MANAGEMENT SCIENCE & ENGINEERING 273
TECHNOLOGY VENTURE FORMATION

Business Plan Guidelines

As this course is the study of technology entrepreneurship, the Business Plan project is very important. Any four students (no more than one MBA and no more than two from any other major in order to increase discipline diversity) may form a team to develop a Business Plan. Each team should have at least one person who is very familiar with accounting principles and spreadsheet software. Time is set aside in the first few sessions to help facilitate this effort. The Business Plan must be original work, although support from existing ventures is possible in certain situations. Under no circumstances should the business plan be written for any party outside the class (e.g., the business concept and plan should be generated by students). The student team must consist only of people enrolled in MS&E 273.

Each team member usually becomes responsible for one or more sections of the plan. As such, ownership of the business plan should be shared. Business plans may vary in length; typical ones are about 15 pages, not including appendices. Below is a link to the I-MOS business plan, which can serve as a reference for the format.

I-MOS Semiconductor_Business Plan

Brevity and precision of language are highly desirable in the final business plans.