Venture Adventure

There’s a thread on Ask the VC discussing Should You Hire Someone to Write Your Business Plan?

I’ve posted my thoughts there – but I realize that for the person creating the post-bubble web2.0 internet yadayada startup with a nebulous business model, time is of the essence, and getting a web site up and running is cheap, easy, quick, and proof-of-concepts turn into businesses instantaneously.

For me, however, these types of businesses aren’t that interesting. My bent is towards creating a company geared for the long-run. Thus, my generic business creation project plan.

4 weeks for Market Research and Competitive Analaysis. Another 2 weeks to understand the industry value chain and ecosystem. With this research, I should be able to place my company in the a good portion of the ecosystem, segment the market and pick a profitable, under-exploited niche.

I figure it’s another 1 to 2 weeks to get the first draft of the business plan put together, along with a basic financial model.

Then 3 – 4 works of refininement and review.

At that point, I’ll have the basis for conversations with investors.

Yep – my life is no different than any one else. Or, as a friend of mine likes to say “Life just keeps getting in the way of life!”

I’m making progress. For this project (unlike some others I’ve dealt with), there is a wealth of information available in the public. That’s the good news. And the bad news. The volume is leading me to information-overload every day.

Then, of course, there’s the other life. Away from the company. And that too, is very hectic. I just replaced the roof on the house ($18K that isn’t going into the company). The previous water leaks force me to accelerate the plans to replace the carpets with wood flooring. This I’m doing myself.

I’m also taking 2 weeks to travel to the east coast. My mom is having her knee replaced, and I’ve going to help out during her recovery period. I’ll be stoppping in Boston beforehand, to visit my sister and nephew. And stopping in New Orleans on the way back, to spend a few days with my wife, who’ll be attending the ACC conference (that’s Cardiology, not basketball). Hopefully, I’ll get some good photo opportunities.

I will be working during my travels, but just won’t be able to put in the dedicated effort that I can while I’m at home.

Continuing with today’s VC link theme, courtesy of Brad Feld at Ask The VC, a link By Saul Klein to Ben Holmes’ Presentation on Everything You Need To Know About Venture Capital

Southeast VC Jason Caplain today points to a good overview/presentation by John Fogg of the Hutchison Law Group: Understanding Term Sheets and Deal Structures.

On Tuesday, I attended the MIT-Stanford Venture Lab panel discussion Consumer Products Innovation 2007. The Panel featured Martin Eberhard, CEO of Tesla Motors, and included Robert Acker of Dash Navigation, Dave Blakely of Ideo and Dave Mathews of Sling Media.

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