← Parabola
Parabola role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A no-code tool that cleans messy data and automates repetitive work from spreadsheets, PDFs and emails.
Who you'd be calling
Operations leaders, supply chain and logistics managers, ecommerce ops and finance ops leads at growing companies
Your opener
“Hi [Name], this is [You] from Parabola. I'm calling because we help ops teams stop doing repetitive spreadsheet and email work by hand. Do you have a quick moment to tell me if that's something your team deals with?”
Problems you solve for them
- Teams spend hours copying data between spreadsheets, emails and PDFs
- Manual work causes errors and slows the business down
- Operations teams wait on engineers to build automations
Discovery questions to ask
- What reports or data tasks does your team still do by hand each week?
- How much time do those tasks take, and who ends up doing them?
- When you want something automated, how do you get it built today?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ No worries, I'll be quick. I'm asking if your team has manual spreadsheet work that eats up hours. Could we find 15 minutes later this week?
“We're not interested.”
→ Understood. Most ops teams I talk to say that until we count the hours spent on copy-and-paste work. Can I ask what your team spends the most time on each week?
“We already use something for that.”
→ Good to know, what are you using? Parabola often handles the messy parts other tools struggle with, like PDFs and emails. Where does your current setup still need manual work?
“Just send me an email.”
→ Of course. So I send the right example, which process is most painful for your team? Then I'll follow up with a time that works.
Competitors worth knowing
Zapier, Make, Alteryx
Interview tips for this company
- Be able to explain 'workflow automation' simply, like building a recipe that handles boring data tasks for you.
- Research a few real ops pain points, such as order reports, invoices and inventory sheets, so your discovery questions sound informed.
Written from public information about Parabola to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.