by iVenture

Our Venture’s Vision:

Defines the desired future state—the vision, or mental picture—of what your venture wants to achieve over time. Provides guidance and inspiration on what to achieve in 5, 10, or more years. Functions as the "north star" — the whole team understands how their daily work contributes. They can share the vision statement at will—they know it.]  10-20 words.

Our Venture’s Mission:

[Defines the present state or purpose of an organization; answers three questions about why an organization exists: WHAT it does WHO it does it for; and HOW it does what it does. Is written succinctly in a sentence or two, but for a shorter timeframe than a vision statement (1-3 years rather than 5-∞) The whole team can share the mission statement at will—they know it. ] 10-20 words.

One Sentence Summary

Intended for ALL audiences, 12-20 words, might overlap with vision but is focused on general audience

[Example: MakerGirl introduces young girls and their parents to STEM fields through 3-D printing and other technologies.]

[Example2: Menu3 makes augmented-reality restaurant menus to simplify your food-purchasing decisions.]

Four Sentence Summary

~40 seconds,

[Venture name] will [describe value proposition] by using/leveraging [describe key/novel resources or capabilities or activities] to sell [describe horizontal scope … different lines of products/services] to [describe customer scope (key market segments)].

You get 1-2 more sentences—and make sure to highlight anything that is especially impressive or promising.  This can be about traction (“we’ve shipped 50 units to our first customers”), unfair advantages (“my aunt owns the factory where we make our product, so we get excellent pricing”), your team’s quality (“before coming to school we were both US Army infantry, so we know our target market”), special innovation or credibility (“this anti-addiction app came from my Social Work professor’s research, and we have the only NIH-endorsed program on mobile), or any other highlight of your current venture.  It can also include your next steps: “we will begin trials with dentists in Bolivia starting August 15th.”  Be as real as you can, and include details and specificity that help your listener understand.

Big Questions

A central part of venturing is continually asking Big Questions about how the external world works, what people actually need and want, how our current offerings meet those needs (or don’t), and the ways we think our venture and its offerings fit into the economic, social, technological, legal, regulatory, and behavioral environments.  We want clear hypotheses about these questions, and we want to answer them quickly — to move onto the next big questions.  You will have dozens of these on your venture’s way to maturity.