Venture Capital

June 11, 2009 by carbonday  
Filed under Green Idea Funding

Venture Capital For Socially

Responsible Eco-Businesses

We’re looking to invest in extraordinary entrepreneurs who have the ability to build great teams and great companies.

SHARE YOUR BUSINESS IDEA

Carbon Day Capital LLC would enjoy learning about your business and considering it for Venture Capital Funding It’s easy to reach us. Email or call. Have a mutual acquaintance connect us. Before you send your business plan ideas please read our very important Details of Sustainable Companies and Writing a Business Plan.

Details of Sustainable Companies

Green start-ups with these traits often will tell us the success of a business and the likelihood of it becoming a lasting company with a sustainable business plan. We like to partner with companies that have:

Clarity of Purpose

Summarize the company’s business on the back of a business card.

Large Markets

Locate and define existing markets poised for rapid growth or change.

Upscale Customers

Target customers who are most likely to pay a premium for a unique offering.

Simple Focus

Customers will only buy a simple product with a singular value proposition.

Solve the Problem

Pick the one thing that is of burning importance to the customer then delight them with a compelling solution.

Think Outside the Box

Take the contrarian route. Create novel solutions. Go into Survivor mode Outwit, Outlast and Outplay the competition.

The Team Members

A company’s team is set in the first 90 days. All team members are the smartest or in their domain. “A” level entrepreneurs should attract an “A” level team.

Agility

Stealth and speed will usually help beat-out large companies.

Frugality

Focus spending on what’s critical. Spend only on the priorities and maximize profitability. Do not spend on premium items unless the payback will be there. EX. We had a company who was running out of cash that went to a press event and made up 250 usb drives that were custom imprinted with their logos that had way too much storage on them for the press kit they created. It cost them $10 each. They could have gone to office max to spend $1 ea for usb’s and printed out beautiful color labels on their printer and save $2250 dollars to spend on payroll or rent.

Start up money

Start with only a little money. It forces discipline and focus. A huge market with customers yearning for a product developed by great engineers requires very little firepower.

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.

Tree Facts

• Two mature trees provide enough oxygen for a family of four.
• One acre of trees removes 2.6 tons of CO2 per year.
• About one third of the United States of America is covered by forests
• The average tree in an urban area has a life expectancy of only 8 years.
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