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Class Questions

• Can you build your own route to market in the current environment? Is it possible to raise funds to build your own sales and marketing operations and your own distribution channels? Or do you have to partner with a company with these in place already?

• Gathering your provisions—how much cash do you need? How and where do you raise it?

• Do you look for a clear exit route before you decide to invest?

• How long must you bootstrap before you win the respect and support of investors?

• IPO or sell the company? What are the pro’s and con’s of IPO?

• What do investors look for in a business plan?

• Picking your team—who makes decisions? What types of individuals make the best startup traveling companions?

• Stock option pool—what do investors (and employees) demand today?

• Can you measure a market that doesn't yet exist?

• What do you do when the market changes ahead of the technology?

• What can an early stage startup do to prepare itself for a future IPO?

• Planning for contingencies—what happens when you reach a crisis or a fork in the road?

• Can we improve the success rate of technology startups in future?

• What are the steps making up a typical business planning process?

• What can you do to reduce the risks and improve the chances of success?

• If you make it through the bootstrap stage, what can you expect?

• Business plan--what are the components?

• Business plan--how do you size the market?

• Business plan--are testimonials important?

• What's your advice for assessing the US market opportunity?

• Business plans -- what mistakes to avoid?

• Who prepares the business plan?

• How do you evaluate different channels—licensees, distributors, OEM's, etc?

• How do you commercialize technology that has multiple uses and applications?

• How do you commercialize technology that's a component of an end-user product?

• How do you commercialize technology that's a component of another platform?

• When is it a good idea to hire a professional business plan writer?

• How long does it take to write a business plan?

• What's the significance of targeting asset sale or IPO?

• What should be included in the executive summary of the business plan?

• How important is market and customer analysis?

• What are the common mistakes made by startup entrepreneurs?

• What is the business plan, how do you build it?

• Does your technology define your marketing strategy or vice versa?

• What are the elements of a successful travel plan—how can you improve your chances of reaching your target destination?

• What are the key milestones that you are focusing on today?

• What are the priority milestones to achieve in the seed stage?

• Why is a merger or acquisition often considered more appealing than an IPO?

• Plotting milestones—what are the milestones, how do you order and prioritize them?

• What type of companies and technologies are suitable for IPO? What are not?

• How far ahead should you plan to sell the Company? Should you structure and prepare for the sale weeks, months or years ahead?

• Is there any profit in a pure technology asset sale? Does ‘asset sale’ always equate to ‘fire sale’? Can an asset sale generate enough cash to satisfy the shareholders and the employees?

• At what point do you discuss price/valuation with the prospective buyer of the Company?

• How do corporate buyers put a value on a technology asset acquisition?