Guide Questions for Founders at Work case studies

by Paul Pajo

1. Who is the founder? Who are the co-founders?

2. What are they doing now? What other startups did they do after they did this particular startup?

3. What was the main reason they started this startup? What was their motivation?

4. What particular problem was their startup addressing? Was it an improvement on something that existed before or was it something entirely new?

5. Why do you think people used the services of the startup? If the co-founders built something that people wanted, what was "it" that people wanted?

6. In the history of the Internet, what was the impact of this startup? What startups before it, influenced it? What other startups were influenced by it after it went to market?

7. What was unique about this startup? Was their service something that was never offered before? Was the startup's approach something that was never done before?

8. If the startup is the "proposed system", what was the "existing system"?

9. If you were in the co-founder's shoes, what would you have done different? What would have you done the same?

10. Would the startup have been possible in a Third World country? What peculiar characteristics does the startup have that allowed it to flourish where it was conceived? Would the startup's service have applications in a Third World country?

TIP: It would also be helpful to write down 10 things you didn't know about a particular startup that you're reading on. Write it down like this:

"I didn't know that <place observation here>".

This is the answer to your your integrative questions. Combine these integrative questions with the guide questions for your case studies.

For example:

Observation: I didn't know the del.icio.us was a bookmarking service.

Integrative Question: What kind of serviced does del.icio.us offer?

Answer: del.icio.us offers an online bookmarking service.

in prose form:

After reading the case study, I learned that del.icio.us was a startup that offered an online bookmarking service. Before I read this case study, I hadn't heard of del.icio.us or of any online bookmarking services before.