Open Source Startup

Unit 14: Financial Planning

Key Takeaways

• Learn key financial analysis skills (contribution analysis, financial analysis, accounting)
• Learn key financial concepts (liquidity, value, taxation, contracts and warranties)
• Learn how to evaluate business risk
• Learn how to value information
• Understand the minimum viable business product

Readings

• Financial Management for Technology Startups
• Chapter 3: Start-up contribution analysis
• Chapter 4: Start-up financial analysis
• Chapter 6: The importance of being liquid
• Chapter 7: What’s it worth to you?
• What Every Engineer Should Know About Starting a High-Tech Business Venture
• Chapter 8: Planning for Your Business
• Chapter 18: Contracts and Product Warranties
• Chapter 19: Startup Accounting
• Chapter 20: Tax Considerations for a Startup
• How to Measure Anything
• Chapter 6: Measuring Risk: Introduction to the Monte Carlo Simulation
• Chapter 7: Measuring the Value of Information
• Chapter 14: A Universal Measurement Method: Applied Information Economic
• Disciplined Entrepreneurship
• Step 22: Define Minimum Viable Business Product (MVBP)
• Product Manager’s Desk Reference
• Chapter 6: Finance for the Product Manager: Keeping Score

Deliverables

• Set up templates with instructional notes for contribution analysis, financial analysis, and simple startup accounting for your startup
• Set up a cheat sheet on contracts, warranties, business planning, and taxation
• Build a simple risk model
• Evaluate the value of individual and networked user data captured within your startup’s MVP
• Define your startup’s Minimum Viable Business Product