How do you get in the door?

As you know, established venture capital firms see many hundreds of business plans each year. The best way to ensure that your idea or company gets the attention it deserves is for you to build a team that includes people on the board, in senior management positions or in key advisory roles who have established track records of success and relevant industry experience, and to approach Alloy Ventures with a referral from someone who we know and trust.

Tips and tools for gaining an edge!

Ten Things That Can Make or Break a Deal
An entrepreneur's guide to pitching early-stage venture-capital firms.

Alloy's Evaluation Process

Basic Financials Template
This template was first developed by our CFO Tony DiBona for basic financials. It links headcount, balance sheet, income statement and cash flows so that entrepreneurs can do a first cut on their numbers with basic assumptions. Just fill in the blanks, and the model will help you decide if your assumptions are too pessimistic (probably not) or too optimistic (probably).

Capitalization Template
This is a multi-round valuation/capitalization template. It is set up to assume several rounds of financing, from seed to IPO, and lets you see what your ownership and returns are after dilution from these financings. There are no preferences or anti-dilution provisions included, but you can add those as you see fit. To make this model work, you substitute your names and share ownership into the model. You then set the price and how much money you want to raise in each round. The model will calculate ownership, and at the bottom, how much your return will be. To compare apples to apples, as you change your model, you will need to adjust the final round stock price so that the post-money valuation will be the same from example to example. So in one model, if you decide to eliminate a mezzanine round because you do not need the money before an IPO or buyout, you will end up with a lower share number that if you take on extra financing. So to adjust the models so you can compare outcomes, you will need to change the final share price so that the valuations are the same.

Stagger Charts

Function Specific Stagger Charts

Information sources for entrepreneurs

Business Association of Stanford Engineers. BASES is an association of Stanford engineering students and alumni that fosters entrepreneurship through formal networking and informational events.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The EMKF is a foundation that promotes entrepreneurship through educational programs such as the Kauffman Venture Capital fellowship.

Lester Center for Entrepreneurship - UC Berkeley. This site provides information on regularly scheduled networking and speaking events at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Regularly drawing more than 200 attendees, the Lester Center is a venue for notable entrepreneurs,venture capitalists and industry experts to present their candid insights and opinions on entrepreneurial topics. Recent speakers have included Gordon Moore, Arthur Rock and Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni.

MIT Entrepreneurship Center. The MIT E-Center promotes numerous formal and informal activities to foster entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education.

Price WaterhouseCoopers. Each quarter PWC contacts more than 1000 venture firms for information about their investing activity. The site also offers an entrepreneur resource center.

Stanford Technology Ventures Program. STVP is dedicated to accelerating high-technology entrepreneurship education and creating scholarly research on technology-based firms.

Venture Capital Resource Library. At this site, sponsored by VFinance Holdings, Inc., you'll find information about venture capital firms, angel investors, lenders and investment banks. Download a free business plan template here, or ask questions to the site's financing specialists.

VentureOne Entrepreneur Resources. This site includes surveys and other free information from VentureOne. Go to VentureOne.com and click on “Entrepreneurs”.