DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE

University of Toronto

CSC454/2527S: The Business of Software

January-April 2000

Assignment: Final Oral Presentation

Handed Out: 16 March 2000

Due In: 27 March 2000, 7 p.m. or 3 April 2000, 6 p.m.

Marks: 5%

27 March or 3 April — Plan final oral presentation: The two individuals from each team who have not made interim presentations will collaborate on a final oral presentation (seven minutes total per team) presenting the most salient aspects of your business plan.

Each presentation should be in two parts:

• A brief “elevator test” statement describing your business in 2-4 sentences. Imagine you have just entered an elevator with a venture capitalist and she asks you to tell her about the business. If you succeed in conveying a compelling concept before the elevator reaches its destination, she will look at your plan. If you do not, she will not.

• A presentation of the most salient points in your business plan. Note that this cannot be done by taking most of the information in the plan and tryingtospeakitasquicklyasyoucan. You must be selective, focusing on the key idea, the problem it solves, the size and characteristics of the market represented by the problem, what’s special about your solution and how it fits into the competitive landscape, the strength of the management team, and the financial return to the investors.

• You will then field two to three questions from the audience in response to your presentation. Please remember that the presentation (before the questions) will be stopped by the TA at 7 minutes. You should rehearse several times to make sure that speaker #1 does not talk for 6 minutes leaving almost no time for speaker #2.

Roughly 13 or 14 groups will present on March 27 to your tutorial section beginning at 7 p.m. in your usual tutorial room. Overhead projectors will be available.

Roughly 9 or 10 groups will present on the final night on April 3 beginning at 6 p.m. in SF1105. An overhead projector and computer data display projection will be available. The list of these groups will be announced on the listserv shortly. Presentations will be heard by a panel of industry experts. This will likely include a venture capitalist and a venture capital industry analyst who may invite one group to actually present their plan at an upcoming venture capital conference in Toronto. NO GUARANTEES!!!!!

Note: Please note that the marks for the Interim Oral Presentation also was 5%.