1. 1 What is your value proposition?
If you can’t explain that in three, jargon free sentences or less why customers need your product,
you don’t have a value proposition, and thus, you do not have a business, period.
2 Does your product address a viable market?
Large enough to attract investment capital
Is demand there?
Is it creatable?
3 What differentiates your product from the competition?
Beyond marketing, how/what tangible value do you deliver that other companies don’t?
i.e. rock bottom prices Walmart
Ingenious product design Apple
Extreme Convenience Fed Ex
4 Does the Business Scale?
Scaleable businesses are those that can produce the next widget at a fraction ofthe cost
Think Software / Development cost but then Copy for nothing
Service is no good / You need people to grow revenue
Therefore, do not embark on businesses if people cost grow proportionately with revenue
5 How committed are you to making this happen?
Family Life / vs / 100+ hours / wk for next two years & give up everything
6 What are your Strengths?
Get good & stick with it exponentially
Google ­ algorithms
Steinway ­ wood/;pianos
Cisco ­ NewTech Rollups
7 What are your Weaknesses?
Stick to what you know and ind trusted partners to handle the rest
Apple ­ someone else makes the camera on the iphone
Online Merchants ­ outsource critical operations
Wasting resources just to be mediocre is suicide
8 What price will your customers pay?
Why will people pay twice as much for Clorox that for generic bleach?
Nailing the upper limits of what customers will pay is one of the biggest lever in any business model
see “the six step guide to pricing your product” & “how to price your consulting services”
9 How much power do your customers have?
Spread our risk by diversifying your customer base
If a customer demands large concessions ­ you may have to walk
10 How much power do your suppliers have?
The fewer # of suppliers / the more sway they have over your business
Diversify your Sourcing / Costs / Quality Matrix
11 How could/should/would you sell your product?
Dell bypassed retailers & sold directly to customers
GM & CocaCola rely on distributors to move cars and cans
Ralph Lauren works both internal and external channels

2. Apple keeps adding more of its’ own outposts/complete with experience
Whatever sales method you choose, make sure it aligns with the overall business strategy
12 How should you market your product?
Get the word out about your company ­ without going broke
You can’t capitalize those expenses on the balance sheet
See “16 must try marketing maneuvers”
13 How Big is the threat of new entrants?
Know your competition Microsoft/Netscape/Apple
Know your Substitutes Kodak/Digital
Construct Barriers of Entry
Patents/Leases/Build a Following long before “Me­Too’s” get their footing
14 How do you protect your Intellectual Property?
Protect your Prototype
The Patented path to Profits
(watch out for reverse engineering your ideas and bringing them to the market as versions)
15 How much start­up capital do you need?
Failure due to being undercapitalized/financial capital/human capital/working capital
Failure due to being under managed/planned/executed
16 How will you finance the business
Bootstrap
Family & Friends
Credit & Loans
Angels & Early Venture
Venture & Private Equity
Risk/Availability/Dilution
17 How much cash do you need to survive the early years
cash cushion
spend to earn, not to consume
cashflow mismatches can take you out
18 How are your financial projections?
You can’t lead if you don’t have a destination
2 Critical Milestones
1) more cash in versus out
2) return of investment & time value of $
Proj s/b reasonable ­ not too rosey ­ and integrated BalSheet/IncStmt/Cash Flow
19 How do you keep the help happy?
Simon Cowl? American Idol?
Paychecks are just part of the equation.
Engagement is key to success
20 What is the end game?
Flip
Grow