Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am quite excited to share that I have gotten some investor interest in my idea, apparently regardless of the fact that the business plan currently exists as nothing more than a disorganized stack of papers & sticky notes.

I contacted the local branch of a statewide nonprofit, the Ben Franklin Technology Partners, with just a question about whether my idea meets eligibility requirements... so far as I can tell, BFTP is a sort of broker or go-between for early-stage tech startups & people who would fund them. BFTP also has a sweeeeeet incubator program housed at Penn State University`s Innovation Park (one of the most wired facilities I have ever seen). So this is rather an awesome deal for those who qualify.

In any event, I contacted the local branch regarding eligibility requirements, and the guy emailed back asking me to send him whatever I have done of the business plan. I told him I only have a partially-finished executive summary in the works for my upcoming SCORE meeting but I`d be happy to send it when I`m done... he says, yes, send it, and what is my phone number so he can call me next week?

Perhaps things always go this way, I don`t know, but I am really surprised that any investor-type would want to talk to me before I even have a rough draft of the biz plan finished... I would have expected him to make the clarification I was seeking and encourage me to submit my plan for review when it`s done. Whether or not anything comes of this it is still very, very encouraging. At the very least I will have a chance to find out how to improve my idea.

—paula