벤처창업후 펀딩을 위해 벤처캐피탈리스터들에게 설명하기 위한 Executive Summary작성시 착안사항
1. Description of the business
This section should be as clear and concise as possible and should touch three issues:
a. What exactly is your business (i.e. What do you propose selling)
b. How will you make money?
c. Why can you do it (and competition can’t)? (i.e. what makes you different)
2. Customers and Market Opportunity
Many documents were too broad in defining customers, which affected the market sizing as well. Customers can be segmented by geography, industry, size, behaviour, etc.
For example, it may be difficult for a startup to target all small-sized companies (over 7 million), even if it’s an online business in the states. In this case, you should try to focus perhaps by geography or industry depending on your resources.
Think about how your customer segment affects your advertising. (how find 20,000,000 users?!) What about customer service?
If you have 50,000 users, how will you answer the phones of people with questions?
Opportunity is not JUST about number of customers and how much they spend.
It is this, PLUS, how much of the total market do you address.
You can say that the “drug market” is $100B, but what portion of that is YOUR drug going
after? Plus, even more important, how much are people willing to pay for this product/service? Why? What are your assumptions based on?
3. Competition
Competition can be divided into:
a. Current: Not only current players, but also the “unwillingness” to buy the product/service. Usually, technology products face a diffusion curve among customers (ex: in-house departments are a competition for an outsourcing service)
b. Potential: Companies that own key resources and/or complementary assets that enables them to tap this market.
“We have no competition” is the wrong answer. If it is, that means you aren’t thinking broadly enough. You may have no competition for your exact product, but what are the substitute solutions?
Don’t just name companies. Show that you’ve investigated them. Why are you better?
Why will someone spend money for yours other than someone else’s?
4. Business Strategy
Remember to include the key risks that your business presents
Think about how answers in other sections impact your strategy.
You don’t want 1% of a big market (Gradinetti’s talk)
5. The product offering
You should also include what’s the current stage of product development and the time to market. What are the technology advantages? Are there patents? How will you protect this product in the market?
6. Financing
Regarding the money you are asking for, remember to include not only how will you use it,
but also how long will it last. In this sense, numbers should be consistent with your financial forecast.
This has to be in line with the current market. You can’t raise a $30M first round.
No one will give it to you. Maybe you need that much, but you raise $5M now, $15M later
and $10M later still.
Show how you’ll use the money. How much cash for R&D? How much for staff? Marketing?
Show where the money goes.
If you are an established company, show the history. How much did you raise last year?
Who did you raise it from?
7. Team
Why does this team make sense for this company? Who are they? What companies have they worked for. Don’t just say 25 yrs experience in Software…Say VP of Development for Lotus. It makes a better impact.
