2. Master Agenda
Session 1 – April 15th What is creativity?
Session 2 – April 22nd Behavior traits of a successful entrepreneur.
Session 3 – April 29th, 2:00-3:00 Turning your passion into a business opportunity.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 4 – May 6th , 2:00-3:00 Steps needed for your startup ... 1, 2, 3 GO.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 5 – May 13th ,2:00-3:00 Financials of the business opportunity.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 6 – May 20th , 2:00-3:00 Presentation skills, successful pitches, what ideas got funded.
3:00-4:00 App Develpment
Session 7 – May 27th , 2:00-3:00 Tweaking business plans and getting it presentation ready .
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 8 – June 3rd Pitch your business plan to VCs (12 spots will be available).
3. Weeks 1-5 recap
• Week 1
• Passion
• Creativity
• Problem
• Week 2
• Leadership
• Hardwork
• Integrity
• Social Good
Week 3
• The Hacker Way
• The VC
• Business Plan
Week 4
• Incorporation
• Paper Money
• Pivot
• Exit
Week 5
• Profit = Sales - Costs
• Revenue Models
• Financial Statements
6. How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan?
•https://youtu.be/-
ul65NjOMzo
7. How to Pitch for Startups Business
Funding?
Pitching is not a one-off activity, but core to being a startup.
Important to prepare a pitch to a specific stakeholder …
... to a customer, to a partner, to a cofounder, to an investor.
Entrepreneurs usually make the mistake that pitching for funding …
... is a one time activity and not necessarily a marketing task.
Source: Efactor: https://youtu.be/zWL2-EtVqog
8. Customer Research
• Listen to your customers when
creating a product for them
• Watch your customer use
mockups of your product,
because they may not know
what they want
• Without Customer Research …
» ... startups get created that focus on features
customers did not want!
10. Class Exercise
• Introduce your Founding Team and Startup Name
• What does the Startup do (idea)?
• Pick one or two components from Business Plan template and
describe the components to class.
• Discuss/Demo your proto-type
Pitch-fest
13. Startup Business Plan Template
For Presentation to VCs
Adapted from Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Principle
10 Slides, 20 Minutes, 30 Points Font
14. Before you Pitch to a VC!
• Uncover your audience’s “Hot Buttons”
• Ask yourself the question:
• “To make today’s meeting as effective as possible, what are the
three most important things that you would like the audience to learn
about your company at this time?”
• Adjust time & emphasis on sections accordingly
14
15. Executive Summary
• <Your Company> is a <what you are> specializing in <what you
do> for <specific customers>.
• Our <special sauce> gives us a <unique advantage> that will
capture ??% of this $??? M market.
• We will be looking for $?? M to build an <enabling function> that
will generate $?? M over the next XX months.
• <20% of presenters do this well
16. What’s the Problem?
• Describe the problem you are looking to address in simple, clear
concise terms
• Current state, seriousness of problem
• Desired future state, benefit to customer
• Scale of the initial market
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• < 10% of presenters do this well
17. What’s your Solution
• Describe your solution in simple, clear, concise terms.
• Key benefits, features
• Product roadmap
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• > 70% of presenters do this well
18. What’s the Business Model
• Explain how you are going to make money - clear, concise (If you
can’t describe your business model in 20 words or less, you probably
don’t have a workable model)
• What’s the value to the customer? Customer Value =(Seriousness of
Current State + Benefits of the Desired Future State) Cost of the
Solution
• Bottom up is better than top down
• < 10% of presenters to this well
19. What’s your “Special Sauce”
• What’s the proprietary, underlying “magic” that gives you a clear,
defensible advantage?
• Patents on their own are rarely sufficient
• What are you going to do particularly well that it will be difficult to
copy?
• Graphics better than words
• <30% of presenters do this well
20. How you are going to Market & Sell your product or Service
• Describe your Marketing & Sales strategies in simple, clear, concise
terms.
• 1 or 2 marketing strategies
• Sales cycle & strategy for initial market
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• < 50% of presenters do this well
21. Competition
• There is ALWAYS competition – even if it’s the way it’s done now.
• Provide a Competition Analysis
– a table/chart comparing your solution to the current approach and
major competitors, by key benefit
• The more realistic you are, the more believable your case
• < 30% of presenters do this well
22. Who’s on the Team?
• Management Team
– Why is this the Right Team?
– relevant information only - shorter is better
– include relevant company names & positions
– include independent Directors, if relevant
• Identify holes that will need to be filled
• < 10% of presenters do this well
23. Financial Projections
• P & L (by Quarter for first year, annually thereafter, 3 years out)
• Past Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 TOT 2nd Year 3rd Year
• Revenue
• COGS
• R&D
• S&M
• G&A
• EBIT
• Cash Flow
• Bottoms up better that top down
• Assumptions more important than numbers – be prepared to explain
them
• < 10% of presenters do this well
24. Status & Timeline
• Major Milestones, what’s been achieved to date, Current Status, what
still needs to be done & how long it’s going to take.
• Include expected liquidity event.
• <30% of presenters do this well