Received: from ATHENA-AS-WELL.MIT.EDU by po7.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA03241; Sun, 9 Jan 94 16:13:19 EST Received: from VONGOLE.MIT.EDU by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA04496; Sun, 9 Jan 94 16:12:36 EST From: rdshydur@MIT.EDU Received: by vongole.MIT.EDU (5.57/4.7) id AA13516; Sun, 9 Jan 94 16:12:34 -0500 Message-Id: <9401092112.AA13516@vongole.MIT.EDU> To: e-club@MIT.EDU Cc: urban@MIT.EDU, jrosen@husc.harvard.edu Subject: e-club iap'94, "Nuts'n'Bolts of Preparing Business Plans" Date: Sun, 09 Jan 94 16:12:33 EST * Greetings from The MIT Entrepreneurs Club * aka: "The E-Club" (re: iap'94 e-club series reminder & schedule) "The Nuts'n'Bolts of Preparing Business Plans" including additional topics on "Starting New Businesses" Series Organiser Joe Hadzima '73, Attorney, Co-Director High Tech/New Ventures Group Sullivan & Worcester One Post Office Square, Boston Visiting Faculty at The Sloan School of Management General Counsel to The MIT Enterprise Forum Purpose of the course series: The `nuts and bolts of preparing business plans and starting new businesses' will be explored. The course is open and free to all members of the MIT Community interested in entrepreneurship, and is especially recommended to MIT students and student-teams who are, or may be thinking about, participating in the Fifth Annual $10K Student Competition (for best new-business-start-up-idea-and-accompanying-business- plan-of-the-year at MIT). Attendence is limited to the first 100 people, so plan to get to the meetings early to assure a place. A limited number of spaces for Wellesley and Harvard/Radcliffe students from The Harvard E-Club will be held until the start of each session to encourage their attendance as part of our new collaborative effort among local "E-Clubs". Organisers of the course series: This course is organised annually by The High Technology/New Ventures Group of the Boston-based law firm of Sullivan & Worcester, with offices in New York and Washington D.C., a sponsor of the "10K" competition and principal counsel to The E-Club. -------- Session 1: MARKETING Tuesday, 11 January 6:30-8:30pm, MIT, room 6-120 Many entrepreneurs, especially technology-based entrepreneurs, are accused of being too in love with their technology or concept. They rationalise that if they develop a better mousetrap then the product will sell itself. However, a good technology or product idea is a neccessary but not a sufficient condition to establishing and growing a successful business venture. There is much talk of the need to be "market driven". Who will buy the product? How will you reach buyers? How much will they pay? If you have an idea for a product or service how do you determine whether there is a market for it? How do you develop a marketing strategy? How do you turn your idea and market research into sales? What do you need to do to convince potential investors that there is a market and that your idea is viable? If you don't have a specific product or service idea but you see a potential need, how do you turn the need into a product or service? This session will discuss these issues and provide guidance on how to approach the marketing section of your business plan. Moderator: Joe Hadzima '73 (see above); Speakers: Bill Gasko, founder of 5 companies; Conall Ryan, Chairman, On Technology; Dan Scherlis, Papyrus Design Group, Inc, a computer game development company. -------- Session 2: FINANCING Thursday, 13 January 6:30-8:30pm, MIT, Bartos Theater (lower-level of The Media Lab, aka: building E15, 20 Ames Street) You have identified the product or service, and the market. You are beginning to prepare the Business Plan. Where will you go for financing? "Boot-strapping" the early stages. Funding from "The 3 F's" - Friends, Family and Fools. "Angels" - who are they and what are they looking for? "Private Placements". "Customer Financing". "Consulting" - getting someone else to pay for the development, provide a "beta" (test) site and endorse your idea. "Venture Capital". "Bank Financing". The speakers for this seminar represent a variety of types of funding sources. You will learn about their institutional constraints and needs. As a result you will be in a better position to determine if, when and how to approach these sources for financing. Moderator: Den White, Co-Director Sullivan & Worcester High Technology/New Ventures Group Speakers: Kenneth Schiciano, TA Associates; Carol Dillon, Innovative Capital Partners; David Fischer, Senior VP, Silicon Valley East; Jack Wolfe, CEO, Tytronics, Inc. -------- Session 3: THE BUSINESS PLAN Tuesday, 18 January 6:30-8:30pm, MIT, room 6-120 Practical do's and don'ts in preparing a Business Plan. Things to keep in mind in writing a Business Plan which will improve your chances of obtaining funding and running a successful business. Moderator: Joe Hadzima Speakers: Carol Dillon, Innovative Capital Partners; Peter Schmidt, Midnight Networks, Inc. -------- Session 4: WAR STORIES Thursday, 20 January 6:30-8:30pm, MIT, room 6-120 The previous sessions have focused on specific aspects of starting and growing a business. How do all the pieces work or not work in fact? This session will consist of entrepreneurs in various stages of the process. They will tell their "war stories" and will give you their perspective on the do's and don'ts. Moderator: Joe Hadzima Speakers: Stever Robbins, a software engineering entrepreneur who has been involved with several companies including FTP Software, Bachman Information Systems, Symbolics and Intuit, Inc.; Jonathan Harber, Founder of Digital Video Applications Corporation (DIVA), a Macintosh-based multimedia products company which was recently sold to AVID Technology in 1993; Bill O'Farrell, Founder of The Company of Science and Arts, a Rhode Island-based multimedia company which was sold to Aldus in 1993. -------- For addditional information please contact The E-Club at 253-2000 or send e-mail to richard shyduroff ... To contact Mr. Hadzima directly please call Judy Stapleton at Sullivan & Worcester, in Boston, at 338-2800, xtn 3192, fax 338-2880. To subscribe to this list "e-club" to receive announcements and occasional newsletters, please send e-mail to and please address all other correspondence _not_ to the list itself, but to me by e-mail or to THANKS! MIT Athena readers may browse the Archives of The E-Club in the Athena AFS locker "e-club" (attach e-club; cd /mit/e-club) and most other Internet readers can now find a slowly growing collection of our more "public" archives, and pointers to other electronic collections of material of relevance to entrepreneurs, in our ftp site, at the computer address: "lcs.mit.edu" ... login as "anonymous" and use your Internet address as the password. Then cd to /pub/mit-e-club and browse around. Finally, thanks for reading the postings to the list "e-club" and, if physically local and able, participating in the activities of The E-Club. NB: Don't forget The E-Club 6th-Year Reunion & Networking Party scheduled for this coming Saturday, 15 January, at MIT. ALL INVITED! Reminder & Activities/Demos Update follows next; for additional info, and volunteers, contact 6th-Year Party Chair Joost Bonsen '92, at 253-2000, 258-5084 or by e-mail . - richard shyduroff, and for Doug Ling, Co-Founders, Co-Directors The MIT Entrepreneurs Club 253-2000; fax 253-8000, attn r. shyduroff, E15-443 .