Ventures We Seek
1. Strong management teams with relevant experience.
We expect you to explain the relevant experiences and positions of your team. When the team is incomplete, we expect you to recognize what is needed to complete the team.
2. Products that meet pressing needs
This is in contrast to a technology in search of a market.
3. Niche dominance
You must plan to have or already have a 25% market share in a well defined niche (i.e., you can show how to sell cost-effectively into that niche). The niche can be within an existing market (e.g., Amazon going after on-line niche for booksellers); or can be a new niche (e.g., Gadzoox Networks pioneered and coined the SAN niche – Storage Area Networks). Grand visions of multi-billion dollar markets are not attractive unless you can convincingly show how you will dominate that market. With few rare exceptions (e.g., eMachines), dominating billion-dollar markets is usually not possible; and in their case, we doubt many would have believed that eMachines could be #3 PC company in less than one year.
4. High growth potential
This must be in either a developing market (e.g., Gadzoox Networks forecast SAN market based on projected storage needs), or in an existing market. You must present a credible plan for achieving that growth, not a Chinese Glove Syndrome ("there are over a billion Chinese, we will sell 1% of them a pair of gloves at $20/pair, which gives us revenues of $200 million" ? without support as to how you would sell them).
5. Sustainable competitive advantages
Some examples: a "blocking patent" (that can keep out competition); a vanity number (eg 1-800-WEDDING); a domain name (e.g., buy.com); "first-to-scale" advantage (i.e., show you already are the first company to achieve some scale in a new niche).
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