想创业？仅有好点子还不够！

作者：Phil Rockrohr

Only 1 percent of the ultimate value of a business resides in the idea, according to Waverly Deutsch, clinical professor of entrepreneurship. “If ideas are a dime a dozen, yours is worth slightly less than a penny.”

Deutsch was among GSB faculty who spoke during the Hapak Alumni Entrepreneurship Seminar at Gleacher Center in Chicago in July. Sponsored by faculty member Susan Hapak, ’89, and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship, the three-day event drew more than 100 alumni entrepreneurs—and aspiring entrepreneurs —who heard GSB faculty share their expertise on how to identify and evaluate business opportunities, finance the business, and manage the operation.

Deutsche explained that even if the product is already developed, the idea and prototype represent only about 25 percent of the value it may bring to the market “Being an entrepreneur is not about the idea; it?s about the execution,” Deutsch said. “It’s not about the strategy; it’s about executing the strategy. The first step in starting a business is obtaining capital, which likely comes from several sources, she said. Of the $110 billion invested in 700,000 start-ups in 2004, just $4.4 billion was raised from venture capital for early stage seed deals, Deutsch said. Among the remaining 96 percent, 66 percent came from the entrepreneurs themselves and 30 percent from such informal investors as family, friends, distant relatives, neighbors, coworkers, and “angels,” including strangers and contacts through networks, she said.

Fewer than one in 10,000 companies will get venture capital in the early seed stage, Deutsch said. Meanwhile, almost 5 percent of the U.S. population has given money to another person to support a business, she said. Among the informal investors, immediate family provides half, or about $23,000 each, while coworkers provide 8 percent, or about $39,000 each, Deutsch said.

“Work colleagues put more into a deal than our own friends and family,” she said. “They understand what you’re pitching and have more faith in you in a business context. Also, often the people we work with—especially among MBA's—have more disposable assets than some of our family members, friends, and neighbors.”

In order to survive, a start-up needs a business plan that articulates the business model, Deutsch said. The business model should identify how the product or service will create value and for whom, why there is room in the market and how the product or service will be different, how the business will make money, and how it will grow, she said.

“The first two elements of the business model are the most important questions an entrepreneur can answer: What are you selling and who are you selling it to? And why does anybody care? That’s your elevator pitch.” Deutsch said.? “The idea is not just to answer the questions in the model, but to use the answers early on in your evolution to dictate the actions you take.”

She listed the stages of lifecycle in a start-up:

·Idea/inception

·Proof of concept

·Growth

·Diversification

·Harvest/Exit

“The outcome of the first stage is a business plan and hopefully seed funding,” Deutsch said. “We exit the proof of concept stage when we’ve proven feasibility—we can do what we say we can do—and salability—that someone will buy it. It’s critical to think about proving the business. Entrepreneurs think of proof of concept as feasibility only. But you also have to prove there is a market that will actually pay for your product.”

The Hapak Alumni Entrepreneurship Seminar will be offered again to alumni next summer.