Objectives...
Brief biographical information / background on the ‘experts’ you have chosen.
What are the critical & key components that investors are looking for in a plan?
Why are these considered key?
One day in 2001 John Earle aka (Johnny Cupcakes) went to work with one of his own home made T-Shirts. Little did he know that he would hit the designer T-shirt market at the right time.
“Supply and demand! I ordered a couple dozen Johnny Cupcakes shirts and sold out of them the day I took them off the press! One person would tell ten people and ten people would tell one hundred people.”
In 2002, he started touring in a van and selling his t-shirts from a van. In 2004, he decided to do his first tradeshow bringing friends on board to where chief outfits and help him sell more shirts. In 2005, he decided to expand the business from his garage to offices and a warehouse. By 2006 he open his first store "Boston's Rodeo drive"-- 279 Newbury Street. By 2009 he had expended to online orders more store locations and different type of clothes.
“I turned down investors and took countless risks like keeping my shirts out of chain stores.”
from: http://shop.johnnycupcakes.com/story/
Okay, maybe Jonny Cupcakes isn't the best to look at dealing with investors; however, I picked him because his simple business plan of selling T-shirts in a van to millionaire clothes designer seems to be close to my plan (i.e. small to large). Also of course, we can see that his success and art work attracted investors and department store chains; however, he took risks and by not selling out has success and freedom.
However, let me find an expert that is closer to the assignment...
Make a great pitch
Guy Kawasaki was born in Hawaii in 1954. In 1972 he graduated Iolani 1972. After college at Stanford and UC Davis he worked at apple helping develop the products and company unit 1987. Recently, Guy Kawasaki has the co-founded Alltop.com, an virtual “online magazine rack” of popular topics on the web, and is a founding partner at Garage Technology Ventures. He is a successful author of many great books about start up companies but is better known for his book series the “Art of Start”.
"The executive summary is often your initial face to a potential investor, so it is critically important that you create the right first impression. Contrary to the advice in articles on the topic, you do not need to explain the entire business plan in 250 words. You need to convey its essence, and its energy. You have about 30 seconds to grab an investor’s interest. You want to be clear and compelling".
the top qoute comes from Guy's 2006 blog "The Art of the Executive Summary". He continues to list ten things investors want...
1. The Grab:
2. The Problem:
3. The Solution:
4. The Opportunity:.
5. Your Competitive Advantage:
6. The Model:
7. The Team:
8. The Promise ($$):
9. The Ask:
In the end, what Kawasaki is saying about investors that is most important to note is that they want to know is... who runs the company, why they can answer a problem, and how they can make money from it. Second to that, Kawasaki seems to focus on investors and companies that seem to have the same morality as the companies founders similar to a social entrepreneurship.
Comparing the Two
If we compare Johnny Cupcakes to Guy Kawasaki we see two business plans. Cupcake's plan seems organic, and planned not in years but moment to moment; moreover, by not bringing on on investors right away, he managed to have more control over the company in developing its brand and infrastructure. On the other hand, Kawaski's planning seems to attract initial investors who will believe in what a start-up company can do and be less likely to impose control over a start-up because the investors would not only understand what the company is doing, but believe in what the company stands for in that initial read of the plan.
Where the two seem very convergent is that they are both "Mensches"; meaning, there are people that seem kind and have the ability to make the right decision at the right time. So another huge part of the business plan after the initial flip thorough will be presentation, and in this, the presenter must be a Mench.
Be a Mensch
Read more: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_art_of_the_.html#ixzz1R6nwHMBi
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