The presentation done by Amy Sallin was very informative for anyone in the class who wants to actually start their own business. For most of the presentation she informed us about the 2015 University of Washington Business Plan Competition and what is required to enter and how each of the steps of the competition is done. The competition has been running for 18 years now, and around 1800 teams have participated in the competition. Teams have until April 6th to submit a 5 to 7 page executive summary online to be able to compete this year.
She also gave us some useful information about how a team(board) should be constructed, saying that its important to have a diverse team and that 1 person teams are not a recommended way to do a start up. An important point she made that applies to both the competition and to starting up a real business and attempting to get funded, is that investors will in the team and not because of the idea. Investors would rather fund an A grade team with a C grade idea than a C grade team with an A grade idea, because the A grade team is more likely to succeed with their idea and therefor has a better chance of paying returns. Another small point she made was that if you are offering a solution to a problem, the solution has to be practical cost-wise (she said don't throw 5,000 dollars at a 500 dollar problem).
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