Ted, a founder is considered a person that helped start the company and is normally a co-owner in the company. The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and the President of a company can be either hired in for those positions or be a person that helped start the company and took those positions. As an example. I helped start a company that provided filtered email for kids under 14. My partner was the President of the company and I was the CEO. So, in our cases we were both founders and held positions within the company.
Depending on the size of the company you may speak to one of these above that makes the decision for new products.
Your second question was "When I call who should I be asking for?"
Normally I research the company and look for a company listing of employees, articles written on the company about employees to try and determine who is the best person to approach within the company. If I am cold calling a company I will ask for the person in charge of new product development or marketing. If during my research I found a person they recommend Inventors contact for submission I ask for that person.
When cold calling make sure you know the time you are calling in relation to their time zone and yours. I live in the east, so I do not call companies or individuals at 8AM my time in California, since it would 5AM their time. Remember to be aware when they would possibly be going to lunch or getting off from work. Try and make your calls during times that are convenient for them not you.
