MS

1
MSE 273 Technology Venture Formation

• School of Engineering, Stanford University
• Spring 2008, 4 units
• Tuesdays, 415 720 PM,
• Yang Yamazaki Bldg Y2E2, Room 111
• Professors
• Audrey MacLean and Mike Lyons
• Teaching Assistants
• Lauren A. Shluzas and Craig Peters

2
Recap of Last Week
Whats an Opportunity? Product or service you
build a profitable company around, resulting in a
positive return to investors
Whats an Assessment? A quick way for you to
evaluate whether your opportunity is worth
spending years of time and money on
3
What Are The Key Questions?
What is the need you are trying to satisfy? What
is the potential market size? What is your
competitive advantage? What is your
marketing/sales channel? What is your business
model (i.e., how are you making money)? What
resources do you need to launch this
business? What are the major show-stoppers?
4
Type of Venture Changes Everything
MedTech
CleanTech
InfoTech
Everything market, customer, product, capital
5
Getting to the Finish Line

• Gate I Presentation (Sat, October 11)
  Opportunity Description Marketing/Sales Plan
• Describe your opportunity, TAM, expected
  penetration, competitive landscape, and product
  differentiation.
• Describe your marketing and sales plan. Include
  your potential customer base and initial customer
  targeting.
• Include detailed revenue projections and COGS for
  5 years. Use a proxy to ground these projections.
• Proxy Analysis Identify a similar company and
  compare your projections to their financials at
  similar stages. Be prepared to defend differences
  between the proxy and your plan.

• Gate II Presentation (Sat, November 8)
  Operations Development Plan
• Describe your product development and operations
  plan.
• Expand your financials to include detailed 5 year
  projections and cash flow breakeven. Distinguish
  your financials during development from your
  steady state.
• Use your proxy to ground your operating
  projections.

• The Home Stretch Final Deliverables
• Written Business Plan (Due Sunday, November 30)
• Dry Run Presentations to Teaching Team (Tues,
  December 2 or Wed, December 3)
• Final Presentation to Venture Capitalist Panel
  (Thurs, December 4 or Fri, December 5)

6
TA Announcements

• Office hours -- sign-up on the teaching team
  website
• Faculty Yang 372 374, Tues 3-4PM
• Lauren Terman 401, Thurs 5-6PM
• Craig Yang 374, Wed 4-5PM
• Mentor assignments to be sent out this week
• October 6th is the last date for team concept
  changes must email TAs by noon
• Suggested textbooks are at the Stanford bookstore

7
Todays Agenda

• InfoTech
• Joanna Rees Gallanter (Venture Strategy Partners)
• Steve Adams (Sabrix)
• Scott Weiss (IronPort)
• CleanTech
• Bob Cart (GreenVolts)
• MedTech
• Paul Yock Stanford BioDesign