Appendix A: Research Questions
Part of the book “Information Patterns for Successful Startup Ecosystems”
Appendix
Below are the research questions used to gain insight into the entrepreneurial workings of the University of Michigan and the larger city of Ann Arbor. Questions are attached for transparency and replicability.
Questions were asked of three different entrepreneurial groups: New Entrepreneurs, defined as students who have displayed interest in entrepreneurship by attending an entrepreneurship event or class, but have not created a business plan or minimum viable product; Mid-level entrepreneurs, defined as students that have either incorporated a company, sold a product, or been accepted into a university accelerator. Finally there are the Entrepreneurship Leaders, defined as people who directly via their jobs, or indirectly via networking and funds, impact the shape and culture of the university entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Interviews were primarily structured with the first two categories of entrepreneurs to keep comparisons consistent within the three classes of entrepreneurs, but some questions were more tailored to the specific niches of Entrepreneurial Leaders.
Entrepreneurship community leaders are encouraged to use these questions as a baseline to conduct their own mappings of their community’s entrepreneurial ecosystems.
New Entrepreneurs
Students that are considering starting entrepreneurial ventures have been identified through competitions such as Innovation in Action (which is specifically a competition geared towards entry entrepreneurs), Mingle ‘n’Match Events (for those people looking for others to start a team) and Optimize entrepreneurship program for first-time entrepreneurs.
Questions given to these people include:
• What problem are you solving with your venture?
• How did you get interested in this problem/tell me your story of how you first came to recognize that you wanted to be an entrepreneur.
• When you decided to become an entrepreneur, how did you first go about finding what resources the university had to offer?
• What resources are you aware of are available to you?
• What resources have you taken advantage of?
• Do you have others on your team? How did you meet them?
• Do you have mentors? How did you meet them?
• How much time each week do you spend developing your company?
• In the last three days, how many entrepreneurial meetings have you had? With whom? Where were they located?
• Where do you live? Where do you study? How do you move between class and home?
• When you aren’t working on your company, where do you hang out? How do you get to that location?
• What has been some of your hardest obstacles to overcome?
• What was the last big question you had for the direction of your company, and where/to whom did you reach out to in order to acquire advice?
• Do you think you have faced any biases for whatever reason in the process of starting your company? Can you tell me about specific examples?
Mid-Level Entrepreneurs
Mid-level entrepreneurs are defined as students who have displayed sustained dedication to a specific business. This dedication might be seen in the form of having incorporated their company through the Zell Lurie Law Clinic’s (a large milestone in the trajectory of a company), those who have been accepted into the Zell Lurie Entrepreneurs Program (which demands both the submission of a business plan and an interview with the Executive Director of the Zell Lurie Entrepreneurship Institute.) Other interviewees have also been identified for their acceptance into TechArb, a university accelerator that demands a full team and an initial Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for acceptance, and demands a 20-hour a week commitment for five months.
Questions given to these people include:
• What problem does your venture solve? Why have you gotten passionate in this problem area?
• What is your venture’s name? Who is the customer?
• How many people are on your team? How did you find each of these people?
• How did you find out about the resources needed to get your company this far?
• How many mentors do you have? How did you meet them?
• How much time each week do you dedicate to your company?
• In the last three days, how many entrepreneurial meetings have you had? With whom? Where were they located?
• Where do you live? Where do you study? How do you move between class and home?
• When you aren’t working on your company, where do you hang out? How do you get to that location?
• What has been some of your hardest obstacles to overcome?
• What was the last big question you had for the direction of your company, and where/to whom did you reach out to in order to acquire advice?
• Do you think you have faced any biases for whatever reason in the process of starting your company? Can you tell me about specific examples?
Entrepreneurial Leaders
Entrepreneurial Leaders are defined as people who are not students currently leading their own start-ups, but are vital members of the entrepreneurship community that officially or unofficially define the shape and culture of the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Numbered among these leaders are professors of Product, Design, Business, and Computer Science, C-suite members of local companies, and local angel investors. These also include heads of entrepreneurship centers, such as the Center for Entrepreneurship, the TechArb venture accelerator, the UMSI Design Clinic, the Zell Lurie Entrepreneurship Fellows program.
Each of these interviewees were tailored to the specific concentration within the entrepreneurship networks on campus that each leader inhabited. Across all of these conversations, several similar questions will be asked, including:
• What problem for student entrepreneurs does your organization seek to solve?
• What is your specific role within this organization?
• What other organizations are in this ecosystem? How do you interact with them?
• Where is your organization located? Why did you choose this location?
• The last three meetings you had, where did you have them?
• What are the biggest issues you think are facing entrepreneurs on this campus? And more broadly, in the region?
