Spend time on a business plan, uncover the scope: Sumanth Raghavendra, Deck App Technologies

Bangalore-based Deck App Technologies founded by Sumanth Raghavendra and Ravi Kasthuri, won the India edition of Qualcomm Venture’s QPrize last year and received $100,000 in funding. Cofounder Raghavendra shares his views on business plans:

Importance of a business plan

Any business should have a plan—a strategic one for long-term goals and a tactical one for dayto-day operations. You need one when pitching to investors as well. They need to get a feel of your thinking and your worldview.

How is your plan structured

We created a mind map that represented out all the potential use cases for our software. We were able to uncover market size, price and other value drivers for each use case. This dovetailed into a spreadsheet-like format with details on development roadmap and financials. The document can accommodate market feedback and assists us to uncover potential bottlenecks.

How did you present this to potential investors

We built an app. This showed the investors how our product works. It also allowed them to discover our plan. They could click on specific points for further details.

Advice to entrepreneurs

A number of people think of this as a chore. You need to spend time on it to uncover all the possibilities of the product and market. However, there is a danger of falling in love with your business plan and building castles in the air.