The 5 Questions Every College Founder Needs to Ask Their First Users

Here's the trap most college founders fall into: they ask "Would you use this?" and get a polite "yeah, probably" — then spend six months building something nobody actually uses.

The problem isn't the idea. It's the question. People are wired to be nice. They'll tell you what you want to hear. Your job is to ask questions that make it impossible to lie.

Question 1: "Tell me about the last time you dealt with this problem."

This is the most important question in customer discovery. You're not asking for an opinion — you're asking for a story. Stories are specific. Opinions are vague. If someone can't tell you a specific story about the problem, the problem might not be real enough to build on.

Question 2: "What do you currently do to solve it?"

Every real problem has a workaround. People use spreadsheets, group chats, sticky notes, or just suffer through it. If they have no current solution, ask yourself: is the problem actually painful enough? The best startup ideas replace something people are already doing — just doing badly.

Question 3: "How much time or money does this cost you right now?"

This is where you find out if the problem is a vitamin or a painkiller. If someone says "it costs me about 3 hours a week" or "we lose around $500/month on this," you have a real problem. If they shrug, you might be solving something that's annoying but not urgent.

Question 4: "Who else in your life has this problem?"

This does two things. First, it tells you how common the problem is — if they can immediately name three people, that's a good sign. Second, it gives you warm referrals. "Can I talk to them?" is the most underused follow-up in customer discovery.

Question 5: "What would have to be true for you to pay for a solution?"

Don't ask "would you pay for this?" — that's too easy to say yes to. Ask what would have to be true. This forces them to think about their actual constraints: price, features, trust, timing. Their answer tells you exactly what you need to build (or not build).

What to do with the answers

After 10 conversations, look for patterns. Are people using the same words to describe the problem? Are they naming the same workarounds? Are they all hitting the same constraint when you ask about paying?

If you see the same pattern in 7 out of 10 conversations, you've found something real. If every conversation is different, you haven't found the right problem yet — or the right audience.

Then scale it. Use a tool like LockIn to send a structured survey to people you can't reach in person. Get to 20+ responses. At that point, you have enough data to make a real decision about whether to build.