Review of sample business plan (Startup Professionals)

How strong is the company’s industry position?
The company is in a crowded market place with other competitors -- I would say that the company's industry position is not very strong. The two principals have a lot of experience in winding down troubled companies - but not so much in the area of starting companies.

How clear is the value proposition?
The value proposition is somewhat clear ( 3 on a scale of 1- 5 with 5 being the highest). However, the market demand is not very clear.

How targeted is the customer base?
They are not very targeted with respect to their customer base. If we assume that 98.68 % of the new submissions fail, and 75 % of all submissions cannot pass basic screening, they risk having to deal with low quality startups who may rely on their stated web-site promises (including mentoring) but not achieve any success. They may be better off targeting the 12% who may need help with presentation and due diligence.

How unique is the business model?
Their business model appears to focus on a combination of consulting services and web-site  information - they appear to have one competitor in this same space (CLevelEnterprises) and others in the related space. Their network in Silicon valley may be useful to some startups. Overall, it doesn't seem to be a unique enough model.

How protected is the IP?
The knowhow of the company is in the heads of the founders. Their IP as represented by the web-site content, tools etc that are mentioned has not yet been generated. They cannot patent protect any of the proposed tools since such tools are available at some of their competitor sites.

How experienced is management?
They have a lot of real world experience both in stable and troubled companies. They may have a good understanding of the operational aspects of the business. However, they have not started their own startup before (consulting services don't count).