Choose a company that reflects your technology or industry sector interests. It can be US or international.

Before making any investments, investors at venture capital firms write an investment committee memorandum (aka IC Memo or Investment Memo) to make a case for a company they want the firm to invest in. With this exercise, you will be required to pick an early-stage company of your choice (which was provided above) and write a memo about it to convince the IC (this will be me) that the opportunity should not be missed out on. You may choose a company that reflects your technology or industry sector interests. It can be US or international. What should be included in an investment memo: –

Purpose: the idea of the memo is to convince IC (your instructor) that we should pursue the investment, as such your memo should steer in that direction. – Deal specifics: this is the nitty gritty on the deal mechanics – how much is the company raising, on what investment vehicle (SAFE, convertible note, equity round), at what valuation (if applicable), lead investor (if any). – Company blurb: this is the publicly available description of the company, it should be short and sweet. – Probem: this should get into the meat of what the company is trying to solve. A great problem section highlights the problem qualitatively and quantitatively (eg. quantiy in dollar amount how big the problem is) – Solution: this should present the solution that the company’s product is solving –

Product: this should detail the product that the company is building (if it’s an online platform, an app-based product, you can include screeshots of it and/or a video demo), how it works and what the development roadmap is: (1) where the product is today (early version in testing or already in use), (2) any major milestones hit so far, (3) any future plans – Market size: this explains how big the market is and what the potential is. Any public report (eg. McKinsey, Statisa) should give you some details about anuy industry of your choice –

Competition: this analyses the competitive landscape: who are the existing players (small and big) and most importantly how does the company studied differentiates itself from the rest – Sales & Distribution: this outlines the company go to market strategy ie. how does the company gets its product in the hands of the customers (selling online via a website to individuals, or do customers have to download an app and pay for it, or do customers sign for a paying subscription etc.) –

Metrics (also known as Key Performance Indicator or KPIs): this highlights the metrics used by the company to track success (eg if it’s an app that let people rent car, think of an “uber for car rentals”, the metrics could be the number of bookings per day or the number of visitors on the app per day, per month etc.) – Team: this is extremely important and should highlight the people behind the company. This should not just be a regurgitation of their LinkedIn or their CVs, instead write in text why you think the people are the best to be building this particular company, in other words add in your personal touch when you describe the founding team and their accomplishments. –

Risks: as with any investment, despite how much you believe in it, there are risks associated. This section should highlight the potential risks that will come up as this company grows, these could be risks inside the company (eg. they are building a technical product but do not have anyone on the team who knows how to sell a technical product), or macroeconomics (eg. with a change of Presidential administration, there might be new laws and regulations that will make it hard to develop this product in the future). – Potential exit opportunities: this section is optional and more of a bonus, but if you see some potential exit opportunities (M&A, IPO etc) please mention them and the rationale behind.

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