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Business Plan Advice

April 13, 2010 - Author: Miro Kazakoff, MIT $100K

It is crunch time for the MIT $100K semi-finalists, with the big finale show now less than a month away. As the teams prepare their plans and pitches, many ask “what do the judges want to see, anyway??”  In this post, the MIT $100K’s own Miro Kazakoff helps teams (or any entrepreneur, for that matter) with the essentials of their business plan and pitch deck.

A Peak Behind Closed Curtains – What Are MIT $100K Judges Looking For?

We often get asked for a checklist of items that teams should include in their business plan. There is no formal checklist that the judges are required to evaluate the plans against, and when every plan starts to look the same we notice the judges’ eyes start to glaze over.

That said, there are certain components of business plans that judges seem to notice if they are missing. The following list of topics adapted from Howard Andersen’s New Enterprise class at MIT Sloan is as good a checklist as any I’ve seen. In my experience teams should strive to generate something that feels unique and appropriate to their idea and not try to answer every question below. Teams should, however, make sure to clearly hit each overall topic somewhere in their plan and address the questions that are important to their business.

1) Market opportunity

• How much is being spent currently on the class of products and services you play in?
• How is that spending changing over time?
• What problem will your company tackle?
• Why is there value in addressing that problem?
• What will drive your growth (the market growing or a shift from one type of solution to another)? Remember that doing nothing may be the current “solution” to the problem you are solving?
• How is the market segmented? What segment are you targeting?
• What about competitors? Who are they and how will you address them?

2) Marketing strategy

• How will you make customers aware of your offering?
• Why is this approach appropriate to your offering and your market?
• How will you price? What is the justification for this approach?
• What types of advertising and promotion will you pursue?

3) Sales strategy

• How will you makes sales and distribute your offering?
• How do you expect this approach to change over time?
• Are there any special needs for selling your product (e.g. it’s perishable)?
• What is the value chain for distribution of your product and where do you fit into it?

4) Product description

• What is your offering?
• How does it work?
• What makes it unique?
• How will you protect it (e.g. patents)?
• What are the risks associated with building it (e.g. technical risks)?

5) Financial projections

• What is the projected revenue and income for the next five years?
• How do the cost projections support the approach you have outlined in prior sections?
• Are the revenue projections bounded by some semblance of reality?

6) Financing needed and planned exit

• Is the level of financing needed appropriate to the return (e.g. $20M to generate a <$10M business would not seem appropriate to an investor)?
• Does the business have a reasonable understanding of potential paths the business could pursue?

7) Team biographies

• Does the team have the right set of skills for the problem?

Miro Kazakoff is the Judging Co-lead of the 2010 MIT $100K Business Plan Competition. He has observed 15 hours of contest judging and read over 300 business plans and executive summaries. After all that, he is honored and sometimes a little surprised that our judges are so giving of their time and expertise.