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We are very early stage and don't have an alpha for our web product yet.
EDIT: we are planning on doing this so we have something to show VC/Angels when we seek funding. which we are needing (somewhat) now.
Keep working on your product, get a user base, and worry later about verbalizing the specifics of your projected market share and what day exactly you plan to go cash flow positive.
Sure, a business plan will force you to really question what your value proposition is, and how you plan to differentiate your product, but that can all be done by creating a brief outline.
But if you must: http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/resources/startups/bu...
For writing a business plan, try the book Hurdle (OOS on Amazon at the moment) or try the following from the SBA: http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/writeabusinessp...
What do you expect to gain from a business plan? Keep working on your product, get a user base, and worry later about verbalizing the specifics of your projected market share and what day exactly you plan to go cash flow positive. Sure, a business plan will force you to really question what your value proposition is, and how you plan to differentiate your product, but that can all be done by creating a brief outline.…
What do you expect to gain from a business plan? Keep working on your product, get a user base, and worry later about verbalizing the specifics of your projected market share and what day exactly you plan to go cash flow positive. Sure, a business plan will force you to really question what your value proposition is, and how you plan to differentiate your product, but that can all be done by creating a brief outline.…
we want something to show potential investors.
Granted, most online business won't meet all of those requirements, but they also aren't likely to be funded by Sequoia.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
we want something to show potential investors.
Investors don't typically look at business plans. They look at your elevator pitch and about a 10 page PPT slide highlighting your main points: your technology, your team, and the market.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
we want something to show potential investors.
Investors don't typically look at business plans. They look at your elevator pitch and about a 10 page PPT slide highlighting your main points: your technology, your team, and the market.
That's only going to be true if you're making something like a website where the market and the monetization strategy are limited to a few well-understood choices. If your business is something like, for example, selling handicapped-accessible home swimming pools to parents of children with disabilities then a business plan is key.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
we want something to show potential investors.
Investors don't typically look at business plans. They look at your elevator pitch and about a 10 page PPT slide highlighting your main points: your technology, your team, and the market.
They don't invest their money in hot air :-).
Having said that, I'm one of those guys who really did find the process of writing a business plan to be personally helpful, whether or not a potential investor likes the result. So here's my .02. I'd start with John Nesheim's books, both "High Tech Startup" and "Unfair Advantage." I'd also check out his blog and his reading list. Somewhere in there he has a template that many successful tech companies have found useful for their own business plans. He also has a sample business plan, written by students, that you can take a look at.
Again, a rough 10 or 15 page business plan can't hurt at this stage, but you should be focused on making your product awesome, so that people will want it. Get that handled, and then worry about writing a really tight executive summary and you'll be good to go.
Good luck.