FINAL PRESENTATION

Weight: 9%

Date: Wed May 8th, 2013 (10:30am). Claim your slot here.

Format: Each group will present a 10-minute "VC Pitch" followed by a few questions (typically all members of the team should participate in the presentation)

Submit: Each group should submit their presentation by 11:55pm on Tue 05/07 on dropbox here

The presentation should be no more than 10-slides. Read this post for guidelines on how to structure your presentation. You don't need to follow the guidelines strictly, but they are a good starting point. Remember that your presentation should be a self-contained document (often called a "deck") which should be read-able if you email it to someone. Assume that the document you're uploading will be read by VCs and think about what information should be conveyed by the deck if some VC is quickly going through it on a plane.

FINAL PAPER

Weight: 18%

Date: Tue May 14th, 2013 (04:59pm).

Page Limit: 12 pages max (but you don't have to fill up pages e.g., a 10-page paper is totally fine)

Format: PDF file, 11 point font, at least 1-inch margin on each side

Submission: Upload PDF file here

The final paper will be a report of your final project. That is, you will be describing your complete business model, the interactions you've had with any customers, partners, providers etc and the work you did to evaluate your business model. You will also describe any prototype implementation you did, your technology stack, and any technical trade-offs/decisions you made for the near future.

We don't want you to write a lot. But we want you to think a lot. Please read the questions below, and then think hard about them in very specific terms with regard to a your company/situation. We encourage you to do research while choosing your company/hypothetical situation. Your choices here will be a major determinant of how well you satisfy some of the below criteria, and hence your grade. A great paper will have spent a relatively small amount of time writing, relative to the amount of time spent thinking and researching.

The paper will be graded based on the following criteria:

1. Crisp writing: to the point, corporate executive summary style writing is encouraged; don't caveat too much, and don't try to be polite or complete in covering all bases
2. Quality, Creativity, Originality and Clarity of Thought: choice of company/product in light of questions asked, thinking out of the box, coming up with interesting, original solutions and ideas and non-textbook points of view, clear thinking and exposition
3. Judgment: The choice of company, and especially the richness of the issues it exposes per the questions below. So please think hard about that up front.
4. Realism: The realism of the company's situation and the issues you examine. All companies have challenges and opportunities, and they are usually very specific to the company itself.
5. Domain knowledge in technology and business: demonstrating deep understanding of technical and non-technical issues; researching on the Web to acquire knowledge is strongly encouraged
6. Choice and exposition of Tradeoffs: the section on design and technical tradeoffs will carry more weight, so we encourage you to spend more time on it -- we are looking for specific trade offs that make business sense, and that don't have an obvious answer
7. Language: good writing in general
8. References: citing relevant material, can even be online resources

1) Overview (10 points)

Give an executive summary style description of your company. This should be the "elevator pitch" of the company and also describe any key milestones that you've achieved so far. The overview should be no more than 500 words.

2) Market Opportunity (10 points)

Describe the problem you're solving and why is right now the right time to try and solve the problem. What exactly is the market opportunity, how big is the market opportunity, and what other players (competitors) are in the market.

3) Product/Service (10 points)

What service/product you're building to solve the problem described above. How does your product/service address the specific problem. What are you handling first and what can be done in the future in regards to the market opportunity.

4) Business Model (10 points)

How do you plan to make money. This can be the refined business model from your midterm paper. Describe briefly the initial business model you had and how/if it changed. Describe the final business model you decided on and describe exactly how you plan to become profitable and how long will it take you to become profitable.

5) Evaluation of Business Model (10 points)

What steps did you take to evaluate your business model. Who did you talk to (customers, partners, other key players). Did you conduct any surveys etc. How has your thinking changed after these evaluations.

6) Technology Stack (10 points)

Describe, in detail, the technology stack you decided on for the initial years of the company. Is this the same stack that is used in the implementation, if not why. For groups who don't have CS majors as members and don't have an implementation, comment on the *proposed* technology stack that you plan to use.

7) Technical Trade-offs (20 points)

Describe three most important technical trade-offs that you had to made. What were the competing options. Why were these tradeoffs critical to your company/business. Why did you go for the options that you ended up selecting.

8) Prototype/Implementation (10 points)

Describe, in detail, the work you did for your prototype/implementation. Describe three key challenges that you faced and how did you solve them. For groups who don't have CS majors as members and don't have an implementation, comment on the *proposed* implementation and comment on how you plan on hiring engineers and how will you manage the engineering team and ensure that they deliver on the milestones.

9) Future Steps (10 points)

Where do you see this service/product one year from now. What additional features etc do you plan to add. What resources you need for the next steps. If these resources include raising more capital, then comment on how are you planning to raise money. If you got negative results and don't want to pursue this idea any further then comment on what negative results you got and why you don't want to pursue this idea any further.

NOTE: You will not get any credit for late submissions. We will grant extensions only in the case of illness (with a doctor's note) or extraordinary circumstances. Extracurricular activities and heavy workloads in other classes don't count as "extraordinary", no matter how unexpected or important or time-consuming. Please let us know ahead of time if illness or an extraordinary circumstance will cause you to submit a writeup or paper late, then you should discuss the matter with your instructor as soon as possible.