← MotherDuck
MotherDuck role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A cloud data warehouse built on DuckDB for fast, simple analytics, including customer-facing dashboards and apps.
Who you'd be calling
Data engineers, analytics engineers, developers and heads of data at startups and mid-size tech companies.
Your opener
“Hi [Name], this is [Your Name] from MotherDuck. I know I'm calling out of the blue. Teams often tell me their data warehouse feels too heavy and costly for what they use it for, and I wanted to ask if that's true for you.”
Problems you solve for them
- Big data warehouses are costly and complex for smaller workloads
- Dashboards and in-app analytics are slow
- Small teams don't want to manage infrastructure
- Analysts want to query data quickly, even from a laptop
Discovery questions to ask
- What do you use as your data warehouse today?
- What are the biggest frustrations: cost, speed, or setup?
- Do you build any analytics that your customers see inside your product?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm really busy right now.”
→ Understood, I'll be quick. Could we pick a better time, maybe tomorrow afternoon?
“We're not interested.”
→ No problem. Out of curiosity, are you happy with what your warehouse costs for the size of data you have?
“We already use something for this.”
→ Sure, most teams do. Which warehouse are you on, and where does it feel slow or expensive?
“Just send me an email.”
→ Of course. What's more useful to you: how it cuts cost, or how it speeds up dashboards?
Competitors worth knowing
Snowflake, Google BigQuery, ClickHouse, Databricks
Interview tips for this company
- Learn what DuckDB is: a fast, free database engine that runs analytics on a single machine.
- Know the pitch is 'simple and small-scale friendly', so contrast it with giant warehouses like Snowflake.
Written from public information about MotherDuck to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.