After a recent meeting with a retiring Venture Capitalist, I walked away with a notebook filled with notes and an excitement for our next workshop session.

To entrepreneurs, the inner-workers of the VC mind is a complete mystery, which adds to the excitement and enchantment they seem to hold over everyone outside the investing world.

However, it’s important to remember that venture capital is a job and venture capitalists are people with skillsets that make them the right men and women for the job.

If you’ve read this title and are looking for an outline, no worries — I’ll provide one in a moment. If you’d like a bit more detail, then stick with me through, what may become, a rather lengthy post and we’ll review the conversations had at my VC-Workshop.

Business Plan Outline – All You Really Need

1. Intro
   1. Value Proposition
2. Industry
   1. TAM – Total Attainable Market
   2. Customer Segments & Proof of Concept
   3. Competitive Analysis***
3. Strategy/Model
   1. Product
   2. Marketing & Sales
   3. Operations
   4. Management – TEAM!
4. Financials
   1. Pro Forma Projections & Assumptions
   2. Risks and Milestones
   3. Exit Strategy
   4. Funding Needs & Valuation

While some business plan outlines may go on for miles, the recommendation given to me was approximately 20 pages in length; remember, people actual have to read these! My next few posts will break down each section of the business plan, as discussed in the workshop, so stay tuned and be sure to any questions you have so I can ask our workshop “leader” next time we meet!