I have completed grading this assignment. Here are some general notes of feedback:
- oral pitches were very well done. Top grades to those who were enthusiastic, had some mockups or other props, and who focused on the business opportunity rather than the technology
- How would an investor who was interested in your idea reach you? Always include a title page with your company name (or team number in this case) and your contact information
- Always use headings to make your exec summary more readable and include the headings that most exec summaries have so you don't miss including important information. Several teams lost 20-30% of their grade because they neglected to research what a good executive summary was.
- Spell check. Grammar check.
- Understand the difference between a dream and a plan. A plan is SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based.)
- top grades went to the exec summaries that included: a substantiated valuation ("We value our company at $1M based on the fact that we have 3 patents and XYZ Inc., which has 3 patents and no sales recently sold for $1M."), a call-to-action (e.g. "We are looking for $500K for 50% of the company") and some sort of an exit strategy ("We plan to sell to XYZ Inc. in 3 years for $25M providing a 25-times ROI for our investors.")
- average pitch: 4.0 / 5
- average exec summary: 3.8 / 5
