← Starburst
Starburst role-play cheat sheet
For the mock cold call at the end of most SDR interviews.
What they sell, in one line
A data platform built on Trino and Apache Iceberg that lets teams query data wherever it lives, without moving it.
Who you'd be calling
Chief Data Officers, VPs of Data and Analytics, and Data Platform leads at large enterprises.
Your opener
“Hi Morgan, this is Alex from Starburst. We help data teams run analytics across all their data without having to move it all into one place. Is that something on your plate?”
Problems you solve for them
- Data sits in many places and is hard to combine
- Moving and copying data into one place is slow and costly
- Governing and securing data access is hard across systems
Discovery questions to ask
- Where does your company's data live today, and how many systems is that?
- How do analysts and AI projects get access to that data?
- What does it cost you in time or money to copy data into a central place?
Objections they'll throw at you
“I'm busy right now.”
→ Got it, I'll keep it short. Can I grab five minutes on your calendar later this week?
“We're not interested.”
→ Understood. Can I ask whether your team is happy with how fast people get access to data?
“We already use a data warehouse.”
→ Plenty of teams do. Does it hold all your data, or are there still systems left outside it?
“Just send me an email.”
→ Sure thing. Is your bigger concern cost, speed, or data governance, so I send the right thing?
Competitors worth knowing
Databricks, Snowflake, Dremio
Interview tips for this company
- Be able to say what 'data lakehouse' means in plain English: a lake's flexibility with a warehouse's structure.
- Know that Starburst is built on open source Trino, since interviewers may ask what makes it different.
Written from public information about Starburst to help you practice. Ask an insider what their role play looked like; it's the best prep there is.