At the moment, I'm asking people "So, how do you stay busy?". This question has been the start of far more interesting conversations than "So, what do you do?".

Even if you're asking the "what do you do" question, the authenticity you deliver the question with will make all the difference.

I would expect that entrepreneurs are one of the communities that is very likely to disagree with you.

You don't have to believe me, but I went from knowing nobody in the NYC tech community three years ago to knowing everyone. My initial approach was going up to people and asking "Hey, I'm Spencer, what do you do?" and playing the whole back-and-forth like a recorded conversation. That gets you a routine glazed over eyed response. I then started getting to know people and them getting to know me and everything flipped and I've now made dozens of friends for life where we now get together outside of work, go to each other's birthdays, know each other's girlfriends/boyfriends, go on vacations together, etc. And this all changed when the conversation shifted to being more about the people than only what we did for a living.