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Add Business Plan Expectations.md
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docs/BusinessPlan/Expectations.md

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Some software Capstone teams have continued to develop their projects after Capstone, and have even
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started businesses related to their Capstones. The business plan extra is for teams who wish to conceive of
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ways to monetize their Capstone project after Capstone ends. A good business plan report should include
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the following, plus any other information the team feels is necessary. Marks will be based on the depth
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of critical thought and justification, plus evidence of research-backed values presented in the document.
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It is not necessary to gather primary information (i.e., your own surveys and focus groups), but all
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information and estimates should be based whenever possible on realistic values from other, properly-cited
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sources.
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* **Problem and market need:** Identifies target customer, the specific pain point your software addresses,
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evidence of demand for the product, and why your solution is better than existing ones. For any unknown
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pieces of market need, proposes surveys or focus groups that could be used to gather the missing
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information.
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* **Market size and business model:** Defines the target market. Includes a research-based estimate of the size
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of the addressable market of this product, with projections of the user base size for the first 5 years.
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Describes and justifies revenue model (e.g. SaaS, freemium, etc), the rationale for your pricing, and
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provides basic financial projections.
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* **Cost breakdown:** Includes a detailed breakdown of the initial investment needed to make the project
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into a launchable product (the cost to take it from Capstone Rev1 to a full product). Detailed breakdown
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of ongoing costs of running the service, including salaries to maintain the software, marketing/user
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acquisition costs, ongoing service costs, and any other relevant costs. Identifies realistic uncertainty
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and ranges of costs. States these costs as a proportion of the number of users to show how costs scale as
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the user base grows. Includes projections of costs for several numbers of users spanning many orders of
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magnitude.
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* **Competition and positioning:** Identifies both direct and indirect competitors, comparing your product
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to those other ones on relevant dimensions chosen by the team. Identifies barriers to entry into this space.
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Justifies the “moat” that your product will build to have an ongoing sustainable advantage.
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* **Execution plan and milestones:** Includes a detailed timeline of the work needed to launch the product.
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Includes a clear phased approach with achievable milestones, with details for the time leading up to launch
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as well as plans to continue to improve in the first five years after launch.

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