This document outlines the process for evaluating the feasibility of a new idea, including technical feasibility, market opportunity, competition, customer validation, cost modeling, revenue modeling, scalability, financing needs, team capabilities, and pitching the idea. It provides examples of exercises to walk through each step, such as analyzing competitive solutions, identifying key features for customer feedback, and creating a 12-month cash flow statement. The overall process is meant to help founders methodically assess various factors to determine whether an idea is worth pursuing further.

1. Will it work
Walking through the process of evaluating an idea for feasibility

2. Hi, I’m
Stewart
Youngblood
• Program Director Tech
Wildcatters
• B2B Forbes Top 10
seed accelerator
• Co-Founded Obvious
Apps
• Specialties: Angel
Investment, Venture
Capital, Finance

3. Agenda
• Technical Feasibility
• Evaluate Market Opportunity
• Competitive Analysis
• Customer Validation
• Develop Cost Model
• Revenue Model
• Scalability
• Cash and Financing
• Team and Capabilities
• Pitches

4. Technical/Functional
Feasibility
• The first step in any ideation process is evaluating whether
something is technologically or functionally feasible (but
actually, there’s a step 0!)
• Commit 1-2 hours to research online or through industry
experts on whether your concept can actually be achieved
• Be wary of common mistakes (i.e. perpetual motion
machine)

5. Exercise #1 - Idea
Feasibility
• Discuss: Head’s Up display for driver of motor vehicle with
GPS, phone/text, weather, and other information.
Aftermarket product that uses modern LED/OLED tech to
create banner across top of front windshield and car’s
battery for operation

6. Evaluate Market
Opportunity
• Define where your idea fits into a market category and
research solutions that exist
• Decision criteria depends on players in the market, total
size of market needed for you to feel comfortable
• Build a bottom’s up case (number of users/customers
times price)

7. Competitive Analysis
• Evaluate size, scale, reach, key features, and pricing for
top market owners and put into matrix
• Beware, sometimes no competition is NOT a good thing
• Find a market where competition lacks key features or
customer pain

8. Exercise #2 -
Competition
• Create a matrix of competitive solutions:
• GPS
• Smartphones
• Imbedded systems (i.e. Ford’s Sync)

9. Customer Validation
• Use competitive matrix to develop a set of key features
and differentiators
• Contact as many potential customers you can via email or
phone to generate feedback on key features and potential
prices

10. Exercise #3: Customers
• Identify 3-4 key feature benefits and discuss among the
group how you would acquire customer feedback
• Split into teams and interview other teams for feedback on
your key benefits/value proposition

11. Develop Cost Model
• Research potential manufacturing or development cost of
your idea and begin to build a cost model
• Don’t forget to add 10-20% to original estimates
• Include shipping, packaging, delivery, support, and other
costs

12. Revenue/Business
Model
• Determine how you will sell this product and make money
in order to determine a price point (see cost model) and
ensure profitability
• Evaluate 2-3 revenue models in order to test assumptions
and generate highest rate of return

13. Exercise #4: Revenue
Model
• Create a price point and process for generating revenue by
evaluating and discussing 2-3 revenue models.

14. Scalability
• Look into how you will deliver your product/service for the
first 10, 100, and 1,000 customers in order to understand
whether the concept is scalable
• Research automation, outsourcing, and alternative
manufacturing/development sources

15. Cash and Financing
• Use your assumptions on cost and pricing to build a basic
one year cash flow projection to understand hard costs
associated with launching
• Evaluate feasibility of net cash need versus potential
upside of idea to consider whether you can fund this or if
investors would fund this

16. Exercise #5: Financing
• Use initial costs/revenue assumptions to ascertain
development costs, go to market and product launch costs,
and implement these into a high level 12 month cash flow
statement. Project early sales units based on conservative
assumptions.

17. Team and Capabilities
• Evaluate and recognize your capabilities and strengths to
determine whether you possess the necessary skills to
execute
• Determine whether, based your evaluation, you can attract
talent to supplement your own skills

18. Exercise #6: Team
• Split into teams and discuss experience, training, and skills
to determine what role you would each take and what skills
you would need to acquire. Develop a plan and timeline on
how you would acquire skills (not everyone has to be full
time)

19. Do It
• Understand that entrepreneurs are problem solvers and
that risk is about calculation
• Jump in, with the knowledge that execution drives success,
not the quality of the idea

20. The Pitch
• Leverage what you’ve learned to craft
your 30-second elevator pitch
• Starting a pitch deck will help you
continue to hone all items we’ve talked
about

21. Q&A