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CFE can help you develop your business!

CFE has many contacts both within the university and in the broader community and among UM alumni. We can help you from evaluating your idea for a startup to placing you in contact with potential VC or other entrepreneurs and investors to evaluate your business plan and ideas. The CFE also keeps a [ mentor list ] of highly skilled and enthusiastic mentors that you can schedule to meet and discuss your ideas with.

Please don't hesitate to [ contact us directly ] for help.




Most people do not have experience in creating a startup. That is ok. Remember we all have to start from somewhere. The most important thing you need to do when you think you have a really fantastic idea that could be the basis of a new business is to evaluate it. This means talking to as many people as possible and getting the idea on paper, preferably in the form of an executive summary and/or business plan. Talking to one of our many CFE mentors is a great place to start. Contact us today to set up a meeting with a mentor.


This is a very common concern among would-be entrepreneurs. While there are undoubtedly cases of unscrupulous people who have stolen great ideas, the fact is that a startup is so much more than just one or two good ideas. It is 99.999% hard work on top of a great idea, and it has to coincide with great market opportunity. If you are working with trustworthy people and particularly people who have worked with nascent startups, you can almost be sure they value their reputation above all else and it will usually do them little good to steal an idea and face the consequences. On the other hand, by exposing your idea to other people's scrutiny, you will get very valuable feedback from multiple perspectives. This is an important part of vetting your idea. Broadcast your idea to as many people as you can and see what they think!


This is a corollary to the above question. If you have potentially sensitive trade secrets (or as entrepreneurs like to say - "secret sauce") that you want to protect, you need to initiate talks with an accredited patent attorney. Some of CFE's mentors are practicing intellectual property attorneys. You may want to start there. While you can technically write a patent by yourself, it is worth the money to consult an attorney when it is this important. You can talk about your ideas without spilling the secret. We encourage people to talk a lot about their ideas and receive feedback. Make sure your idea is covered by a patent if it is patentable. An added benefit of patents is VCs love patents since it gives a measure of security in case your company gets "scooped". However not all ideas are patentable. Consult an attorney to see if yours is and should be patented.


Most enterpreneurs will tell you that having a great team is a big reason why they succeeded. Surrounding yourself with the talent and know-how is vital to sustaining an advantage over the competition. Going it alone is a lonely road and a difficult one. In most cases startups should be done with a great group of enthusiastic team players. Not only are you more likely to attract funding with a good team in place, you will more likely have different talents that contribute to the success of your venture.


We all want to go from 0-100 in 4 seconds. Particularly when a great idea strikes, one wonders "Why wait, let's give it a go!" However, any idea, no matter how great, you still need to do some market research and projections to forecast the potential success (hopefully) of your new venture. This means reading trade journals, looking up information about the market size, customer base, potential for growth, and competitive landscape. It also means taking the time to think carefully about how you can grab a share of the marketplace and how you can compete. Many new entrepreneurs think their company is so disruptive, "there is no competition". Everyone has competition, and it smacks of naivety to think otherwise. So do your homework! Any and all investors will want to see some market analysis to see what their potential gain from puting money into your firm will make. So do your research! The UM Ross School of Business has a fantastic library with all kinds of trade journals which can help you. Drop by and spend some time in it! The librarians are very helpful. After you've written your idea in a business plan form down, you need to start dialing. Not for dollars (not yet), but to talk to people who are potential customers. Think you have the next must-have gadget? Call up people in a position to buy these items and ask them for feedback. Doing this will enable you to get an idea of the reception your product can hope to receive. This is difficult to do but necessary if you want to get your product out there in the future.


You have a great idea, you did marketing research, now you need to write it down in an acceptable form. The full business plan is out of vogue these days but many aspects of the business plan is still necessary to have in order to pitch a proposal to a potential investor. You need to summarize your business in five pages including what the business does, who is running it, how much you need to get started, etc. You need a marketing section to show you know how to position yourself in the competitive landscape, what you expect your revenue to be, the size of the market, etc. You also need to tell the investors what they can expect in terms of return on investment and the timeframe for an exit strategy. Don't know what they are? We'll discuss these in more detail later. The crux of the matter is you need to summarize your business in a way investors understand. Backed up with good market research and a good idea in a good opporutnity environment you will be able to build a strong case for your new business.


You've done a lot by now, and are feeling pretty good about yourself. Your document should amaze a group of venture capitalists and the money will start pouring in. Unfortunately most VC firms get hundreds of similar plans per week, and the average VC firm only funds 4-10 companies in any given year. You do the math. The probabilities of getting VC funding is pretty low. Luckily, VC isn't the only way of funding a new startup. Other sources of funding are available and should be investigated. Depending on your company, you could get an SBIR proposal. It is a federally funded program to provide startup funds for innovative small businesses. So typically yours has to be innovative in the sense it is not already existing. Not all businesses fit this mould. Another possibility is to find competitions and try to win on the merit of your idea. This is a good way to gain exposure and by winning a well-known competition elevates your status with VC companies - which is a win-win. Several competitions are offered through CFE in conjunction with its partners, so check back often. You should definitely bookmark the "Opportunities" page here and check the website for updates. If this route doesn't work for you, you need to think creatively. Can you bootstrap your business, start small, in your basement, and then work up based on the revenue you generate? Can you borrow a loan from family,friends in exchange for shares of the company? Can you find partners willing to go in with you? If you are an Internet or software based company it is conceivable to start with little to no capital.


You've done a lot of work, and now need to try to raise funding. The best thing you can do is to join local and regional entrepreneurship associations, like the Ann Arbor Spark association, or the GLEQ (Great Lakes Entrepreneurship Quest). These associations' main focus is to help new entrepreneurs like you! They also often have classes, competitions, and mixers, and series of events that are helpful to get you in contact with potential funders, work talent, and promoters. Get out there! And remember CFE holds plenty of events too. If you can come, see our seminar series where successful entrepreneurs share their knowledge and make themselves available for questions.


Many people come upon what they think is a great idea and wonder if it is worth pursuing. We hope to help you here at CFE to evaluate your idea before you embark on the business of starting a business. Check out the section on Writing a Business Plan section for tips on how to put together a business plan.

Idea Evaluation

The first step: figuring out if a "brilliant" idea is really brilliant and worthy of an entrepreneurial undertaking. Ideas are cheap. Everyone has good ideas. Yours will be no better than many millions floating around in the minds of other people. To make sure yours is uniquely valuable you must be able to put a dollar value to your idea and to do that you must go through a proper market analysis and price it according to what the market "pain" or need will bear. Remember, for every idea you move forward with there are many others languishing. Make sure you pick a probably winner form the outset to increase your chances of success.

Ask an expert

Don't just ask a friend. Entrepreneurial decisions can be life-changing. You might not get the best critical feedback from a friend. An entrepreneur - someone who's been through the process of evaluating ideas and starting a business - can speak with authority about the pros and cons of your idea. Other experts in the field are also valuable as consultants.

Will my idea be stolen if I talk about it?

Many people (usually first-time entrepreneurs) are fearful that their idea might be "stolen" if they broadcast it too widely. This is a very legitimate concern but if you are dealing with investors in good faith, they won't be "stealing" your idea because that would cause the ruin of their reputation. In investment, particularly venture investment, reputation is prized above all else. No legitimate investor will "steal" ideas. Also, how many people will drop everything in their lives and pursue an idea they overheard or talked to you about? Stop worrying so much about your idea being stolen. It almost never happens. As long as you protect your "secret sauce" or the key ingredient that makes your idea unique and competitive, you can talk generally about your idea without puting yourself at risk. By all means talk about it. The more you talk about it the more you will hone in to your target market, your business model, and the details surrounding your business because you will receive valuable feedback. Or if your idea is a clunker, you'll hear about it before you invest a dime.

Do market research

You can find valuable information in business journals at libraries like the UM's Kresge Business Administration Library. There you will find many valuable industry reports and analyses free of charge for the UM community. Beyond just literature searches, be sure to sit down and speak with potential customers to find out the if they will, in fact, buy your product or service. No matter how brilliant your idea might seem, if no one is willing to pay, then the idea is not going to pan out as a business. Get some people on the phone. Cold calling might be nerve-wracking, but you would be surprised how willing people will be willing to talk about their problems!

Check your attitude

Are you passionate about your idea? Do you have the "fire in the belly"? If not, then you cannot succeed with even the best idea in the world. As many entrepreneurs before have said, it is the people that make a business successful. It is always better to have motivated average people than geniuses that are unmotivated and hard to work with. You'll be spending a lot of time and energy, so you had better be totally focused and devoted to making your business a success. Entrepreneurs spend all of their time and energy and don't take many vacations. Are you willing to sacrifice the regularity of corporate life for the irregularity and ups-and-downs of starting your own business? How much risk can you take? Do you need to consider your family's needs?

Develop your business plan

It's a major job but the process of writing a plan will help clarify your thinking. If your idea has some rough edges, they'll show up during the writing. If it's a dud, the plan will point that out. And if it's a winner, the business plan will show that, too.

Opportunity Evaluation

There are a number of issues to clarify as you evaluate opportunities:

Value Proposition

Figuring out your business idea's value proposition is a difficult but important process. You need to ask yourself what kind of value will your business generate for potential customers. Will you satisfy a need or solve a problem? Is your product or service sufficiently different to warrant interest beyond the interest your market has in competitive offerings? Can you quantify the market pain enough to competitively solve it with your solution?



    Competitive Analysis - How many competitors do you have? Is your product significantly better?

    Target Market - Who, exactly, are your buyers?

    Market Size - Is your market at least as large as your competitors'?

    Market Share - Realistically, how much of the total market will your product or service capture? How long will it take?

    Revenue - What mechanisms will you have in place to begin generating revenue? (e.g., the sales model)

    Barriers - What stand in the way of your success? Do you have the resources to over come those obstacles?

    Market Growth - Will the market grow or at least stay the same size? What factors (economic, social, political, etc.) will affect the size of your market? Start-up Costs - Do you have the capital to start your business and support it through times of uncertainty in the early going?

    Investment Needs - Can you attract investors? How much capital do you expect to raise?

    Return on Investment - What can your investors expect to earn from their investment?
Copyright CFE 2009