G96 Mentor Idea Review (6)

#1 (Corporate Entity)

Provide details on your corporate entity or company if you already have one that you plan to use with the Founder Institute. Write the official name of the Corporate Entity and the date that it was formed. Write the name of the Law Firm or service that formed the Corporate Entity. Write a couple of sentences to describe the previous business of the Corporate Entity, and write a couple more sentences describing any revenues that the Corporate Entity has had to date by year and by type. Start collecting, scanning and organizing all of the Corporate Entity documentation. Click “Account” and fill out any information or upload any documents on the Corporate Entity. (1 Hour)

• Austrian Economics
• Heterodox Economics.

#2 (Epic Sprint)

Post the work from your Epic Sprint here, including accessible links to any documents. It is very important to complete the Epic Sprint on time and to produce the highest quality work possible. Follow the exact instructions provided to the best of your ability. Any Founder with partially incomplete or poor work on the Epic Sprint will be invited to re-enroll. (20+ Hours)

#3 (Design Follow-up)

If you are working with a Design Resource on Design Specification, provide an update on the progress. Check in with your Design Resource every couple of days on the progress, and make sure that you are providing them with constructive feedback. Write a couple of sentences on the progress made to date, and write a couple more sentences on the progress that still needs to be made. (2 Hours)

1. The company Innobia.
2. The product RankUp used in Search Engine Optimisation.

#4 (Corporate Materials)

Update your PowerPoint presentation from the Mentor Idea Review, using feedback from the Mentors. Produce a 1 page Executive Summary that incorporates the feedback from the Mentors in the Mentor Idea Review using this template (http://fndri.com/1b0WJYi). Share the Executive Summary and PowerPoint with your Working Group, and solicit feedback for improvements. Upload the final Executive Summary and PowerPoint, and provide a link to the files that is available for anyone to view. (2 Hours)

Pitch Deck

#5 (Business Calendar)

Create a separate calendar on a tool, such as Google Calendar, to track all of your relevant business appointments, due dates and regulatory filings. Create a bulleted list of the following events that are to be added to your Business Calendar and set reminders at an appropriate amount of time beforehand. First, add all of the program dates for incorporation, as well as the special events including the Mentor Progress Review and Graduation. Next, research at least a dozen upcoming events over the next 60 days related to your target market, discussing technology or focused on startups, using resources like Meetup or Eventbrite. List all of these events, and place them in your Business Calendar. Make arrangements to attend the events, and, for any event that allows startups to pitch, submit an application to present your company. (2 Hours)

#6 (Law Firm Identification)

Recruit a high-quality Law Firm if you are not working with one already, or provide details on your high-quality Law Firm if you are working with one. If you are not working with a Law Firm, then write a bulleted list of at least two local Law Firm Candidates that have experience working with startups, including the local legal partner of the Founder Institute. Write a second bulleted list of 10 to 15 interview questions for the Law Firm Candidates, using this guide (https://FI.co/guides/legal_interview). Write an email to set up a new client virtual meeting with your Law Firm Candidates that will occur over the phone within the next few days, and provide the scheduled interview time for each firm. If you are already working with a Law Firm, then write the name of your Law Firm and the name of your lawyer, including their title. Provide a couple of sentences that describes their work with high-profile startups, including the names of any success stories. Click “Account” and enter the key details of your Law Firm, including “[Your Law Firm Name]: [The Full Name of Your Attorney], [Email Address], [Phone Number].” (2 Hours)

#7 (Advisor Candidates)

Develop a target list of potential Advisor Candidates. You will create an Advisory Board over the next five weeks. Identify three Advisor Candidates across three categories for a minimum of nine targets. The first category, “Startup,” is an experienced technology entrepreneur that has had one or more successful exits from previous companies that they founded. The second category, “Industry,” is a well-recognized domain expert in your sector or industry that has experience in an area where you are personally weak or that you need help in. For the third category, there are two options, “Technology” or “Marketing.” If you have not built a product or technology previously, then you should look for technologists with significant product management experience in your industry or sector. If you have limited experience with marketing or sales, then you should look for an individual with significant marketing or sales experience, preferably in your industry. Provide a bulleted list of the Advisor Candidates by category, including their name, title, company, Linkedin and the name of a potential Connector whom you know that can reach the Advisor Candidate. Work to identify the best Advisors possible. (2 Hours)

#8 (Advisor Outreach)

Start reaching out to Advisors through Connectors. Take your bulleted list of Advisor Candidates and add a person that you know and trust that can make a qualified introduction to each Advisor Candidate, which will be a Connector. Even if you know the Advisor Candidate, you want a Connector to be a reference for you. Write one sentence per Advisor Candidate on your strategy to engage with them using the Connector, and this list will become your Advisor Target List. Email each of the Connectors on your Advisor Target List to set up a call with the Connector to discuss your business. During the call with the Connector, request an introduction or reference to the Advisor. After the call, write a brief email for the Connector to forward to the Advisor that includes a couple of sentences on the business, and follow up with the Connector until the introduction or reference is completed. If the introduced Advisor Candidate expresses interest, respond with a very brief email to set up a short call or virtual meeting, which will be the Initial Advisor Interview. If you are unable to reach any Connector or Advisor Candidate, replace that Advisor Candidate on your Advisor Target List, always maintaining at least nine high-quality Advisor Candidates. Update your Advisor Target List, including the one sentence strategy, with progress from the Connector calls and any Advisor Candidate outreach. The Initial Advisor Interview toward building an Advisory Board is covered in the next assignment. (3 Hours)

#9 (Limiting Beliefs)

Founders often fail to grow their business because of Limiting Beliefs. These are unsubstantiated perceptions of what you can and can not accomplish, often based on irrational fears. Classic Limiting Beliefs include statements like ‘I can’t quit my job because…,’ ‘I can’t get paying customers because…’ or ‘I can’t incorporate my business because …’ Describe in a couple of sentences one Stretch Goal for your business that you have considered previously and that you think is unrealistic to achieve. Next, write a couple of bullet points on your perception of why this goal is unrealistic. Third, for each bullet point, write another couple of sentences that describes a belief that you have that influences your thinking to cause you to believe that this goal is unrealistic. Present the thinking to your Working Group, and ask them for feedback, as well as ideas on any Limiting Beliefs that you may have missed. Lastly, write a few sentences about how you will overcome your Limiting Beliefs to achieve this Stretch Goal, and write one action that you will take this week to accomplish the Stretch Goal. Set up a reminder in your Business Calendar to repeat this exercise on a monthly basis. (1 Hour)

#10 (Sales Follow-up)

Follow-up with the Customer List and continue to work on securing a sale or commitment for revenue. For B2B solutions, your goal is to get as many contracts or letters of intent as possible. Remember, the goal of every email or interaction is to get to the next interaction. Write a series of short follow-up emails that track to your Steps to Revenue. Provide the copy of your emails, as well as the target follow-up timing. Provide an outline of your sales pipeline, showing the number of companies at each step in the process. Provide any links to the signed documents that you are able to secure. For B2C solutions, your goal is to expand the number of people from your Customer List that have either paid money for your Concierge MVP or submitted information indicating they will pay you. Provide an outline of the numbers that you have reached highlighting the conversion to interest or sales that you have secured. Write a few sentences on the challenges that you are facing to convert customers. Provide the names of any customers or potential customers that you have secured. (5 Hours)

#11 (Financial Model)

Develop a simple Financial Model that focuses on expenses to understand your cash needs. Start by using the Revenue session work to develop a revenue forecast for 18 months, making sure to target at least USD $1 million in total revenue over this period, and factor in timing considerations from the Sales Follow-up work. Identify any expenses that you expect to scale either with the growth of revenue or ahead of revenue growth, which are your cost of sales. Then, examine the existing expenses that you have made to date, and project any recurring expenses out into the future with a reasonable growth rate, placing the expenses into standard categories. Factor expenses required for you to live over the period of the plan and include any expenses required to set up the business in the Founder Institute. You can use this template for reference (http://fndri.com/2yLeU3y). Provide a link to the Financial Model spreadsheet. (3 Hours)

#12 (Sales Plan)

Develop a realistic, yet aggressive, Sales Plan. Based on the needs of your Financial Model and the experiences with the Sales Follow-up, develop a plan to build and grow your revenues over the next three months. Write a couple of sentences about how many customers that you hope to have and how much revenue that you hope to earn by the end of three months. Then, work backward to hit these targets, considering product development and sales cycles. For each of the next four weeks, provide a bulleted list of the goal for each week and the tasks that must be accomplished each week to hit these goals. (2 Hours)

#13 (File System)

set up an online File System to store all company documents. Select an online storage solution to store all documents and data that your company generates, such as Google Docs, Box or OneDrive. Prepare a folder structure to store the company documents and data, following the structure outlined in this guide (https://fi.co/guides/1301). Take all of the documents and data produced to date and load it into the folder structure. Provide the name of File System solution that you have selected, and a link to a screenshot of your final folder structure. (1 Hour)

#14 (Equity Collective)

Procure a list of questions about the Equity Collective agreement. First, read all of the legal documents that are required by the Founder Institute. (https://fi.co/agreements) Next, develop a list of questions about the agreements and add them below. Finally, bring this list of questions to the Legal session to discuss your concerns with the Lawyers that are mentoring.

#15 (Updates)

Provide your Weekly Update using the Team – Product – Traction – Program format, with metrics and bullet points on key progress and challenges. Update your corporate profile on the Founder Institute site. (1 Hour)

#16 (Hotseat PItch)

Update your one minute without slides and 3 minute with slides Hotseat Pitches with any learning and new materials this week, progress from the Weekly Update, and the latest Asks. Video yourself giving your best Hotseat pitch, and upload the video online as unlisted and accessible. Paste the link to the unlisted video in the assignment here and also paste the link in the field on your homepage under Weekly Pitch. (30 Minutes)

#17 (Third Mailing)

Expand The List with at least 10 more people, including any Mentors that you have explicitly asked to stay in contact with. Write a message to The List that celebrates passing the Mentor Idea Review, shares some or all of the Mentor feedback and your Weekly Update content, shares Asks, and solicits feedback. List three items of feedback received. (1 Hour)

(Optional – Curriculum Review)

Review the Founder Institute curriculum to this point. Which parts were valuable for your business, which were less valuable, what was missing, and what could be improved? Fill in this three question survey with your feedback https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NFWC39X. (1 Hour)

Director Feedback

Dear George, good progress on a number of fronts. I like the thinking behind branding the company Innobia rather than RankUp and using Rankup as a product branding. I applaud your decision to pivot and change your plans, it is never an easy call to make. I do worry if Innobia is available – I remember a company Innovia, could they prevent you from using a name that sounds so similar it could be confused? – but I trust you have checked that. Deep dive on the Epic Sprint and some legal questions. Good progress on Advisors, though I am not clear from the content you submitted what you want them to contribute exactly that you are missing. And the sales plan is shaping up, too.
What still needs a lot of work is the pitch and the pitch deck. In the video pitch I cannot see the slides, and the slides I can see on other links need substantial improvement – too much detail per page, visually incoherent, too repetitive in the voice over, and the repetition confuses the storyline. But that’s what we are here to help with. Use as many opportunities to pitch as you can over the next weeks. And feel free to send me the pitch deck once you have the branding (logo, colours, visual identity….) sorted out.
In order to mark your assignment complete, I am afraid I have to ask you to fix the links on #5 (link is broken, no access to google doc) and #17 where it says “link to the mailing list”, but it leads to the website.
Keep pushing! You have come a long way. You are asking the right questions, they deserve good answers.
Best, Ingeborg

Links

Reading

• Guide to Writing a Business PlanTips on writing a business plan for each section.
• Perfecting Your PitchPitching investors for venture capital funding: tell a good story.
• Three Minute Pitch Example 15th Founder Showcase Winner (FounderShowcase.com) – BreezyPrint
• Three Minute Pitch Example 24th Founder Showcase Winner – SeePort
• Three Minute Pitch Example 33rd Founder Showcase Winner – eVenues
• Do Things that Don’t Scale
• 12 Leadership Lessons to Learn From the Navy SEALsTake a few tips from some of the bravest folks around.

Required

• Executive Summary TemplateA template for an “Executive Summary” – a short document or section of a document, produced for business purposes, that summarizes a longer report.

Resources

• Template de Pitch Deck | ABStartupsTemplate de Pitch Deck Esse modelo é baseado nos exemplos de diversos autores, investidores e startups. Antes de começar a editar faça um cópia para o seu drive.
• URL ShortenerBitly Brand Tools: Own, understand and activate your best audience through the power of the link.
• Website wireframes: MockingbirdMockingbird helps you you create and share clickable wireframes. Use it to make mockups of your website or application in minutes.

Submitted

• фото_26_11 – Google Drive
• 12+ Business Pitch Deck Templates and Design Best Practices to Impress Investors – VenngageWant to learn how to to use design to make a big impression on investors? Start with one of these 12 business pitch deck templates to get your started.
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