Make your plan for success.

As is the case with virtually all potential sources of equity capital, we require the submission of a comprehensive business plan prior to serious investment consideration. The importance of its excellence cannot be overstated.

 The plan must first serve as an educational document, as it is unlikely that we will be expert with respect to any particular opportunity presented to us. It is also the challenge of the management team, via the business plan, to make us knowledgeable as to the specifics of their opportunity. Such knowledge centers particularly on the company's marketplace and competitive environment. Flowing from such a description should come an understanding of the essence of the company's edge- of why the company will excel in its industry.

 Secondly, it should serve as a working document, a plan of execution. Action steps and responsibilities therefor, should be laid out over an intermediate-term time frame.
 
 

Lastly, the plan should serve as a justified look into the future; based on defensible assumptions, it should lay out what the company's likely future financial performance will be.

What Should the Business Plan Address? 

A business plan should contain the following information: 

• Brief history of the company
• Capital requirements (current amount needed and projected) 
• Description of the product or service
• Sales and marketing strategy
• Analysis of the market and the competition
• Specific risks relevant to the company (not boilerplate caveats)
• Full resumes of key management (highlighting industry and market expertise)
• Current financial statements (if applicable) and 3-to-5 year projections

Business Plan Submission and Review Process

Introductions and inquiries should be made via either letter, telephone, or email. While we prefer to review a business plan prior to meeting with management, we are willing to reverse the procedure in circumstances where no plan has yet been prepared, and where the opportunity is of prospective interest. 

We can usually indicate non-interest within a couple of weeks. Affirmative investment decisions obviously take longer, but are primarily a function of the quality of the business plan submitted. As soon as we have a comprehensive plan which is understandable, exciting and realistic, the due diligence required is usually only several weeks long. 

We have made investment commitments in as little as two weeks. Most commitments, however, take two to four months.