52 Bicycles

I often hear VCs invite entrepreneurs to send a two-page summary of the business, and there is discussion of how this is a precursor to the full business plan.

Wrong - or at least it should be. In writing, the summary is created last, and contains the essence of the full document. So the twenty pages gets created with the full detail, and that which is most important is distilled into the two pages.

What the VCs are saying is that they want this core, and if the core is sufficiently interesting, they want more of the backup detail.

So the next time you think “it’s just a 2 page summary”, take a step back, ask if you are ready to provide that summary.

In the alternative, if you are not ready with a summary plan, consider offering a high-level preview, and describe it as such. List your unknowns, and how they integrate with the rest of your vision. By casting the document in this light, you present what you have, and you aren’t sweating the fact that you haven’t answered certain questions (like quantifying the size of market, or your 5-year cash flow projections) that keep so many would-be entrepreneurs from getting off the mark.
And for G*d’s sake, offer a written document. Illustrations and charts are to be encouraged, but slides will fudge your thinking. See Tufte.
Clear, succinct thinking based on what you know today - that’s what they want, so give it to them.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 6th, 2006 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Technology Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Reddit This