McCombs School of Business

by Gary M. Cadenhead, PhD

Lectures:

Lecture 1 (03:55)
Starting Strong
A compelling opening is instrumental for attracting potential investors.
Lecture 2 (02:05)
The Pivotal Opening Sentence
| Supplemental Material (1)
Examples of opening sentences.
Lecture 3 (03:36)
Crafting the Opening Paragraph
The Opening Paragraph.
Lecture 4 (02:19)
The Opening
The Opening Presentation
Lecture 5 (05:51)
The Private Concepts' Opening
Private Concepts' Opening Presentation.
Lecture 6 (02:22)
The Executive Summary
| Supplemental Material (1)
The Executive Summary is the most important part of your business plan.
Lecture 7 (02:37)
Sell The Product Benefits
The opportunity should emphasize product benefits much more than product features and should describe the proprietary position of the venture.
Lecture 8 (04:42)
Model, Market & Management
- The Business Model: What does the venture sell?
- The Market: How large is the market and what is the likely market share that the new venture will get?
- The Management Team: Investors want a strong match between the skills of the team and the needs of the venture.
Lecture 9 (02:10)
The Financial Section
Financial Section: The financial section needs to show the venture's revenue and income potential over the next five years.
Lecture 10 (03:54)
The Right Team
- Investors invest in entrepreneurial teams more than the idea.
- The business plan should convince investors that you have the perfect team for this venture.
- Team members should possess skills in the major disciplines (marketing, operations, technology, finance), industry domain knowledge and entrepreneurial experience.
Lecture 11 (01:52)
The Private Concepts Team
The Private Concepts Team.
Lecture 12 (02:30)
Presenting Financial Projections
- The financial section of the business plan is both critically important and difficult to present convincingly, interestingly, and clearly.
- The entrepreneur must strive for revenue and income projections that are both credible and attractive to investors.
Lecture 13 (02:44)
Placement Of Financials
A financial overview goes in the executive summary, a condensed income statement goes in the body of the plan and detailed financial statements go in the appendix.
Lecture 14 (03:51)
Aim High, But Not too High
Financials should be ambitious enough to attract investors, and conservative enough to be creditable.
Lecture 15 (01:35)
Finding The Right Investors
- The three types of investors are Friends & Family, Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.
- Before enlisting Friends & Family as investors, make sure they understand that new ventures are risky, there are no guarantees and all of the funds could be lost
Lecture 16 (02:27)
Angel Investors
- Angel Investors tend to be successful entrepreneurs who like to offer opportunities to other entrepreneurs.
- Angel investors typically invest no more than $50,000
Lecture 17 (04:04)
Venture Capitalists
- Venture Capitalists typically work on behalf of groups of investors such as pension funds and invest sums of $1 million or more.
- Venture Capitalists do major diligence and may take 60-90 days to investigate a funding opportunity.
Lecture 18 (04:08)
Choosing The Best Funding
- Self-funding if a small investment is needed & early profitability seems likely.
- Angel Investor funding if less than $500,000 is needed and there may be a significant time before profitability.
- Venture Capitalist funding if more than $500,000 is needed, there is a 5-7 year timeframe for profitability and at least a 10x return on investment is expected.

You will learn how to ...

  • Begin with an intriguing and compelling opening
  • Meet a burning need which makes a business plan intriguing
  • Open with your opportunity
  • Tell the whole story, concisely
  • Give the investor reasons to want to be involved
  • Which are the critical skills of the team for the venture
  • To make the Investor think that this is the perfect team
  • Show the financial potential of the venture
  • Recognize factors that improve the fundability of a new venture
  • Determine the type of funding to seek

About the Instructor

Gary M. Cadenhead, PhD

Gary M. Cadenhead, Ph.D. is the Director of the Master of Science in Technology Commercialization (MSTC) Program. Intimately familiar with the MSTC Program, Dr. Cadenhead taught the inaugural Class of 1996 and the Class of 2004.

In four different years, Texas MBA students selected him to receive Outstanding Graduate Business Professor Awards. In 1995, the Kauffman Foundation and the Entrepreneur of the Year Institute recognized him as one of the Top Ten Entrepreneurship Educators of the Year. In 1998 and again in 2003, Dr. Cadenhead and the MOOT CORP Program were featured in Inc. magazine. In 1999, he received the Entrepreneurship Education Pedagogy Innovation of the Year Award from USASBE. In a 2003 survey of entrepreneurship directors commissioned by Entrepreneur magazine, Dr. Cadenhead was recognized as one of the three top directors of entrepreneurship programs in the United States.

Prior to joining The University of Texas in 1980, Dr. Cadenhead held faculty positions at Stanford University, UCLA, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland, IMADEC University in Austria, and Texas Christian University.

Currently, Dr. Cadenhead’s professional activities involve advising new ventures, mentoring two new venture competitions, consulting, and serving on the boards of several entities.