and a few more pics

thank yous all around

some photographs of semi-finalist contenders

thank you to everyone who took part!

pictures from semi-final presentations

Thank you to everyone who took part in the semi-final rounds. We were all impressed by the quality of the business plans, and congratulations to the 8 finalists. (see plan summaries on the bplan.berkeley.edu website)

here are some photos of the judges (real VCs) carefully considering the plans in the final deliberations.

important information for qualifying teams!

BPlan Teams –

For the first time, The Haas Business Plan competition is teaming up with EECS to give semifinalists the unique opportunity to present their posters to a group of 28 venture capitalists at the BEARS conference (The Berkeley EECS Annual Research Symposium). While some of you may feel that it is too early to present your plan to VCs at this time, the VCs are aware that the plans may be preliminary and we encourage you to seize the opportunity to get the early exposure. This exposure may net you information on an unknown competitor, input on a market opportunity you are not aware of, or a mentor for your plan. All semifinalists are expected to present posters at the BEARs conference during lunch (from 1:00 - 2:00PM) on February 15th. For information about the event itself, see http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/IPRO/BEARS/. All teams need to do is bring a poster, and everything else will be supplied (easels, foam board to attach the posters to, and supplies to attach the posters to foam board). Details regarding the poster format, etc. will follow.

Currently we have 28 VCs from the following 22 firms:

3i Technology Partners

Adams Capital Management

Azure Capital Partners

Claremont Creek Venture Capital

Diamondhead Ventures

DoCoMo Capital, Inc.

First Round Ventures

Foundation Capital

Horizon Ventures

Hull and Stevenson

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners

Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV)

New Enterprise Associates (NEA)

Newbury Ventures

Onset Ventures

Saints Venture Capital

Sand Hill Angels

Shasta Ventures

Siemens TTB

Tallwood Venture Capital

US Venture Partners

X/Seed Capital

a potential template

Here's a suggested template for the executive summary due later this month:

Business Plan Format

Executive Summary (1-3 pages)

• Your business idea or concept
• The target market and size
• The target customers
• Your competitive advantage
• Barriers to entry
• Estimated year of breakeven profitability
• Three years of estimated revenues and net income
• Your funding requirements
1. Business Overview
   • Company description and business model
   • Value proposition- financial
   • Current status
   • Current or committed funding and all funding sources
2. The Market Opportunity (the problem, the customer's pain)
   • Why is this such a great idea? Define the problem, describe the pain
   • Competitive analysis (how the problem is not being solved by competitors)
3. Market Solution
   • Product or service
   • Description of a working model or prototype, if appropriate
   • How you will remove the pain, solve the problem
   • Ability to create barriers to entry
4. The Market
   • Identification of customer(s)
   • Market size, analysis and forecast
   • Industry analysis and forecast
5. Management Team
   • Founders and key management
   • Industry experience, education
6. Financial Analysis
   • Outline overall financial model with detailed projections through Year 3
   • including pro forma cash flow and budget analysis
   • Other analysis, as appropriate (i.e. break even analysis)
   • Discuss assumptions and capital requirements
7. Funding request