Writing a Business Plan
June 11, 2009 by carbonday
Filed under Green Idea Funding
Writing a Business Plan
We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The following business plan format, within 15-20 slides, is all that’s needed:
Company Purpose
- Define the company/business in a single declarative sentence.
Problem
- Describe the pain of the customer (or the customer’s customer).
- Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.
Solution
- Demonstrate your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s life better.
- Show where your product physically sits.
- Provide use cases.
Why your current
- Set-up the historical evolution of your category.
- Define recent trends that make your solution possible.
Market Size
- Identify/profile the customer you cater to.
- Calculate the TAM (top down), SAM (bottoms up) and SOM.
Competition
- List competitors
- List competitive advantages
Product
- Product line-up (form factor, functionality, features, architecture, intellectual property).
- Development roadmap.
Business Model
- Revenue model
- Pricing
- Average account size and/or lifetime value
- Sales & distribution model
- Customer/pipeline list
Team
- Founders & Management
- Board of Directors/Board of Advisors
Financials
- P&L
- Balance sheet
- Cash flow
- Cap table
- The deal
Submit these plans directly to brad@carbonday.com. All plans will be reviewed and if we are interested in the plan we will follow up with you shortly. Please keep in mind that we look at many plans each week and that we do not sign confidentiality or non compete agreements unless we enter into a letter of commitment. If you deem any information to be confidential or proprietary we suggest you do not send it but at the same time if we do not get an idea of what you are looking for we will pass over the idea.
