@Proto.in - The Crux of the Business Plan for Technology Companies – Samir Sood Google M&A Head
(Rate this article)
Loading ...Email It!
WATBlog was at Proto.in over the last weekend and there were two eventful days with lots of startup action down south in chennai. On the first day there were business tracks and technology tracks where many esteemed speakers spoke on various topics. Over the course of the next few days we shall try and publish all the that we saw, heard and learnt at proto. So keep watching for more posts like this one. Also keep a track on WATShow.com as we plan to increase the frequency shows per week.
Samir Sood - Google M&A Head spoke on The Crux of the Business Plan for Technology Companies. Here is what he spoke:
Idea & Goal – Think of just one idea or Goal. If you don’t focus it’s a big issue. Have a good understanding of the idea.
Market opportunity - What is that market opportunity. Better have some data that shows vc’s that it’s a gazillion dollar market. Don’t tell people ill have 50% of this market in 5 years (that’s not reasonable!) . Tell them 5% in first 3 years. Come across as rational.
Product attributes for customer – Make sure you are very specific about attributes for your product. An offline example could be “Im going to be a corner store with 50 sq feet of space and ill have 50 outlets across 10 cities and will have minimum inventory.” Keep your customer in mind when building a product. Even if you have no cutomer today please forecast who will be your customer tomorrow. Try and get as specific as far as customer are concerned.
Strategy & Execution - VC’s like strategy. Show them charts, matrix to prove your strategy. Does anyone in your team have operational experience? Execution plan is very important so have people who will actually execute on board.
What is your Go to Market plan? – Different cities with different culture. Go to market plan for each city will be different. How will you advertise, how much will be spend, who will I partner with. Even naukri.com has 800 sales people on ground to sell naukri.coms inventory. So know your go to market strategy.
Challenges – VC’s call these risks. Think about them and have a plan to meet these chanllenges and conquer them.
Competition – Most companies have competition. Know your competition well. If possible understand their strategy.
Case studies – Go find out who is doing what you are doing in different markets, using different tools technology. Go and meet those people online or offline. Understand their model. Understand their pain points.
Business Model – How will you make money? Building great products is fun! But find a way to make money from them. As your products grow your business model may change and that’s ok. But have possible revenue models worked out.
Financial Analysis – What will you do with the money that the VC gives you?
Funding – Speak with VC”s. Previously funded Entrepreneurs. Educate yourself about fund raising. My sense of funding is take funding as late as you can. Create more value for your company before you take it to your VC. You will make the VC pay more for less equity in your company if you can build a lot of value before you go in for funding.
Team & Advisory Board - Teams are very important. VC’s look at teams a lot. They want to know if the team has had prior experience in the same or related fields that they want to start in. Advisors are very important as they guide you they bring in their networks /contacts .
For all the aspiring entrepreneurs WATBlog hopes the above points come in use in pitching a business plan to a Venture Capitalist.
Loading ...
Thanks for the post,
Is really useful, coz the traditional business plan templates just don’t relate to tech/web companies!