Social Venture Start-Up Feasibility Plan

Social Venture Start-Up Feasibility Plan

Guidelines for Writing Your Social Venture Start-Up Feasibility Plan

Opportunity (10%)

Training Management Process in today’s Army

Status Quo

What’s the high-level social need or problem you’d like to change or challenge?
How will you address this need?
How is the status quo currently less than optimal?

Insight

What is the key insight that reveals a need in the marketplace?
What is the gap you’ve observed between the way things are now and the way things ought to

be or could be?

Why does this gap (i.e., need, want, problem or pain) persist?
Why haven’t others successfully addressed this before?

After reading this section, readers should:

Be tingling because they’re so excited about the “big idea” behind your venture.
Be intrigued by your idea’s potential to affect long-term change or large-scale improvement in

circumstances.

Believe your idea is timely and potentially impactful.

Solution (30%)

Value Proposition

Describe your products/services – include visualization appendix

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How will your products/services create pain or relieve pain?
What unique value will users/customers derive from your products/services?
How will your products/services enhance the way people live, work, do business or play?

Customer Segments

Who will care about your solution and why?
Who are your potential users/customers? Describe your initial target segments using relevant

demographic, psychographic and/or behavioral characteristics.

What needs, desires, or traits do they have in common? Is there an archetype?
Describe the serviceable addressable market and serviceable obtainable market.
Is yours a multi-sided market, with two or more interdependent customer segments?
Are users and buyers one and the same?

Opportunity/Solution Fit

How passionate or enthusiastic will customers and stakeholders be about your product/

solution? Why?

Why will they prefer your offering to existing alternatives?
What evidence do you have that customers will go wild with desire for your product? Explain

your confidence.

What pass/fail experiments did you run to verify your assumptions about market potential and

social impact?

Who have you talked to in order to better understand the situation and the appropriateness of

your solution?

Explain how your customer discovery efforts lead you to this conclusion.

After reading this section, the readers should feel:

Understand who will care about your solution and why.
Believe you’ve clearly identified and sharply-defined an important market segment.
Understand why you’ve chosen to target this group.
Understand the “gap” you intend to fill in the marketplace.
Be impressed by the extent you’ve solicited third-party input to validate your hypotheses and

refine your idea..

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Measuring Social Impact (10%)

Assessing Your Effectiveness

How will you assess your effectiveness in achieving your stated social mission?
What 3-4 indicators will link back to your theory of change and strategy?
How will you measure these indicators to determine your social impact?

Operations Plan (20%)

Channels

How do you plan to sell and market your product/service to customers?
What distribution methods will you use? (Web? Physical? Direct? Distributors?)
What are the financial and operational implications of the channel strategies selected?

Key Partners

What partnerships must you forge to insure success? What strategic alliances, if formed,could

help you reduce risks?

What joint ventures will enable you to acquire necessary resources/inputs?

Key Resources

What physical, intellectual or human resources must you have to make your business model

work?

What are the most important assets required to deliver your proposed value proposition?
Will you be able to acquire the resources needed?
Does the necessary infrastructure exist to produce and deliver your product/service?

Status & Traction

What’s your current status? Describe milestones achieved so far, e.g., product development

deadlines, beta testing, prototypes, users/customers acquired, letters of intent received,orders

placed, etc.

Critical Risks

How can you insure your product will work as planned? Will you be able to deliver the desired

quality?

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Will you be able to manufacture your product? What key resources and partnerships must be

in place? What activities must you master? Can you scale?

What legal or regulatory issues could adversely impact the business? What regulatory

approvals are required?

Are their political, governmental, social or cultural obstacles you’ll likely encounter? What are

they? How will you overcome them?

What are the key technical hurdles/milestones that must be overcome to bring your product/

service to market, if any?

After reading this section, the readers should:

Believe that the team is cautiously optimistic rather than dangerously naive about the potential

challenges ahead.

Financial Analysis (20%)

Sources & Uses of Startup Capital

What are your anticipated startup expenses? How much cash will you need to get to “day

one”, i.e., launch?(Technical talent? Equipment? Leases? Inventory? Key hires? Supplies?

Professional fees? Licenses? etc.)

How much cash will you need to reach important milestones, e.g., prototype, beta test,

regulatory approval, first-customer ship, pilot program, etc.?

Prepare a start-up budget

Pricing and Revenue Model

Describe how you will make money, i.e., what you will charge for, how much and who isgoing

to pay you. Will you have multiple revenue streams?

What is the revenue model for each customer segment you plan to serve? (Asset sale, usage

fee, rental, license, advertising, freemium, etc.)

What price will you charge? Describe your pricing strategy.

Team (10%)

Founders

Briefly describe the relevant experience, skills and qualifications of each team

member.Highlight prior startup experience or related industry expertise.

Explain the primary role each person will play.
Indicate whether or not this team has worked together before.

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Advisors

List key advisors who are lending their expertise (and not simply their names) to the

management team. This may include an advisory board, board of directors or professional

service providers, e.g., lawyer, accountant, consultants, etc.

Key Hires

Describe whose missing from the team. What skill sets does the team lack and will need to

acquire/hire?

Submission

Format

Your submission must not exceed 8 pages, as described below.

Your feasibility analysis should be a maximum of four pages – 12 point font, 1” margins
Appendix:
Visualization of products and services (1 page)
Business model canvas (1 page)
Start-up budget (1 page)
Founders vesting schedule (1 page)

Submission Deadline

Materials must be submitted by 12:00 pm on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2016. The deadline is

firm.

Submission is through Sakai assignment links, no other delivery method will be

accepted.

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Social Venture Start-Up Feasibility Plan