V Short Interview with Entrepreneur

  In this sequel to my first interview with entrepreneur Mike DeQuattro, I found the questions I asked and vibe around the conversation very different. In that first talk, I asked three questions: "what does the status of Entrepreneur mean to you?" "What do you wish you had learned formally in school before setting out on this venture?" and "what do you think I should strive to take away from this class?" All of these very broad, and open to a lot of good, introductory knowledge into this world. After what I've learned in this class though, I see that interview as very basic, and would ask more comprehensive question now.



  I have not been able to take any trips home in the past couple weeks, but I managed to have a good facetime/phone interview with Mr. DeQuattro this weekend. As mentioned, the questions this time were more specific.

Actual Q/A portion transcription typed as spoken

" What methods of raising venture capital did you employ?"
  The way I did it was not quite as formal as I'm sure you've read about. Myself and my friend and business partner used our savings as well as me taking out a loan. This was a considerably risky move, but I believe that life is too short and too situational to have let that stop me. Once we were established, however, we started hearing back from several groups in the community that offered small sponsorship deals. In my situation, I don't really deal with investors per say, but the process is very similar. I've outlined my business model to countless people and had to outline all the factors like competition, lead time, short/long term objectives, marketing plans, valuation, etc. etc. And from there, if someone believes that we could have a mutually beneficial relationship we will continue the conversation.

"If anything, what did you hire consultants for when examining your business plans?"

  Heh, so I did bring in consultants for a number of facets of my business, but in my case they happened to be old friends who happened to be in the respective industries. This included my marketing manager and a financial planner friend. You may think that its best to do everything in house, and its definitely possible, but when you hire professionals you are essentially saving 3x more than you would without them. For example, when looking over my accounting statements, I was told that a few expenses didn't line up and were costing me about 100$ a month unnecessarily, and that was just within one day of meetings.

"What were some examples of failures you overcame?"

  I cant deny that there were quite a few. One that stands out to me as the biggest lesson I learned wasn't technical by any means, but more of a failure in my thinking process. I came into it waiting for opportunity instead of creating it myself. I think I set myself back time wise a good measure doing that. What I learned though, was the more important part. In business...In life, you have to make the first move. It's the difference between just existing and living.



  I feel that I've made some degree of progress in my understanding of technical terms. and in business oriented critical thinking. I still have a ways to go until I feel truly confident however. In this second interview, it was much less intimidating and way more comfortable talking to him. I had a better idea of what he was talking about now, and we were able to have a better discussion.