Getting Noticed
The best way to ensure that your idea or company gets the attention it deserves is to approach us with a referral from someone we know and trust. It’s often helpful to surround yourself with people on your board, in senior management positions or in key advisory roles who have established track records of success and relevant industry experience.
Investment Process
We typically begin by reviewing an executive summary that describes your business, which should include a description of your product or service, the market (target customer, size of opportunity, etc.), the team and their relevant experience, and some high level financial projections. The executive summary will initially be evaluated by one of our partners. After we have understood the underlying idea behind your company and determined that it is potentially a good fit for our fund, we will invite you to show us a slide presentation and go into some depth about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats related to your business. We will ask you to bring in the founders and key employees, so that they can answer questions about their areas of expertise. We may ask an entrepreneur-in-residence from our firm or an outside expert from our network to sit in. These meetings are a very important part of the evaluation process. Your team's ability to clearly articulate and summarize the important issues in your plan will reflect their true understanding of the business and how well they will be able to sell your ideas to future employees, investors and customers.
Although we often work with an entrepreneur before anything has been committed to paper, at some point we will want to see a detailed business plan or presentation. A good business plan is more than a money-raising tool. It is also a working document that captures the essence of your company and accurately models the requirements for executing your strategy over time. When building the plan, it is crucial that you talk with your customers, evaluate your competitors, and complete a rigorous financial model based on available market data and reasonable assumptions.
Your business plan should describe:
- The problem you are solving or need you are filling, and the opportunity it creates for your company
- The solution you intend to provide
- The market, the competitive landscape, and key trends
- Sales and distribution strategies
- Intellectual property assets
- Government regulation issues
- A liquidity plan
- Key team members and skill requirements
- A four-year financial plan, including income statements, balance sheets, cash flows and a capitalization table
Once we complete our initial due diligence and review of your business plan, we will negotiate the price and terms of an investment and obtain conditional approval from our partnership based on the price and terms negotiated. We will then propose a non-binding term sheet. Once the term sheet is mutually accepted, definitive agreements will be drafted. Upon completion of definitive agreements and final due diligence (including personal reference checks), we can obtain final approval from our partnership, execute the definitive agreements, and transfer funds.
Resources for Entrepreneurs
- Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The EMKF is a foundation that promotes entrepreneurship through educational programs such as the Kauffman Venture Capital fellowship.
- Lester Center for Entrepreneurship - UC Berkeley. This site provides information on regularly scheduled networking and speaking events at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.
- MIT Entrepreneurship Center. The MIT E-Center promotes numerous formal and informal activities to foster entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education.
- Stanford Technology Ventures Program. STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship education and creating scholarly research on technology-based firms.
- Venture Capital Resource Library. At this site, sponsored by VFinance Holdings, Inc., you'll find information about venture capital firms, angel investors, lenders and investment banks. Download a free business plan template here, or ask questions to the site's financing specialists.