly do you do on a day to day basis?
5. What was your greatest triumph in this role?
6. What was your worst failure in this role? (this one sounds too personal)
7. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

Any advice on questions to ask would be greatly appreciated. Or if you have good advice or stories that would fit, those would be welcome too.

*edit Elaboration: The companies I am looking to contact would likely become direct competitors and as such I do not expect much. This is more a way to meet people doing similar things and share in the related backgrounds. Naively hoping that sense of communitity and professionalism will override the strict competitive nature. On the other hand it will be several years before I am at the business stage, working on the early early planning phase now.

Summary: What questions would be good to ask future competitors that will both introduce us and not make it seem like I am digging for information to destroy them? (I'm not trying to destroy them btw)

Answer 1

I think it would be usefull to be more specific about what your business is likely to offer before creating a list of questions. Building a business has a lot to do with understanding your prospective clients needs. If your offering fills that need then you are at least at first base. I also beleive you will find that companies will be very willing to talk to you if you are offerring something of direct value to them. If you are shooting in the dark then you might get a cold shoulder.

Answer 2

In any type of interview, if someone asked me what my company did, I would lose all faith in their ability immediately.

Do your homework first - about your own ideas, the people you are 'interviewing', and the problems that your specific market segment is likely to throw at you.

Good luck anyway!

Answer 3

Can you elaborate a bit more on your goals with this?

Informational Interviews can be very helpful but it helps a lot if you're focused. For example, if you're trying to learn about an industry to start a company you would probably have better luck interviewing potential customers. They'll love complaining (err... I mean talking) about their problems. And you'll then have a potential contact for for beta testing or that first critical sale.

If you interview a company and they are similar enough to the one you want to start to give you good information then they'll likely (and understandably) see you as a competitor. One exception to this is if there is a company that has some functions that overlap with your own (like "how do you print postage?), such as colleagues sharing war stories. You may find that more difficult because you don't yet know enough about the challenges you face and thus