SUCCESSFUL PLANS
Having gone to considerable lengths to describe model formats for drafting business plans, I must admit that all three of the successful plans discussed below differ from the models in certain respects. However, they all show major elements of the model formats, and they demonstrate the variety of approaches that can prove successful.
THE APOLLO BUSINESS PLAN (JANUARY 8,1980)
Figure 3-1 shows Bill Poduska's business plan for Apollo (referred to as "Nuco" in the figure). In addition to the summary, market brief, product brief, and people brief, over half of the handwritten document (six pages) consisted of a five-year financial plan. The financial section included such information as the projected profits and losses, a proposed balance sheet, and the scheduled head count (the key cost-control item in a start-up). The financial plan was used as a blueprint throughout the self-funded seed stage, while the three key technical founders worked on the product concept. Four months after the business plan was written, the first round of funding closed, having raised $1 .6 million, which represented 60 percent of the value of the company. The Apollo business plan was brief because it assumed readers would be completely familiar with the computer marketplace and understand what is required for development. The plan was thus designed to convince both founders and funders of the company's viability. It contained no near-term milestones (which is at variance with the recommendations made earlier in the chapter), only the first ship date. No other plan was made.
Nuco is formed to create a Profitable, Major Computer Company which
Manufactures and Sells, High-Technology, Low Price Computer Systems.