Hey everyone,
Today I am going to be talking about experts in the field of writing and reviewing business plans. Why am I doing this on a blog about audio and sound design? Well if you have not already figured it out, I am in the process of developing my own business plan for an audio post production studio here in the future and it always nice to do some research on experts who know how to get things done. Onward to the first expert in this blog.
His name is Glenn Fratangelo he is a venture capital investor who focuses on many different aspects in the business industry, one of those aspects is on Entertainment. Glenn has a venture capital firm in Princeton NJ, but does investments all over the continental United States. Glenn’s background is in general management, operations, finance, venture capital, and start-ups.
Glenn and his firm Innovation Garden are looking for are disruptive "near" revenue or early revenue technologies/businesses that have a talented founder team and require capital to deploy strategically based upon their MVP proof of concept. These are considered key because with any business plan that deals with technologies is vital, especially in the audio world where new technologies are coming out every year to make the industry a bit easier to do. Such as new plug-ins to help tune or compress audio, to the Slate Raven touch screen that helps you run Pro-tools. These are a few new technologies happening now. Innovation Gardens suggests many different things for new start-ups and technology based businesses.
A suggestions that I would consider for my plan is straight from Glenn’s news page on his website. In business, you don’t have to risk your life to be successful. And you don’t need to be the central hero either if you have the right team and support. But you do need to understand the harsh realities and the price of success in terms of time, dedication and deferred gratification. If you think you have the ingredients for an award-winning venture.
For my next expert in the field of writing business plans I want to introduce Tim Berry. He is the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software, founder of bplans.com, and a co-founder of Borland International. He built Palo Alto Software from zero to 40 employees and 70% market share without outside investment. Tim has a Stanford MBA degree. He has taught starting a business at the University of Oregon for 11 years. He is the conceptual author of Business Plan Pro and Liveplan, and author of The Plan-As-You-Go Business Plan.
In one of Tim’s articles he talks about 3 things angle investors look at when investing into a business plan. They are Likelihood of Exit: Some deal terms lean toward companies that will be getting a larger investment from professional venture capital within a year or so. So it isn’t about choosing the best opportunity for the founders, as you might think. Companies that aren’t aiming for that next round of investment are less attractive. Management experienced in start-ups: This starts out as what we see as written background: past experience, education, etc. It becomes the real person after we meet the real people. What shows up in writing doesn’t always show up in person. Sometimes experience is modified by personal traits, charisma, lack of it, confidence, balance, participation in discussions, etc. Product/market fit and prospects: This is where a lot of great service businesses become less attractive to investors. Does it take doubling head count to double sales? That’s hard to grow with. Is the value of the company based on the knowledge and expertise of the professionals providing the service? That’s hard to scale.
Tim has a lot of articles on his blog that will help anyone create their own business plan from the ground up. In his article starting a business it goes over literally everything you need to know and how to do it. For key components that investors are looking for to how to hire your first employee. So what are some of his suggestions that I will consider for my business plan? Well they are, testing my business idea. Tim gives many examples such as finding creative ways to figure out if I have a good business plan. Another one he suggests is how to map out business milestones, there are so many suggestions that I want to use from his blog but these are just a few. I will for sure be using his suggestions and Glenn's suggestions when it comes to writing and reviewing my business plan.
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