business plan for a tech company

Technology Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Technology Business Plan

You’ve come to the right place to create your own Technology business plan.

We have helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans and many have used them to start or grow their Technology businesses.

Technology Business Plan Example & Template

Below is a Technology business plan template and sample to help you create each section of your own business plan.

Executive Summary

Business overview.

Kearney Tech Inc., located in Houston, Texas is a tech startup that focuses on developing and commercializing new artificial intelligence (AI) technology applications designed for small-to-medium sized businesses. The company has created proprietary technology that helps businesses improve their profitability by using AI to increase customer engagement. We offer multiple products, including AI hardware, marketing AI software, and CRM AI software. Many of our most basic services are free, but the rest can be accessed by paying a subscription fee. By providing flexible and affordable subscription options for our clients, Kearney Tech Inc. aims to be the next big technology company in the AI space for small and medium-sized businesses.

Kearney Tech Inc. was founded and is led by Abigail Kearney. Abigail has been a senior software engineer for nearly 10 years and has extensive experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning. In addition to her experience, she has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and an MBA. Her education and experience are sure to lead Kearney Tech Inc. to success.

Product Offering

Kearney Tech Inc. will showcase a variety of different applications for its AI technology that companies can utilize to increase their customer engagement from day one. Businesses can choose the platform package that works for them, based on a freemium subscription pricing structure.

The following are the services that Kearney Tech Inc. will provide:

• AI Hardware
• Marketing AI Software
• Customer Relationship Management AI Software
• Customer Support AI Software
• Technology Training: Training sessions on how to use our AI solutions and integrate them into their businesses

Customer Focus

Kearney Tech Inc. will serve small to medium-sized businesses within a 30-mile radius of Houston, Texas. Many of the businesses in our target demographic are startups looking to expand their reach and thus would benefit from technology that can increase their customer base.

Management Team

Kearney Tech Inc. will also employ an experienced assistant to work as a business analyst and help with various administrative duties around the office. She will also hire several developers, salesmen, and other administrative staff to assist her.

Success Factors

Kearney Tech Inc. will be able to achieve success by offering the following competitive advantages:

• Management: Abigail Kearney has been extremely successful working in the technology industry and will be able to use her previous experience to provide the best service experience. Her unique qualifications will serve customers in a much more sophisticated manner than Kearney Tech Inc.’s competitors.
• Relationships: Abigail Kearney knows many of the local leaders, business managers, and other influencers within Houston, Texas. With her 10 years of experience and good relationships with business leaders in the area, she will be able to develop an initial client base.
• Proprietary technology : The company has developed proprietary AI technology that will be used to add new data sources, expand on valuable insights, launch advanced features like benchmarking, provide predictive and prescriptive analytics, and ensure self-guided data discovery.
• Client-oriented service: Kearney Tech Inc. will have full-time customer service and sales managers to keep in contact with clients and answer their everyday questions.

Financial Highlights

Kearney Tech Inc. is seeking a total funding of $400,000 of debt capital to open its office. The funding will be dedicated to office design, software development, marketing, and working capital. Specifically, these funds will be used as follows:

• Office design/build: $50,000
• Software development: $150,000
• Three months of overhead expenses (payroll, rent, utilities): $150,000
• Marketing costs: $25,000
• Working capital: $25,000

The following graph below outlines the pro forma financial projections for Kearney Tech Inc.:

Company Overview

Who is kearney tech inc..

Abigail began researching what it would take to create her own technology company and did a thorough analysis of the costs, market, demographics, and competition. Abigail has compiled enough information to develop her business plan in order to approach investors.

Kearney Tech Inc.’s History

Once her market analysis was complete, Abigail Kearney began surveying the local vacant office space and located an ideal location to house the technology company. Abigail Kearney incorporated Kearney Tech Inc. as a Limited Liability Corporation in April 2023.

Since incorporation, the company has achieved the following milestones:

• Located available office space for rent
• Developed the company’s name, logo, and website
• Determined equipment and necessary supplies
• Began recruiting key employees

Kearney Tech Inc. Services

Industry analysis.

As of 2021, the global technology industry was valued at approximately $5.2T. Of all countries worldwide, the United States currently has the largest technology market, with 32% of the market share at $1.7T. The technology industry in the U.S. accounts for a large part of the nation’s economy.

The Information Technology market can be segmented by categories such as software, devices, infrastructure IT and business services, emerging technology, and telecom services. In the United States, IT and business services hold the greatest market share (30%), followed by software (20%) and telecom services (20%).

Market drivers include the economy, employment rates, and the digital transformation of daily life for a growing number of people and businesses worldwide. Corporations and organizations are seeking IT service providers that can help improve their software, cybersecurity, data, and infrastructure. Technology companies that can provide products and services that cater to these issues can be competitive in the constantly evolving market.

Technology is an integral part of society. Developments in AI and machine learning are essential to keep society moving forward and make businesses more efficient. Therefore, businesses will always be in need of AI solutions to bring in more customers and streamline their services and products. According to Market Watch, the Technology industry is set to grow at a CAGR of 25.73% from now until 2027. Very few industries see this growth, which shows how much demand there is for technological solutions. Therefore, we expect Kearney Tech Inc. to see great success in our local market.

Customer Analysis

Demographic profile of target market.

Kearney Tech Inc. will serve the small and medium-sized businesses of Houston, Texas, and the surrounding areas.

Many small businesses in the community are startups or established enterprises looking to expand their reach and thus would benefit from technology that can increase their customer engagement.

Customer Segmentation

Kearney Tech Inc. will primarily target the following customer profiles:

• Small businesses
• Medium-sized businesses

Competitive Analysis

Direct and indirect competitors.

Kearney Tech Inc. will face competition from other companies with similar business profiles. A description of each competitor company is below.  

Tekuserv has been a reliable technology company in Houston, Texas for more than fifteen years. The company is known for its wide range of technology solutions that serve many small-to-medium-sized businesses. With its large number of experts focused on delivering customer satisfaction, the organization maintains its high standard of developing quality products and providing exceptional customer service. Tekuserv provides business software on a freemium subscription basis. It develops enterprise technology solutions with a focus on customer relationship management.  

Prime AI Business Solutions

Prime AI Business Solutions is a technology development company in Houston, Texas. In business for several years, the company has developed highly-rated AI solutions used by many well-known businesses in a variety of industries. Prime AI Business Solutions now offers a range of AI hardware and software products geared toward helping businesses of all sizes increase their customer base. The company has also introduced a “pay-as-you-grow” pricing model that scales to provide users with more support as they scale up.  

AICE Developments

AICE stands for Artificial Intelligence for Customer Engagement. AICE Developments is also a local technology company that manufactures and distributes a variety of technology products. AICE Developments was established in 2009 in Houston, Texas, providing integrated AI applications and platform services. Its products include applications and infrastructure offerings delivered through various IT deployment models, including on-premise deployments, cloud-based deployments, and hybrid deployments. The company serves automotive, financial services, healthcare, hospitality, retail, utilities, construction, etc. It provides AI solutions for enterprise marketing and customer engagement.

Competitive Advantage

Kearney Tech Inc. will be able to offer the following advantages over the competition:

• Proprietary technology: The company has developed proprietary AI technology that will be used to add new data sources, expand on valuable insights, launch advanced features like benchmarking, provide predictive and prescriptive analytics, and ensure self-guided data discovery.

Marketing Plan

Brand & value proposition.

Kearney Tech Inc. will offer a unique value proposition to its clientele:

• Service built on long-term relationships
• Big-firm expertise in a small-firm environment
• Thorough knowledge of the clients and their varying needs
• Proprietary technology developed by skilled software engineers

Promotions Strategy

The promotions strategy for Kearney Tech Inc. is as follows:

Kearney Tech Inc. understands that the best promotion comes from satisfied customers. The company will encourage its clients to refer other businesses by providing economic or financial incentives for every new client produced. This strategy will increase in effectiveness after the business has already been established.

Social Media

Kearney Tech Inc. will invest heavily in a social media advertising campaign. The brand manager will create the company’s social media accounts and invest in ads on all social media platforms. It will use targeted marketing to appeal to the target demographics.

Website/SEO

Kearney Tech Inc. will invest heavily in developing a professional website that displays all of the features and benefits of the technology company. It will also invest heavily in SEO so that the brand’s website will appear at the top of search engine results.

Direct Mail

Kearney Tech Inc. will blanket businesses with direct mail pieces. These pieces will provide general information on Kearney Tech Inc., offer discounts, and/or provide other incentives for companies to use the AI platform.

Kearney Tech Inc.’s pricing will be on par with competitors so clients feel they receive great value when purchasing the technology.

Operations Plan

The following will be the operations plan for Kearney Tech Inc.:

Operation Functions:

• Abigail Kearney will be the Owner and CEO of the company. She will oversee all the operations and executive functions of the company. In the beginning, she will also provide customer support and market/sell AI products to potential clients.
• Abigail will employ an experienced assistant to work as a business analyst and help with various administrative duties around the office.
• Abigail will also hire several developers to maintain and develop AI products and services.
• Abigail will also hire a solid sales team to sell our products to potential clients. As the company grows, she will also hire a team that is solely dedicated to customer service.

Milestones:

Kearney Tech Inc. will have the following milestones completed in the next six months.

5/2023 – Finalize lease agreement

6/2023 – Design and build out Kearney Tech Inc.

7/2023 – Hire and train initial staff

8/2023 – Kickoff of promotional campaign

9/2023 – Launch Kearney Tech Inc.

10/2023 – Reach break-even

Financial Plan

Key revenue & costs.

Kearney Tech Inc.’s revenues will come primarily from its technology solution subscription sales. The company will use a freemium subscription model, in which basic functions can be used by any company for free. Additional solutions and support will be available in a tiered package model based on the enterprises’ size and the number of users.

The office lease, equipment, supplies, and labor expenses will be the key cost drivers of Kearney Tech Inc. Ongoing marketing expenditures are also notable cost drivers for Kearney Tech Inc.

Funding Requirements and Use of Funds

Key assumptions.

The following outlines the key assumptions required in order to achieve the revenue and cost numbers in the financials and pay off the startup business loan.

• Average number of clients per month
• Annual rent: $20,000

Financial Projections

Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, technology business plan faqs, what is a technology business plan.

A technology business plan is a plan to start and/or grow your technology business. Among other things, it outlines your business concept, identifies your target customers, presents your marketing plan and details your financial projections. You can easily complete your Technology business plan using our Technology Business Plan Template here .

What are the Main Types of Technology Businesses?

There are a number of different kinds of technology businesses, some examples include: Network technology, Software technology, and Customer relationship technology.

How Do You Get Funding for Your Technology Business Plan?

Technology businesses are often funded through small business loans. Personal savings, credit card financing and angel investors are also popular forms of funding.

What are the Steps To Start a Technology Business?

Starting a technology business can be an exciting endeavor. Having a clear roadmap of the steps to start a business will help you stay focused on your goals and get started faster.

1. Develop A Technology Business Plan - The first step in starting a business is to create a detailed technology business plan that outlines all aspects of the venture. This should include potential market size and target customers, the services or products you will offer, pricing strategies and a detailed financial forecast.

2. Choose Your Legal Structure - It's important to select an appropriate legal entity for your technology business. This could be a limited liability company (LLC), corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. Each type has its own benefits and drawbacks so it’s important to do research and choose wisely so that your technology business is in compliance with local laws.

3. Register Your Technology Business - Once you have chosen a legal structure, the next step is to register your technology business with the government or state where you’re operating from. This includes obtaining licenses and permits as required by federal, state, and local laws.

4. Identify Financing Options - It’s likely that you’ll need some capital to start your technology business, so take some time to identify what financing options are available such as bank loans, investor funding, grants, or crowdfunding platforms.

5. Choose a Location - Whether you plan on operating out of a physical location or not, you should always have an idea of where you’ll be based should it become necessary in the future as well as what kind of space would be suitable for your operations.

6. Hire Employees - There are several ways to find qualified employees including job boards like LinkedIn or Indeed as well as hiring agencies if needed – depending on what type of employees you need it might also be more effective to reach out directly through networking events.

7. Acquire Necessary Technology Equipment & Supplies - In order to start your technology business, you'll need to purchase all of the necessary equipment and supplies to run a successful operation.

8. Market & Promote Your Business - Once you have all the necessary pieces in place, it’s time to start promoting and marketing your technology business. This includes creating a website, utilizing social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter, and having an effective Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy. You should also consider traditional marketing techniques such as radio or print advertising.

Learn more about how to start a successful Technology business: How to Start a Tech Company

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How to Write an IT Tech Startup Business Plan [Sample Template]

Are you about starting an IT tech startup? If YES, here is a detailed sample IT tech startup business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE . If you are a software developer or you have a background in the ICT industry and you are looking for An IT business to start, then you need to look far because there are loads of businesses in the industry and one of them is software as a service (or SaaS) company.

Software as a service (or SaaS) is an emerging paradigm business that enables software to be delivered as a service. This is an arrangement that enables companies to expand their network capacity, and run applications directly on a vendor’s network, offer a host of advantages with the most primary being radically lowering IT costs.

The lower budgetary requirements and commitments allow even smaller companies to piece together an IT project without spending on purchasing legacy server, and storage systems. However, due to the technical nature of this business, it would be wise to consult with a business consultant before starting off.

If your business concept is a great one, the business consultant would offer you tips and suggestions on the way forward. Below is a sample IT tech startup company business plan template that can help you successfully write your own with little or no stress.

A Sample IT Tech Startup Business Plan Template

1. industry overview.

An IT technology company (often tech company) is a type of business entity that focuses on the development and manufacturing of technology products, or providing technology as a service. “Technology”, in this context, has come to mean electronics-based technology. This can include businesses relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce.

For the purpose of this business plan, we will be looking at software development as a service. Software as a service (or SaaS) is part of the Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry and players in this industry consist of companies that are into ERP software, bi software, crm software, scm software and other software development and they may decide to strictly adopt the Software as a services (SaaS) Business model.

A recent report published by IBISWorld shows that the Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry has grown steadily due to favorable demand conditions caused by high corporate profit and investment. Over the five years to 2018, industry revenue rose at an annualized rate of 7.1 percent, driven by businesses’ increased technological complexity and the eagerness to adopt efficiency-enhancing software.

The report also shows that many industry products, such as customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning software systems, have become basic tools in the management of large companies. In 2018, industry revenue is expected to rise 2.6 percent to $55.4 billion. The world’s largest software companies have spent the past five years acquiring high-performing enterprise software vendors, cloud companies and data.

The report further states that over the past five years, the Business Analytics & Enterprise Software Publishing in the US industry has grown by 7.1 percent to reach revenue of $55bn in 2018. In the same timeframe, the number of businesses has grown by 10.0 percent and the number of employees has grown by 10.2 percent.

The Business Analytics and Enterprise Software Publishing industry is indeed a growing industry and is gaining ground in most countries of the world. Statistics has it that in the united states of America alone, there are about 2,869 registered and licensed business analytics and enterprise software publishing companies (Software as a services (SaaS) business model inclusive) responsible for employing about 139,347 people and the industry rakes $55 billion annually.

The industry is projected to grow at 7.1 percent annual growth within 2013 and 2018. The companies holding the largest market share in the Business Analytics & Enterprise Software Publishing in the US industry include SAP SE, International Business Machines Corporation, Salesforce.com Inc. and Oracle Corporation.

Some of the factors that encourage entrepreneurs to start their own Software as a service (SaaS) business could be the growing recognition of economic and operational benefits and the efficiency of this business model. As companies ease out gradually from the economic uncertainties and financial shackles, widespread adoption of Software as a service is in the offing.

The successful adoption of this technology concept will pave the way for mass enterprise adoption of Software as a service in the upcoming years. The transition of enterprises from virtual machines to the cloud will additionally extend the impetus required for strong growth of Software as a service (SaaS).

Poised to score the maximum gains will be end-to end cloud-computing solutions that offer complete functionalities ranging from integration of internal and external clouds, automation of business-critical tasks, and streamlining of business processes and workflow, among others.

Over and above, starting a software as a services (SaaS) company requires professionalism and good grasp of how the ICT industry works. Besides, you would need to get the required certifications and license and also meet the standard security expected for players in the industry in the United States.

2. Executive Summary

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is an IT tech startup that will specialize in offering software as a service (SaaS). The business will be based in Overland Park – Kansas and we were able to secure a well – positioned and standard office facility.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is a client – focused and result driven IT tech startup company that is into ERP software, bi software, crm software, scm software and other software development. We will provide broad – based software development services at an affordable fee that won’t in any way put a hole in the pocket of our clients. We will offer standard and professional services to all to our clients.

At Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc., our client’s best interest would always come first, and everything we do is guided by our values and professional ethics. We will ensure that we hire professionals who are experienced in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in general.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will at all times demonstrate her commitment to sustainability, both individually and as a firm, by actively participating in our communities and integrating sustainable business practices wherever possible. We will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards by meeting our client’s needs precisely and completely.

Our plan is to position the business to become the leading brand in software as a service (SaaS) business in the whole of Overland Park – Kansas, and also to be amongst the top 10 IT tech startup companies in the United States of America within the first 10 years of operation. This might look too tall a dream but we are optimistic that this will surely be realized.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will be owned and managed by Joel Rogers. He has a Bachelor of Technology. He is a certified SOC 2 – Trust (SOC 2 is designed specifically for SaaS operations) and has over 10 years’ experience working in related industry as a senior software engineer prior to starting Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.

3. Our Products and Services

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is going to offer varieties of services within the scope of the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in the United States of America. We are well prepared to make profits from the industry and we will do all that is permitted by the law in the United States to achieve our business goals, aim and ambition.

Our business offerings are listed below;

• ERP software development
• BI software development
• CRM software development
• SCM software development
• Other software development

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our vision is to build an IT tech startup company that will be among the forerunners when it comes to offering software as a service (SaaS) in the world.
• Our mission is as an IT tech startup with bias in software as a services (SaaS) is to help a wide range of clients develop customized software that will help them simplify their businesses and operations.

Our Business Structure

Ordinarily we would have settled for two or three staff members, but as part of our plan to build a standard IT tech startup company in Overland Park – Kansas, we have perfected plans to get it right from the beginning which is why we are going to ensure that we have competent, honest and hardworking employees to occupy all the available positions in our firm.

The kind of IT tech startup company we intend building and the business goals we want to achieve is what informed the amount we are ready to pay for the best hands available in and around Overland Park – Kansas as long as they are willing and ready to work with us.

Below is the business structure that we will build Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. on;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Programmers and Software Developers

Admin and HR Manager

• Digital Marketers (Marketing and Sales Executive)
• Customer Care Executive / Front Desk Officer

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Office:

• Increases management’s effectiveness by recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, coaching, counseling, and disciplining managers; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results
• Creating, communicating, and implementing the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction – i.e. leading the development and implementation of the overall organization’s strategy.
• Responsible for fixing prices and signing business deals
• Responsible for providing direction for the business
• Responsible for signing checks and documents on behalf of the company
• Evaluates the success of the organization

Programmers and Software Developer

• Responsible for designing, installing, testing and maintenance of software systems for the organization
• Identifying areas for modification in existing programs and subsequently developing these modifications
• Writing and implementing efficient code
• Determining operational practicality
• Developing quality assurance procedures
• Training users
• Working closely with other developers, UX designers, business and systems analysts
• Presenting ideas for system improvements, including cost proposals
• Working closely with analysts, designers and staff
• Producing detailed specifications and writing the programme codes
• Maintaining and upgrading existing systems once they are up and running
• Responsible for overseeing the smooth running of HR and administrative tasks for the organization
• Regularly hold meetings with key stakeholders to review the effectiveness of HR Policies, Procedures and Processes
• Maintains office supplies by checking stocks; placing and expediting orders; evaluating new products.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Defining job positions for recruitment and managing interviewing process
• Carrying out induction for new team members
• Responsible for training, evaluation and assessment of employees
• Responsible for arranging travel, meetings and appointments
• Oversee the smooth running of the daily office activities.

Marketing and Sales Executive

• Identify, prioritize, and reach out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• Identifies development opportunities; follows up on development leads and contacts
• Writing winning proposal documents, negotiate fees and rates in line with company policy
• Responsible for handling business research, marker surveys and feasibility studies for clients
• Responsible for supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with clients
• Document all customer contact and information
• Represent the company in strategic meetings
• Help increase sales and growth for the company
• Responsible for preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• create reports from the information concerning the financial transactions as recorded
• Prepare the income statement and balance sheet using the trial balance and ledgers
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports
• Responsible for financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting for one or more properties.
• Responsible for developing and managing financial systems and policies
• Responsible for administering payrolls
• Ensuring compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the company
• Serves as internal auditor for the company

Technical Help Desk Officer

• Provide technical assistance and support for incoming queries and issues related to our software
• Identifies problems and issues by performing relevant research using the appropriate tools and by following established procedures.
• Through interaction with clients on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the company’s services
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on the company’s promotional campaigns etc. to ensure accurate and helpful information is supplied to clients

6. SWOT Analysis

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. engaged the services of a professional in the area of business consulting and structuring to assist the firm in building a well – structured IT tech startup company that can favorably compete in the highly competitive business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry.

Part of what the business consultant did was to work with the management of our organization in conducting a SWOT analysis for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. Here is a summary from the result of the SWOT analysis that was conducted on behalf of Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.;

We can boast of a competent technical team that has analytical and critical thinking skills that can help them find creative solutions for our clients. Aside from the synergy that exists in our carefully selected workforce, we have a very strong online presence and we are well positioned to attract loads of clients from the first day we open our doors for business.

One of the weaknesses that is obvious to us is the lack of capacity and inability to compete with big players in the industry especially as it relates to economy of scales.

• Opportunities:

The opportunities in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry is massive considering the fact that the world is going the way of technology, and software as a service (SaaS) is indispensable in the value chain of the info tech industry.

Some of the threats that we are likely going to face as an IT tech startup business operating in the United States are hosting issues, installation or upkeep troubles, piracy, unfavorable government policies , and global economic downturn which usually affects purchasing/spending power.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trends

The advancement we are enjoying in our world today can be attributed to the advancement of technology. Technology has indeed given leverage to all aspects of human endeavor. To start with, it is the advancement of technology that landed man in the moon.

It is the advancement of technology that made communication either via the telephone or computer easier and faster. It is the advancement of technology that made transportation faster and perhaps cheaper. It is the advancement of technology that made the manufacturing of goods faster and cheaper, etc.

The technology industry is so wide and vibrant and there is still room large enough for those who are interested in the industry to come in and create their own impact. One thing is certain, the world will always celebrate any inventor who is able to invent machines or devices that can ease the process of doing things.

8. Our Target Market

We are aware that the nature of our business is geared to words serving B2B clients, hence Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will initially serve small to medium sized business, from new ventures to well established businesses and individual clients, but that does not in any way stop us from growing to compete with the leading IT tech startup companies that offer software as a services (SaaS) in the United States.

As a standard and licensed IT tech startup company that offers software as a service (SaaS), Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will develop software apps for the following clients;

• Financial services providers
• Insurance companies
• Businesses in the health sector
• Supply chain businesses
• Other related businesses that may need software as a services (SaaS) technology

Our competitive advantage

The level of competition in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry does not in any way depend on the location of the business since most companies that offer software as a service (SaaS), can operate from any part of the world and still effectively compete in the industry.

We are quite aware that to be highly competitive in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry means that we should be able to develop software apps that will help simplify business and operation process for clients.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. might be a new entrant into the industry in the United States of America, but the management staff are considered gurus. They are highly qualified software programmers and developers in the United States. These are part of what will count as a competitive advantage for us.

Lastly, our employees will be well taken care of, and their welfare package will be among the best within our category in the industry meaning that they will be more than willing to build the business with us and help deliver our set goals and achieve all our aims and objectives.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

We are mindful of the fact that there is fast – growing competition amongst IT tech startup companies and other players in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry in the United States of America and around the globe; hence we have been able to hire some of the best business developer cum digital marketers to handle our sales and marketing.

Our sales and marketing team will be recruited base on their vast experience in the industry and they will be trained on a regular basis so as to be well equipped to meet their targets and the overall goal of the organization. We will also ensure that our excellent job deliveries speak for us in the market place; we want to build a standard IT tech startup company that offer software as a services (SaaS), that will leverage on word of mouth advertisement from satisfied clients.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is set to make use of the following marketing and sales strategies to attract clients;

• Introduce our business by sending introductory letters alongside our brochure to all the companies, institutions and organizations within and outside the United States
• Promptness in bidding for software as a service (SaaS) contracts from companies, and organizations within and outside the United States
• Advertise our business in relevant programming magazines, radio and TV stations
• List our business on local directories/yellow pages
• Attend international software as a services (SaaS) developers related, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients in order to work with their budgets
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Join related associations around us with the main aim of networking and marketing our services; we are likely going to get referrals from such networks.

Sources of Income

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is established with the aim of maximizing profits in the business analytics and enterprise software publishing industry and we are going to ensure that we do all it takes to attract clients on a regular basis.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will generate income by offering the following services and products

10. Sales Forecast

We are well positioned to take on the available market in Overland Park – Kansas and in the cyberspace and we are quite optimistic that we will meet our set target of generating enough income / profits from the first six months of operation and grow the business and our clientele base beyond Overland Park to other cities in the United States of America and in the cyberspace.

We have been able to examine the business analytics and enterprise software publishing market, we have analyzed our chances in the industry and we have been able to come up with the following sales forecast. Below are the sales projections for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc., it is based on the location of our business and the services we will be offering;

• First Fiscal Year (FY1):  $300,000
• Second Fiscal Year (FY2):  $550,000
• Third Fiscal Year (FY3):  $1.5 million

N.B : This projection was done based on what is obtainable in the industry and with the assumption that there won’t be any major economic meltdown and internet shutdown within the period stated above. Please note that the above projection might be lower and at the same time it might be higher.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

We have been able to work with our brand and publicity consultants to help us map out publicity and advertising strategies that will help us walk our way into the heart of our target market. We are set to take the software as a services (SaaS) industry by storm which is why we have made provisions for effective publicity and advertisement of our IT tech startup company.

Below are the platforms we intend to leverage on to promote and advertise Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.;

• Place adverts on both print (community – based newspapers and magazines) and electronic media platforms
• Sponsor relevant community – based events/programs
• Leverage on the internet and social media platforms like; Instagram, Facebook, twitter, YouTube, Google + et al to promote our brand
• Install our billboards in strategic locations all around Overland Park
• Ensure that all our workers wear our branded shirts and all our vehicles are well branded with our company’s logo et al.

12. Our Pricing Strategy

At Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. we will keep our product and service fees a little bit below the average market rate by keeping our overhead low and by collecting payment in advance. In addition, we will also offer special discounted rates to startups, nonprofits, cooperatives, and small social enterprises who want to develop software apps for their business.

• Payment Options

The payment policy adopted by Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is all inclusive because we are quite aware that different customers prefer different payment options as it suits them but at the same time, we will ensure that we abide by the financial rules and regulation of the United States of America.

Here are the payment options that Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will make available to her clients;

• Payment via bank transfer
• Payment with cash
• Payment via online bank transfer
• Payment via mobile money
• Payment via Point of Sales Machines (POS Machines)
• Payment via check

In view of the above, we have chosen banking platforms that will enable our client make payment without any stress on their part.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

These are the areas we are looking towards spending our startup capital on;

• The total fee for incorporating the Business in the United States of America – $750.
• Legal expenses for obtaining licenses and permits as well as the accounting services P.O.S machines – $3,300.
• The total cost for payment of insurance policy covers (general liability, workers’ compensation and property casualty) coverage at a total premium – $9,400.
• The amount needed to acquire a suitable Office facility in a business district for 6 months (Re – Construction of the facility inclusive) – $40,000.
• Marketing expenses for the grand opening of Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. in the amount of $3,500 and as well as flyer printing (2,000 flyers at $0.04 per copy) for the total amount of $3,580.
• The total cost for hiring Business Consultant – $2,500
• The cost for equipping the office (computers, software apps and hardware such as Application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines, internet server, printers, fax machines, furniture, telephones, filing cabins, safety gadgets and electronics et al) – $25,000
• The cost of launching our official website – $800
• Budget for paying at least two employees for 3 months and utility bills – $75,000
• Additional expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $2,500
• Miscellaneous – $10,000

Going by the report from the research and feasibility studies, we will need about Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand US Dollars ($250,000) to set up a small scale but standard IT tech startup company in the United States of America.

Generating Funds/Startup Capital for Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is owned and managed by Joel Rogers. He may likely welcome partners later which is why he has decided to restrict the sourcing of the startup capital for the business to just three major sources.

• Generate part of the startup capital from personal savings
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Apply for loan from the bank

N.B: We have been able to generate about $50,000 (Personal savings $40,000 and soft loan from family members $10,000) and we are at the final stages of obtaining a loan facility of $200,000 from our bank. All the papers and documents have been duly signed and submitted, the loan has been approved and any moment from now our account will be credited.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

The future of a business lies in the number of loyal customers that they have, the capacity and competence of their employees, their investment strategy and the business structure. If all of these factors are missing from a business (company), then it won’t be too long before the business closes shop.

One of our major goals of starting Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. is to build a business that will survive off its own cash flow without injecting finance from external sources once the business is officially running. We know that one of the ways of gaining approval and winning customers over is to offer our software as a services (SaaS) a little bit cheaper than what is obtainable in the market and we are prepared to survive on lower profit margin for a while.

Joel Rogers® Technologies, Inc. will make sure that the right foundation, structures and processes are put in place to ensure that our staff welfare are well taken of. Our company’s corporate culture is designed to drive our business to greater heights and training and retraining of our workforce is at the top burner of our business strategy.

As a matter of fact, profit-sharing arrangement will be made available to all our management staff and it will be based on their performance for a period of three years or more as determined by the board of the organization. We know that if that is put in place, we will be able to successfully hire and retain the best hands we can get in the industry; they will be more committed to help us build the business of our dreams.

Check List/Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check : Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Leasing a standard and well positioned office facility in the heart of Overland Park – Kansas: Completed
• Generating part of the start up capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Printing of Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the needed software applications, internet server, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress.

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7 Elements to Successfully Write a Tech Startup Business Plan

Vy Le | 18/05/2023

When it comes to starting a tech business, having a well-crafted tech business plan is crucial to attract investors and succeed in the competitive market landscape. A business plan outlines your company’s vision, strategy, and financial plan over time, giving potential investors insight into your business model and growth potential.

However, writing a tech startup business plan can be a daunting task, especially for new entrepreneurs that lack experience in the tech industry. In this article, we’ll provide you with a comprehensive guide on writing a tech startup business plan that will impress investors and help you succeed in the fast-paced tech startup world.

What is a Tech Startup Business Plan?

A tech startup business plan is a comprehensive document that outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies of a technology-based startup company. It is a crucial tool that helps entrepreneurs in the tech industry to define and organize their ideas, demonstrate the feasibility of their business concept, and present a clear plan for how they intend to build and grow their company.

Generally, most business plans typically include a summary of the company history, the problem it is solving, the target audience, competitive analysis, the marketing and sales strategy, the development strategy, and the financial plan. Also, such a document may include details about the management team, operations, and product development roadmap.

Particularly for the technology sector, the tech startup business plan also includes more specialized elements. Specifically, it is important to focus on the e-commerce technology trends being developed and how it addresses a gap or problem in the market while building such a document. This includes details such as the software or hardware being constructed, the technology stack being used, its technical architecture, and how it will improve or disrupt existing technology solutions.

Overall, a well-crafted business plan can help secure funding from potential investors or lenders, attract top talent, and ultimately guide the company toward success.

10 Core Questions to Answer When Conducting a Tech Startup Business Plan

For a tech startup business to build a good business plan, keep in your mind these questions and find the answers for yourself along the way. Answering these questions will help your startup team formulate a clear and compelling business plan/business idea, which can be used to guide the tech startup founder toward success.

1. Which product or service does your tech startup offer?

2. What is the team structure, and who are the key members?

3. Who is your target audience for the product or service?

4. Who are the competitors?

5. What are your competitive advantages?

6. What is your marketing strategy, and how do you leverage marketing channels?

7. What is your sales plan, and how do you leverage sales channels?

8. What is your financial plan, including projections for revenue, expenses, and funding needed?

9. What are the risks and challenges the business may face?

10. What is your timeline for product development, launch, and growth?

3 Reasons Why You Need a Technology Startup Business Plan

But why do businesses compose a tech startup business plan at the beginning of the software development process? There must be reasons. Check them out now!

Providing a Blueprint for Success

According to a Harvard Business Review study , startups that write a detailed business plan have a 16% chance to achieve viability than businesses that don’t. This metric proves the usefulness of this action.

By systematizing the business idea into a complete tech startup business plan, you give the business itself and each team member a clear picture of the company’s goals, vision, and strategies. While people are a prerequisite for an organization’s success, understanding the product’s direction will help each individual in the development team structure closely link together throughout the software development process and shorten product completion time.

Raising Capital from Investors

In the tech industry, startups often require significant amounts of capital to fund product development, hire staff, and invest in marketing and sales efforts. Raising such funds from investors is often necessary for startups’ future growth and success.

However, among the hundreds of thousands of startups out there, what sets your business apart from all of them? It is a specific technology startup business plan that is well-written to demonstrate.

Prospective investors and venture capitalists do not spend their money arbitrarily on poorly invested projects because, ultimately, they care about the return on investment (ROI). Investors are usually drawn to companies that understand their market and have a plan to tackle the market gap, and a well-curated business plan can make a tech startup stand out from the crowd.

Attract Top Talent

Suppose you don’t intend to use outsourced software development services to quickly build a development team of professionals and want to recruit developers for your startup yourself . A tech startup business plan can help in this situation.

A technology startup business plan can showcase the unique features of the business and its competitive advantage in a crowded market. Therefore, it can become a valuable tool for convincing top talent to join the team, especially if the company’s plans align with professionals’ aspirations and career goals.

7 Essential Elements to Write a Business Plan for Your Tech Startup

Your business idea can be good. But to easily realize it and stick to the outlined roadmap, you must present them in a systematic document. To do this, don’t skip the seven key elements to conduct a tech startup business plan below.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the most critical component of a tech startup business plan as it gives the reader a first-hand look at your product/service. An executive summary is a brief overview of your entire tech startup business plan, providing context for the reader and summarizing all the key points. It is usually the first section of the business plan and is customized to reflect the company’s goals, values, and unique selling points in a way that inspires the reader’s confidence in the startup.

An excellent executive summary in a software startup business plan typically includes the general situation of the target market or related industry based on conducted market research and an overview of the software solution you offer. Other information, such as unique value proposition (UVP), competitors in the same segment, and the company’s goal, can also be included in the executive summary as an optional option.

The advice is not to write the executive summary too long and vague, lacking focus on the main ideas. It is recommended to keep it within two pages to optimize visual efficiency and avoid boring the reader. Use the executive summary as an opportunity to showcase your tech startup’s strengths before diving into the details later on.

Company Description

If the executive summary is the section that presents all the overview data about your product or service, the company description in a technology startup business plan is the part that gives the reader a clearer view of your entire tech startup, or what we call a company overview.

This section should provide a clear understanding of the business to potential partners or customers and inspire confidence in the startup . There are many primary elements that make up a complete company description. So, it will be hard if tech startup founders don’t start small. Draft fundamental ideas and gradually develop them into complete content until they meet all the needs of a business plan.

Here are some main elements to consider when writing a company description: tech company’s name, company history, business model, vision, mission, legal structure (whether it is a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or corporation.), management team structure (each role and responsibilities) and competitive advantage.

Target Market Research

By doing target market research, a tech startup is able to figure out three key elements for a tech startup’s business plan. These are the total addressable market (TAM), technology market trends, target customer groups, and competitor analysis.

• The total addressable market (TAM) is the target market’s total size that helps assess potential future revenue streams and justify the business case.
• Market trends help tech startups stay up to date with market demand, ever-changing information technology, and changes in perspective customers’ behavior.
• Target audience gives tech startups a better understanding of their potential customers by gathering demographic, geographic, and behavior factors.
• The competitor analysis section of your business plan helps tech company in identifying their direct competitors and understand their own strengths and weaknesses to promote competitive advantage better.

Target market research not only benefits the startup company but also shows your investment and determination in the product or service.

Product/Service Line

It’s time to be more descriptive of the product or service your company offers rather than just general, like in the executive summary. Because the purpose of a startup business plan is generally still to introduce products to potential customers, this section should be written carefully and go into detail to demonstrate the product’s uniqueness and promising growth potentials.

Some elements to consider when writing a business plan include:

• Product or service explanation: This includes key features and benefits, how it works, and how it is different from other solutions in the market.
• Value proposition: Clearly stating how your product fulfills a customer need and backing it up with evidence.
• Product development: Providing a product development roadmap by outlining your timeline and steps to achieve further development goals.

Team Structure

The team structure is an essential part of a tech startup business plan. It gives investors and stakeholders insight into the management team’s ability to execute the business plan and the team’s capacity to bring the idea to fruition.

In this part of the business plan, it is vital to highlight the leadership team and their roles. Start by introducing your founders and executive team and describe their previous experience and expertise with a proven track record that makes them qualified to lead the company. For investors to easily visualize the development team of your startup business, using a graphic, such as an organizational chart, can help.

Next, outline the roles and responsibilities of each member of your team , including any advisors or board members. Remember to describe carefully how each team member will contribute and cooperate to the successful company and how their respective skill sets complement, and experience are relevant to the tech industry.

Goals and plans for the future of the leadership team and development team members can also be written in the business plan as a supplement. For example, you expect to expand your team within one year by hiring additional staff or bringing on new partners or investors. All must be written in a clear, concise, and focused manner.

Marketing and Sales Plan

A product or service with good quality is only part of it when marketing and sales plans are exactly the activities that bring users and profits to the company. The marketing and sales plan section of a tech startup business plan will serve as a critical component that outlines how your company plans to acquire and retain customers, generate revenue, and achieve sustainable growth.

Regarding the marketing strategy, since you have already defined the target audience in the target market research section of the business plan, you only need to briefly repeat this section to once again help investors develop a comprehensive understanding of your ideal customer and their buying behavior. Next, don’t forget to differentiate your product or service from competitors and effectively manage your marketing plan by describing your unique value proposition. Consider using social media advertising, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, and public relations as tactics to reach your audience and successfully execute a marketing plan.

After your marketing efforts, it’s time to build your business plan and a suitable sales strategy. The basic elements of sales strategies adopted by many startups include sales approach, pricing strategy, sales channels, and sales team structure, which provides a clear path for converting leads into paying customers.

To measure the success of your marketing and sales efforts, track progress, and make data-driven decisions, you should identify key performance indicators (KPIs) such as website traffic, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and revenue generated.

Financial Projections

Running out of cash is one of the primary reasons why many businesses fail. Building a financial plan right from the start will make it easier to manage expenses and manage risks for your software solution. There is no fixed financial plan of the business plan as each startup has different business orientations and goals.

However, one of the most vital aspects of this section is the sales forecast, which details how your company plans to generate revenue, including the sales channels you will use, your pricing strategy, and your projected customer acquisition rate.

The cash flow statement and the balance sheet are also important elements in a basic financial plan. The balance sheet provides a snapshot of the company’s financial health and helps you make informed decisions about your operations and growth strategies. The cash flow statement identifies how much money you expect to have on hand each month, taking into account both revenue and expense forecasts.

Final Thought

As for business plans, there is no single startup business plan template that is a perfect fit for your project since there is no startup like any other in the technology market. Each startup has different characteristics and different product businesses. Some companies set up a business plan to raise capital for a banking product . Meanwhile, there are companies that are working on human resources software.

So, start a business plan from small things. Take note of all your ideas on paper and discuss them in turn with the development team is Orient Software ’s advice.

With years of experience in the field of information technology, Orient is confident of having the ability to advise you on all problematic aspects of the industry. Contact us for more details !

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How to Write A Tech Startup Business Plan

Whether you’re just starting out or have been in business for a while, creating a tech startup business plan is valuable. It will help you clarify your idea, assess its feasibility, and determine what resources you need to make it a reality. Here are some tips on how to write a tech startup business plan to will help you get started.

What is a business plan, and why do you need one for your tech startup?

A business plan is a written document describing in detail how a business will achieve its goals. This document lays out a written plan from a marketing, financial, and operational standpoint. 

Sometimes, business plans are prepared for investors or as a requirement for a small business loan . But even if you don’t need outside funding, preparing a business plan is still a good exercise to ensure your ducks are all in one row. 

If you’re considering starting a tech startup, having a business plan helps you to stay on track. When you have an idea for a new tech product or service, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and overlook the importance of creating a solid foundation for your business. A solid business plan will allow you to take a step back and think critically about your concept. At the same time, you’ll perceive how your concept will be received by the marketplace. 

Furthermore, a good business plan keeps you focused on your goals and helps you track your progress as your tech startup grows. As your business evolves, you can refer back to your original business plan and adjust it accordingly. This document should be living and breathing, just like your tech startup. 

Elements of a good business plan

The contents of your tech startup business plan will vary depending on your company’s specific needs , but certain elements should always be present. Here are the five key elements that every good business plan includes.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is a brief overview of your business plan. It should include your company’s mission statement, a brief description of your products or services, an overview of your target market, a summary of your financial projections , and your goals for the next three to five years. 

Even though the executive summary should be the first section of your business plan document, it would be a good idea to write it last. This is because you’ll find all the important information from the other sections to complete the executive summary.

2. Company Description

The company description section of your business plan should provide an overview of your company’s history, mission statement, and core values. This section should also describe your company’s structure and how it will operate going forward. If you have any patents or proprietary technology, this is the place to mention it. 

3. Market Analysis

The market analysis section of your business plan should research and describe your industry and the specific market segment you’re targeting. This information will be useful in developing your sales and marketing strategy later on in the business plan. Include information about your target customer’s needs, buying habits, and demographics. 

4. Competitive Analysis

In the competitive analysis section of your business plan, you’ll need to identify and research your competitors—both direct and indirect. This portion is where you indicate their strengths and weaknesses relative to yours. Knowing what your competition is up to will help you develop strategies to stay ahead in the marketplace. 

5. Sales and Marketing Plan

Your sales and marketing plan will detail how you plan to reach and sell to your target market segment. This part of the business plan should include information about your pricing strategy, promotional activities, distribution channels, and sales methods. You’ll also need to provide realistic financial projections for sales revenue over the next three to five years. 

Tips for making your business plan stand out from the competition

Business plans are a dime a dozen. You need to go above and beyond the basics to make yours stand out from competitors. Here are a few tips on how to make your business plan shine:

1. Do your research

This may seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many people try to wing it when it comes to their business plan. Before you even start writing, take some time to research the industry, your competition, and your target market. This will give you a solid foundation to work from and will help you make your plan as comprehensive and impressive as possible.

2. Keep it concise

Nobody wants to read a 50-page business plan. Get to the point and be as concise as possible. This doesn’t mean that you should skimp on the details, but rather that you should focus on including only the most important information. The executive summary is a great place to start when it comes to being concise; make sure that you include everything!

3. Make it visually appealing

Remember, first impressions matter. Even if your business plan is top-notch, potential investors or partners will likely gloss over it if it’s boring or difficult to read. Use infographics, charts, and other visuals to break up the text and make your plan more enjoyable (and memorable) to read.

4. Proofread the document many times!

Last but not least, be sure to proofread your business plan before sending it off into the world. Nothing screams “unprofessional” louder than a poorly written document. So, take the time to edit and revise until your plan is error-free. Better yet, have someone else look at it for you. Sometimes, it’s easier for someone else to catch errors we overlook.

Final Thoughts: Writing A Tech Startup Business Plan

You now have a basic understanding of the components that make up a tech startup business plan. This is just a starting point, and your specific business will require more detail. But following these guidelines should give you a good foundation on which to build.

Besides a well-written business plan, you will also need the right team to help execute all the necessary actions to solidify your business strategy. When it comes to the tech talent side, Full Scale is the right match for any tech startup or even scale-up.

Full Scale houses the best and brightest software engineers, developers, and QA testers that you can find. You can forego the tedious process of finding, recruiting, and hiring developers for your tech team. We do all that for you and enjoy watching our client partners achieve great results.

Find out what Full Scale can do for you and your tech company!

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Copyright 2024 © Full Scale

Tech Startup Business Plan Template

What is a Tech Startup Business Plan?

A tech startup business plan outlines a company's strategy and objectives. It serves as a roadmap for how to start and grow a business, and covers all the important aspects of a business including marketing, operations, and finances. The plan also gives details on how to organize the company's resources to achieve the desired results. It also provides information on the goals and strategies for the company, and how to measure the success of the business.

What's included in this Tech Startup Business Plan template?

• 3 focus areas
• 6 objectives

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the Tech Startup Business Plan template for?

This Tech Startup Business Plan template is designed for tech startup founders, investors, and teams who are looking to launch a new tech venture. The template helps you to plan and organize all the important aspects of your business and provides a comprehensive overview of your strategy, goals, and objectives. With this template, you can easily set measurable targets and create actionable projects to reach those targets.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

A focus area refers to the key areas of your business that you want to focus on in order to achieve your goals and objectives. Examples of focus areas could include developing a business model, designing and developing software, or marketing and selling. Each focus area requires its own set of objectives, actions, and measurable targets (KPIs).

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives are specific goals that you want to achieve within each focus area. For example, if your focus area is developing a business model, your objectives could be to establish a sustainable business model, or to implement and refine the model. Objectives should be specific and achievable.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

Measurable targets (KPIs) provide a way to measure whether or not an objective has been achieved. For example, if your objective is to increase customer base, a KPI could be to increase customer feedback. KPIs should be quantifiable and measurable in order to track progress and measure success.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects (actions) are the steps you need to take in order to achieve a KPI. For example, if your KPI is to increase customer base, an action could be to execute the business model. Projects should be concrete and achievable, and should be designed to help you reach your KPIs.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

The Cascade Strategy Execution Platform is a powerful tool to help you quickly and easily track your progress and measure your success. With Cascade, you can easily set measurable targets, create actionable projects, and track your progress. With Cascade, you can ensure that you reach your goals faster and with greater efficiency.

How to Write a Software Startup Business Plan in 2024 [With Templates]

Updated 28 Aug 2023

16359 Views

Business analyst

Every company is rooted in a unique business concept. However, having ideas isn’t enough for a company's prosperity and success. Many startups fail due to faulty training in their first year. An IT startup business plan is the first thing that can be corrected by organizing your thoughts and even finding the right people to work with, turning your idea into a prosperous project.

We'll cover how to write a startup business plan, thoroughly covering each part, give some advice, section templates, and more.

Why Does Your Startup Need a Business Plan

Before we go into precise statistics and data, let’s have a closer look at the notion of a business plan. It will assist you in better navigating the subject. The tech startup business plan is a document that summarizes strategies and ideas for the new company launch, support, and even an exit.

Now, we’ll look at stats to understand why a business plan is required. Startups fall due to a bunch of reasons: among the most widespread ones, CBInsights mentions running out of funds (for 38% of startups), absence of market need (for 35%), etc. A business plan can raise startup success chances.

Such a document serves companies for different purposes. The most common of them are:

• Attracting investments
• Building a development strategy
• Predicting your upcoming financial expenses and needs

How can the IT startup business plan assist business owners in implementing these purposes into life? It’s possible due to the following benefits such a document brings:

A technology business plan benefits

Remember that to gain these benefits, you must adhere to a specific structure when drafting your startup business plan. It must contain the following parts:

• Executive summary
• Company description
• Marketing plan
• Financial projections
• Team structure

“How to write a startup business plan” is a common question, and many entrepreneurs are looking for an answer. We’ll discuss it in detail, looking closely at each section.

Executive Summary of Technology Company Business Plan

This section serves as an introduction to the entire document. A well-written executive summary grabs readers' attention and instantly illustrates what your technology business plan is all about.

It typically includes the following parts:

Business overview

Introduce your startup to readers, tell them about your plans and offers. This section should be short - about 1-3 sentences.

Target market

Define the target market for your startup company. To make the section more useful and demonstrate your future startup value, provide a detailed market overview and client issues you would solve with your product.

Competition

Portray your possible competitors as well as the attributes that will set your company apart. Describe how you will compete in pricing, quality, or service structure in this part of the executive summary in your software startup business plan.

Emphasize your company's goals and particular milestones, illustrating the said with charts (including profit, sales, and ROI) for greater clarity of prospective investors. Think about financial estimates for different periods.

Briefly describe your team composition or tell about the lack of particular specialists and your possible ways to find them. Portray the existing staff members along with their experience, and don’t forget to mention software development partnership .

The final section tells potential investors how much money you'll need to bring your idea to life. Tell this aspect to stakeholders beforehand, including the appropriate data to the executive summary.

Sometimes even the perfect technology company business plan is not enough for the stakeholders to pay attention to your project. They’ve reviewed piles of such documents, so one more, looking like the previous, may not interest them a lot. But you can change the situation by preparing a presentation of your business plan, where you can mark the vital concepts you’d like to share (e.g., company overview, problems you’d like to solve, startup team composition, etc.).

6 Tips to Create an A+ Executive Summary

We've compiled a list of recommendations to help you create an excellent executive summary of the whole technology startup business plan.

Tip #1. Write it last

Executive summaries should be written last as they summarize the entire business plan. That's why you should complete your research for all areas of your startup business plan and then write the executive summary.

Tip #2. Capture readers’ attention

An executive summary's main objective is to emphasize critical information about the tech company business plan. But, it's vital not to overload the summary with unnecessary details regarding the concept. It should grab people's interest and make them want to learn more.

Tip #3. Keep it structured

A well-defined structure of summary will convey your ideas. Consider including an introduction, main body, and conclusion that are short but informative. The important takeaways from your tech business plan would be provided by this structure.

Tip #4. Mention exit strategy

An exit strategy is an essential part for stakeholders. It can be an acquisition by another company after running technical due diligence , share selling, or employee buyout.

Tip #5. Use facts

Your primary goal is to persuade people to invest in your company. If your startup's goals, experience, and market perspectives are based on facts, they will have more impact. For instance, you may give information about market valuation and your expected market share.

Tip #6. Avoid cliches

There are a few hazards to avoid if you want your executive summary to succeed. For example, don’t mention the team’s passion and enthusiasm. Investors already know it. They’ve seen hundreds of passionate startups before. Instead, provide decision-makers with facts and let them say that for you.

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Company Description

The company description section of a technical business plan exposes its history, aims, team structure, etc. However, it is frequently the shortest part of the business plan.

Company history

This part is based on your company's current stage. If you're an established organization looking for money for a new project, it's a good idea to provide investors with some company background. In case you are a startup business without a rich history, you may tell who is behind the company and how the founders came up with the idea.

Give a brief description of your company's location, including a physical address, or inform investors about your prospective location coordinates. Whether you'll buy or rent an office, as well as how long you'll be using it as a company location. If you have a home office, also indicate this aspect.

Type of business

This section provides information about your industry. It should be brief but not excessively so. Don't write something like, "We're going to sell things." Indicate your domain: travel, healthcare industry, etc. Finish this section off with a domain description.

Management and employees

This is a chance for investors to get acquainted with your team. Mention all staff members and management personnel, defining their duties, abilities, experience, and accomplishments. Also, don't forget to include information about yourself as an opening. Describe any gaps in the team (if you have ones) and explain how you plan to fill them.

Legal structure and ownership

This data is critical for investors because taxation varies based on the legal structure. Specify if you're an LLC, a C-Corp, an S-Corp, a Sole proprietor, or in a partnership. Specify who runs the enterprise and what technical co-founder equity they have.

Company’s mission and principles

Write this part in a creative manner. Come up with one or two lines that precisely define the aims and ideals of your business.

Critical parts of Company description

You can also include the following parts in this section of a tech business plan:

Business scaling strategies

Scaling a business equates to laying the groundwork for your company's future development. So, writing this section of the business plan for technology company, think about appropriate systems, personnel, procedures, technology, or funding — everything you need to scale.

Business opportunities

Prospective investors want to understand why your company’s considered to be profitable. Tell them about your business opportunities, offering information about factors of your future success, specialists you’ve consulted about your business, and their thoughts about it, reasons for selling the certain articles/services, and profit they may bring, etc.

Marketing Plan

It outlines the company's competitive advantage as well as its marketing objectives. This part of the business plan for startup also aids in the particular domain identification and the development of a viable business strategy.

Moreover, you can define and put down such important data as a qualitative concept description and strategies for attracting clients to show stakeholders how to differentiate your startup activity from your competitors’ and ways you may engage the users to cooperate.

This part of the business plan for a tech startup is typically divided into three sections:

Marketing plan components in a nutshell

Target Audience Analysis

Customers are vital to every company. So, you must determine to whom you will offer your services. Begin with easy tasks and work your way up to more complicated ones.

Let's say your firm is an online car parts store that you want to open on the West Coast of the USA. Your potential core audience may look like this after brainstorming:

• Gender (Males)
• Age (16 - 60)
• Location (Los Angeles, CA)
• Education (Secondary)
• Income ($60,000 - $75,000)
• Ethnicity (drivers, service stations workers)

After determining general characteristics, it is time to dive deeper into the analysis. It can be done in a variety of ways in every sample business plan for tech startup.

Conduct surveys

According to your audience assumptions, you may collect focus groups and conduct surveys. It is possible to complete them both online and personally for technology business plans. Surveys can help you learn more about your consumers to provide better service.

Analyze competitor’s audience

Competitors already meet consumers’ needs, and your task is to identify their audience and understand what makes them use their product or service.

Examine your rivals' marketing channels to see how they do it. Visit their websites, follow them on social media, and sign up for their newsletter. These procedures will assist you in identifying the pain areas of your clients.

Create a buyer persona

The final stage in the target audience study is to create a buyer persona based on the research findings from prior steps of every tech business plan example. Let's take a closer look at it.

A buyer persona is an ideal consumer description, including how they use their leisure time, the obstacles they face, and their decisions. Such a description may be created using various methods. For example, HubSpot's Make My Persona product works perfectly for it.

Learn more about how to define target audience in our article!

Competitor Analysis

Competitor research is critical to the company's success. It allows you to have a deeper understanding of your target market, as well as identify competitors, their tactics, and offerings, among other things.

You should follow three phases while conducting a competitive analysis for a business plan for tech startup.

Step #1. Find competitors

Start by searching for basic requests in Google. Make a list of your rivals in the same business as you and have similar ideas. After that, do some in-depth research, analyzing their social media posts, news reports, or consumer reviews.

Step #2. Examine them

It’s time to dig deeper. But keep in mind that you may need special tools like Ahrefs or SimilarWeb. Carefully examine the following criteria essential for every tech business plan sample:

Pricing. Analyze the charges for their services. It will assist you in determining the pricing boundaries for your goods. However, bear in mind that you are not obligated to value your product lower than your competitors in order to win the competition.

Organic traffic. Determine how many visits they receive due to a Google search. These metrics will display the popularity of your competitors. To handle them, you can use tools like Ahrefs, SimilarWeb, and Alexa.

Social media mentions. It's another way to look into your opponents' activities and see what consumers say about them. With tools like Followerwonk, Social Searcher, and Sprout Social, you can monitor engagement rates, keywords chosen, or social shares and mark them in your business plan.

Time on the market. You must determine the time on the market to see if you will compete with a major company or a start-up. The WHOis.net service may be used to examine the domain name registration date, server stats, and contact information.

Step #3. Categorize them

Even having learnt everything about your competition, you still need to watch your rivals and follow their movements. The next step would be to split competitors into three categories based on their “danger level”:

Primary competitors

These are the main ones oriented to the same core audience as you.

Secondary competitors

They can provide high or low-level versions of your services to a different target audience than yours.

Tertiary competitors

They are indirectly related to your company.

SWOT Analysis

It’s the final step of the section in every tech startup business plan example.

SWOT is an abbreviation of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats:

• Strengths contain your strengths, killing features, and those able to help stand out from the competition.
• Weaknesses mean your weak sides and flaws that may slow you down in a competitive race.
• Opportunities are the levers that’ll help you in business development.
• Threats are external threats that may impact your startup yet don’t depend on your decisions.

The SWOT matrix is a tool used by businesses to compile all their data into one page. To simplify this process, we recommend using the below technology business plan template (namely, one for SWOT analysis).

SWOT analysis template

Financial Plan

A financial plan is a projection of future income and costs for your business. It's an important aspect of strategic planning that can turn vague objectives into concrete milestones.

Complete the following parts in your business plan tech startup example or create them yourself:

Balance sheet

This part illustrates your present financial situation. A balance sheet is a wonderful method to forecast your future financial condition and design your growth objectives if you're searching for finances.

Expense projections

You must plan your future expenses classified into fixed and recurring costs to make your concept clearer to stakeholders. In general, estimate how much money will be spent on your idea implementation and how frequent these expenses would be.

Income projections

This part of the business plan tech startup needs summarizes the project's future earnings and sales. To begin with, you must predict your product's sales. After that, forecast the possible revenue for your startup using the sales projection.

Cash flow projections

The cash flow estimates are the last element of the financial plan. In a nutshell, it's a summary of all the money going in and out of the company. It shows your company's financial health at all stages of development, including the company's income and expenses. Depending on it, the remaining cash balance is calculated for a given time.

Monetization strategies

A company establishment and a beginning of the product development flow are only half of the way to market launch, impossible without a proper monetization strategy — a method of future profit gaining. For example, if your upcoming product is a fitness mobile application, you can implement advertisements, in-app purchases, freemium strategy, and others.

For successfully hitting your aims, you should know your destination, as well as the tools and methods you need to achieve established objectives. All this information can be included in your sales plan.

Though it’s considered to be a separate document looking like the business plan, the essential difference is that the business plan contains your objectives, and the sales plan mentions how to achieve them.

You can also include a sales plan as a section in a startup business plan, containing your situation assessment, financial forecasting, resources, revenue targets, etc. Document templates (for example, one from 150 Startups below) will help you understand which direction to choose.

Financial plan section

Tips to Make a Financial Plan

Preparing a financial strategy for a starting firm might be difficult, but it is essential for any business plan. To make the process easier, we've compiled four helpful hints answering how to write a business plan for a tech startup, namely this section.

Keep your financial plan in line with the business plan

The statistics in your financial predictions should back up all of your verbal goals outlined in earlier parts. For example, if you want to launch your product in the third quarter of 2022, you'll need to budget for marketing, shipping, and other expenses during that time.

Your financial assumptions must be clear

Even if the precision in figures of a financial plan is critical, most investors care about your projections comprehension. Demonstrate your understanding to them, providing enough material to back up your financial assumptions: annual financial statements, market/competitor analysis data, etc.

Be optimistic yet realistic

Even a significant financial plan requires a healthy dose of optimism. But don't go too far with it, or you'll come out as a dreamer to the investors. It's critical to balance the accuracy of the facts and the need to show a financially viable project to stakeholders.

Use templates

Many business owners have no clue where to start when creating a financial strategy or how to present it. If so, use pre-made templates with all of the essential sheets and columns.

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Team Structure

This is the final section of the business plan, informing investors about your startup's organizational structure. It may contain the following parts:

Management Team

Team composition is essential for a proper startup functioning, as well as for its future growth. If you’re going to launch a software development company, at the beginning of the startup’s existence, your project team formed may include:

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) — an expert responsible for company management, supervising, human resources running, communication with CTO, etc.
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO) — a team member competent in development and technology areas, UI/UX design, back-end, or QA team supervising
• Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) — a specialist responsible for the clients’ perception of your service or product offered
• Chief Sales Officer (CSO) — an expert running all activities connected with business development

The software development team composition should contain the following specialists as UI/UX designers, front-end and back-end developers, QA engineers, and others essential for the product’s appropriate development.

How to build a software development team — revealed! Check our recent guide to know more!

So, list and briefly characterize each key management person in your business. Try to tie their expertise to your company's current responsibilities, using the business plan template tech startup requires, or write this part on your own.

For instance, if your VP of Sales has previously worked for an organization that increased sales from $5 million to $10 million, it would be a wonderful addition to demonstrate their knowledge and value on the team. You'll also demonstrate to investors that you've assembled a strong team they can trust with their funds.

Management Team Gaps

This is common when a company lacks some management team members while developing a business plan. If it's your case, you should make a list of any absent personnel and the particular skills for future candidates, such as experience in the needed sector, duties, etc.

For example, if you want to find a CTO for a startup , you can say that the perfect candidate must have 10+ years of experience, top-class knowledge of modern technologies, and extensive skills to effectively manage the team and develop the product.

Board Members

The Board of Directors is a hired group of individuals that assist you in running your business properly. Even if a Board of Directors is uncommon for startups, you may spot one in the team structure and care about these gaps to be filled.

Supplementary Sections For Your Business Plan

If you need to provide stakeholders and other readers of your business plan with additional information about your startup company, you may give it in a supplementary appendix section to your business plan example tech startup needs (or one created by yourself). It isn’t essential; however, your possible investors may need some more data about you and your business (a credit history, for instance).

So, the appendix should be prepared beforehand to save time in the future. You can include in it:

• Charts, tables, and other illustrations absent in the central parts
• Trademark/patent documentation
• Market researches in details
• Credit history
• Supportive papers (contracts, agreements, etc.)

You may also add here:

A production plan: it is your helper during production activity setting tasks that should be completed for aims achievement, every employee function in such a completion, and so on.

An operations plan: it may identify your startup’s primary business needs, such as equipment, requirements to inventory, office building, or location.

Preparing an appendix, care about its simplicity in reading and comfort in use. If it’s too long or contains too many documents to read, make a supplementary table of contents for more straightforward navigation of your plan readers. Disclosing confidential data, please monitor users having access to it and remind them about the necessity of maintaining confidentiality.

On top of that, the readers can skip the supplementary section as it’s the last part of your business plan; your prepared plan should be understandable and self-reliant. Otherwise, it will need reworking.

The Famous Startups Succeeded Due to Planning

A way to success and prosperity isn’t a bed of roses. World-famous companies began their way from startups one day, thoroughly planning every step on the road to fame. For you to inspire, we’ve prepared a shortlist of such startups’ success stories.

Samples of startups successful due to accurate planning

In the beginning, Pinterest was an invitation-only service. To go further on their development path, the company planned every business step, thinking about a proper UX for their product: Ben Silbermann even gave users his personal phone number to contact him about the site at any time of day or night. This perseverance paid off. Now Pinterest is a unique platform with $633 million revenue.

Canva is one of the leading graphic design platforms designers love to use for everything. This successful Australian business has raised over $US 1 billion of revenue. Due to proper scheduling policy and belief in workforce empowering, Canva CEO Melanie Perkins could make her company successful, having an audience of more than 10 million customers.

The well-known messenger allowing people to communicate worldwide was invented in a gym. When Jan Koum and his co-founder Brian Acton were annoyed with missing calls while at the gym, they created WhatsApp, which allows users to update their "status" to indicate when they are ready to accept calls. They only wanted to make a good product for customers, which approximately turned into more than $5.5 billion of revenue.

Netflix, which started its way as a rent-by-mail DVD service that required users to pay for each rental, is now worth more than $30 billion. It's a brilliant illustration of how pivoting a business model can significantly affect a company's direction. Netflix was able to further establish itself as the go-to media company by pivoting from DVD by mail to developing award-winning programming and gaining revenue of more than $US 7.5 billion .

Creating Your Own Business Plan

Strict planning of business steps was one of the essential things all the above companies had in common to grow and become more successful. We can personally propose a tech startup business plan template from Shopify that most nearly meets the points discussed above.

Shopify tech company business plan template

But remember that such a document will properly work if its critical blocks are created with the help of qualified experts. Cleveroad, a skilled IT consulting company and software solution provider from Ukraine, Eastern Europe, is ready to help you with initial project development phases and further ones. Since 2011, we've been assisting startups and organizations of all kinds in acquiring cutting-edge technologies.

During the collaboration with us, you’ll obtain a wide range of services, containing (but not limited to):

• Proven in-depth software development experience in a variety of sectors
• Working with high-qualified, certified, and agile-oriented Business Analysts, Solution Architects, and other tech specialists able to help you solve business issues
• Consultations from our Business Analysts and tech experts about your project
• Initial project estimates from our Sales Managers for free, with no hidden costs
• Honesty with our clients and partners as a critical component of developing outstanding products

You can also apply to us if you have problems with business plan creation. We’ll help you solve them quickly and efficiently build a software product for your business.

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Wrapping Up

Developing an information technology startup business plan is a complicated and time-consuming process that practically every company should undertake. You can adapt pre-made templates, but no one-size-fits-all template will work for every company. That’s why you may make your job easier, applying to specialists competent in software development.

A business plan can help you organize your thoughts, ideas, and even find the right people to work with. Even though making a business plan (or completing a technology startup business plan example) is a long and complex process, almost every startup should go through it.

Your startup business must have these sections:

• Executive summary. This section sums up the entire business plan and works as an introduction.
• Company description. This part reveals history, goals, team structure, and other details about your company.
• Marketing plan. A marketing plan is a representation of the startup’s competitive advantage and marketing goals.
• Financial projections. In plain language, it’s a forecast of the future revenue and expenses of your startup.
• Team structure. This section serves to familiarize investors with the hierarchy of your startup team.
• Step 1. First of all find a flexible template to jot down your business plan.
• Step 2. Write company description.
• Step 3. Define your goals, make a market research and jot down it's results in marketing plan.
• Step 4. Write financial plan.
• Step 5. Write your management team structure.
• Step 6. Sum previous section in executive summary.

Evgeniy Altynpara is a CTO and member of the Forbes Councils’ community of tech professionals. He is an expert in software development and technological entrepreneurship and has 10+years of experience in digital transformation consulting in Healthcare, FinTech, Supply Chain and Logistics

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Thanks for the article! I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been stuck in this business plan stage. It's hard for newcomers to gather all their thoughts in one plan. But you've explained it perfectly!

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Nice piece of information. You've nailed its explanation. Besides, these templates that you've attached are really great. I think that they will suit perfectly for new startups.

Oct 05, 2023

Sep 29, 2023

Aug 31, 2023

How to Write a Tech Startup Business Plan to Win Investors

You have a great business idea. Now you’re doing the hard part: raising capital.

With a failure rate of 63% in the tech startup industry, you need to have a highly compelling business idea and go-to-market strategy to win over investors.

We’re going to make writing a startup business plan really simple by providing you with a step-by-step guide along with a business plan template you can use to build startup business plan that wins investors.

What is a tech startup business plan?

Why do you need a technology startup business plan.

• 1. Executive summary
• 2. Market opportunity
• 3. Product or service overview
• 4. Marketing and sales strategy
• 5. Team and management structure
• 6. Key milestones
• 7. Financial plan

Sample tech startup business plan [template]

A technology startup business plan is a document that is used to outline the goals, strategies, and objectives of a new tech startup business. This document is often used to secure funding from investors and to help the business leaders form a unified sense of identity and purpose.

The business plan should include information on the products or services offered by the startup, the market opportunity, the business model, the team, the financial projections, and the risks and challenges associated with the business. A tech startup’s business plan should generally address three major areas of the business:

As a startup moves through various stages of growth, the business plan should be updated with new information and forward-looking goals. In this way it can serve as a “source of truth” for all of the startup’s stakeholders.

A business plan is an essential tool for any tech startup. It provides a road map for your business, helping you to define and communicate the company’s vision, goals, and strategies. Having a singular document that acts as a single source of truth for the business will help to keep the startup’s core leadership team unified and provides guidance on how to navigate the often-complex world of starting and growing a business.

You can utilize your startup business plan to secure funding and partnerships. A well-crafted business plan can also help you attract and retain top talent.

In summary, you need a technology startup business plan to:

• Unify the startup’s leadership team
• Secure funding and partnerships
• Attract top talent
• Act as a guide for navigating starting a business

This article will act as a guide for writing a business plan for tech startup founders.

7 key components of tech startup business plan

You know you need a business plan for your tech startup. You know generally what should be included. But, now you need to actually get to writing. We’re going to try to make this as easy as possible by outlining the 7 key components your technology startup business plan should have.

If you’re looking for a real shortcut, make sure you download our easy tech startup business plan template. Included in it you’ll find a sample business plan and an outline of what we’ll cover below.

Stick with me if you’re looking for a more detailed explanation of each of the 7 components.

• Executive summary

First up is an executive summary. This brief section should provide some context to readers as they begin to read your business plan. It’s your opportunity to share, at a high level, your business idea.

At a minimum, this section should outline what your business is, the general market you target or industry you are in, and what your products or services are. Optionally, you can include some information about your business’s history, bios of key members of your leadership team, competitive advantages, key customer benefits, and your company’s goals. How detailed you get with this section is up to you. Use this as an opportunity to provide an overview before you get into more detail in the other sections of your business plan.

• Market opportunity

This is where you will start to go into more detail about your business. Starting with the market opportunity allows you to paint the picture of the why _behind your tech startup before you go into the _what . Ultimately, you can only sell the feasibility of your business by backing it up data on who your potential customers will be. This section will help to inform the marketing strategy and sales plan later in the startup business plan document.

Take the time in this section to walk through the research you have done on your audience. To start, you should have data points on the following:

• Demographic data for your target market (age, gender, income, occupation, location)
• Main pain points of your target market
• Values and interests of your target market
• Needs and wants of your target market

It can also be compelling to provide some information on how your products or services will stand out from the competition. Consider answering the following questions in this section:

• Who are your main competitors?
• How will your products or services meet the market’s needs better than the competitors?
• Will your products or services be able to reach a currently unreached audience?
• How will you differentiate yourself from the competition within your target market?

All of this data should back up what the real market opportunity is for your business. Make sure this market opportunity is realistic and achievable. This should lead well into our next section which will cover in more detail the products or services your tech startup will offer to the market.

• Product or service overview

After you have outlined the market opportunity your business will take advantage of, it’s time to provide more details on the exact products or services that you will offer to your market.

Each product or service you include in this section should have a corresponding functional and technical description. The functional description should aim to outline to a layperson what the product or service is, what it does, and how it will be used. The technical description should outline the technologies each product or service utilizes or what technology has been developed specifically for the new business. It’s appropriate to go into detail here to give potential investors more confidence in your product or service.

It’s also important to include information on how the products or services will ultimately benefit customers and what problem they will solve for customers. If you have more than one product or service, make sure to outline this information for each one.

• Marketing and sales strategy

The marketing and sales strategy section of a technology startup business plan should include a description of the target market, the company's marketing and sales objectives, the strategies and tactics that will be used to reach these objectives, the key marketing and sales metrics that will be used to measure progress, and the budget for marketing and sales activities. In short, it should outline your business’s marketing and sales plan.

Starting with the objectives, you should outline specifically what you are trying to achieve with your marketing and sales efforts both in the short term (likely for launch) and long term. Each of your objectives should align with your overarching business goals and make sense for the market you outlined earlier in your business plan. Be realistic here. It’s better to estimate low and over deliver than to overestimate your success.

As you outline the strategies and tactics you will use to achieve your objectives, consider both the what _and the who_:

• (What) What tactics will you employ to achieve your goals?
• (What) What marketing tools do you need to achieve your goals?
• (What) What marketing channels will you use?
• (Who) Will the marketing work be done internally?
• (Who) Will you hire freelancers or a CMO to help implement the work at hand?
• (Who) Will you need a sales team right away?
• (Who) How will marketing and sales work together to achieve your goals?

Your marketing and sales strategy should be backed up by the market opportunity information you provided earlier. The strategies and tactics should be aiming to reach your target market.

Next, outline the metrics that will be used to measure marketing and sales progress. You should include specifically when these metrics will be measured and who will be held accountable for them.

Finally, include a marketing and sales budget in this section. The budget should be broken down by channel and tactic, so that dollars can be accurately tracked and attributed to results.

• Team and management structure

Up next is the team and management structure part of the business plan. To start, provide an overview of the startup’s organizational and management structure. Providing a graphical representation of the reporting structure can be helpful.

This can then lead into an overview of who owns or manages each of the key sectors of the business (CEO, CTO, CMO, etc.). It’s a good practice to provide a bio of each of the members of the leadership team, including their education, work history, and relevant expertise. Along with their bio, provide a description of their role and responsibilities within the organization.

After you have covered the leadership team, outline the other team members along with their roles and responsibilities. Following this, include some commentary on the team’s strengths and weaknesses as well as what gaps remain within the organization. If additional staffing is required, provide a hiring plan that includes a description of the role, salary, and strategy for recruitment.

End this section with an overview of the organization’s values. Paint a picture of what it’s really like to work for your company and how you build a sense of ownership and responsibility within the team. Highlight how you intend for the team to work together to accomplish the company’s goals.

• Key milestones

At this point in the business plan you have outlined the target market, products and services you will offer as well as the members of your team that will bring the company’s vision to life. In this section you’ll provide a timeline of the past and future milestones for your business. This will help to illustrate your startup’s growth path and how you intend to move forward.

Some key milestones to consider when writing this section:

• When business was founded.
• When the business was/will be launched publicly.
• When the business was/will be profitable.
• When the business reached/will reach funding milestones.
• When development project milestones were/will be reached.
• When marketing milestones were/will be reached.
• When key staff were/will be hired.
• Future product release dates.

You might consider showcasing this information in the form of a graphic like this:

In addition to a company timeline, we recommend you include additional data in this section such as:

• Current number of employees and the number of employees projected in the future.
• The amount of revenue generated in the past and projected for the future
• Key clients or contracts that have been signed or that are in the works.

This section should clearly demonstrate your startup’s ability to grow from an idea into a business. Providing concrete dates and real data in this section will provide some validity to your startup and showcase what you’re able to accomplish.

• Financial plan

The final section of your technology startup business plan should be a financial plan. This is the section of the business plan that outlines how the business has been funded to date and how it will be financed moving forward.

There is no one way to write the financial plan section of a business plan, as the amount and type of information that needs to be included will vary depending on the business and the specific financial goals of the plan.

However, there are some basic elements that should be included in most financial plans. These include a pro forma income statement, balance sheet, sales forecast, and cash flow statement. The pro forma financial statements should be based on historical financial data, if available, and should include assumptions about future revenue and expenses. The financial plan should also include a discussion of the company's capital structure, including its debt and equity financing.

If you’re at a very early stage with your startup and seeking a modest amount of funding, it’s probably sufficient to air on the side of brevity. If you’re seeking series A, B, or C funding, you’ll likely need a very comprehensive financial summary along with a detailed plan on how the funding will be utilized to grow the business. Seek counsel from a business accountant if you’re unsure of how to provide adequate financial documentation.

We have walked through the 7 key elements of any tech startup business plan. Now we’re going to share a sample business plan template to help you get started with writing your own!

Innovation is critical to success in the software industry. The executive team of this startup believes they have the next big thing. They have developed a new software application that helps businesses manage their social media accounts more effectively. The software provides insights on when to post, what to post, and how to engage with customers. The software also allows businesses to track their social media analytics and see the return on investment for their social media campaigns.

The executive team has extensive experience in the software industry and believes this new product has the potential to be a game-changer for businesses. The team is seeking $1 million in seed funding to help with product development, marketing, and sales. The company plans to generate revenue through monthly subscription fees and by selling data analytics services to businesses.

The social media management software market is expected to grow from $9.3 billion in 2020 to $17.4 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.2%. This growth is being driven by the increasing use of social media by businesses of all sizes and the need to effectively manage social media accounts to drive brand awareness and customer engagement.

The software application developed by the startup helps businesses manage their social media accounts more effectively. The software provides insights on when to post, what to post, and how to engage with customers. The software also allows businesses to track their social media analytics and see the return on investment for their social media campaigns.

The software is available on a monthly subscription basis and businesses can also purchase data analytics services to help them further understand their social media campaigns.

The company plans to generate awareness for the software through online and offline marketing campaigns. The team will target small businesses and medium businesses that are active on social media but do not have the resources to effectively manage their accounts.

The company will use a mix of paid and organic marketing to reach its target audience. For paid marketing, the company will use Google AdWords and Facebook Ads. For organic marketing, the company will use content marketing and social media outreach.

The company plans to sell the software on a monthly subscription basis. The team will offer a free trial to businesses to get them started with the software. Once the free trial expires, businesses will be charged a monthly subscription fee.

The executive team of the startup consists of experienced software professionals. The team has a proven track record of developing and marketing successful software products.

The company plans to hire a sales and marketing team to help generate awareness and drive sales of the software. The team will be based in the United States and will consist of sales and marketing professionals with experience in the software industry.

The company plans to achieve the following milestones over the next 12 months:

• Launch the software application
• Generate 500 paying customers
• Achieve $1 million in annual revenue

The company is seeking $1 million in seed funding to help with product development, marketing, and sales. The company plans to generate revenue through monthly subscription fees and by selling data analytics services to businesses.

The company projects the following financials for the next 12 months:

• Revenue: $1 million
• Expenses: $500,000
• Profit: $500,000

As a startup founder you know that having a software startup business plan on hand is critical to win over investors and get your business funded. However, no one wants to spend days writing a complicated it startup business plan. It’s much more important to focus on the day-to-day operation associated with building your tech startup.

To help save you time (but still create a winning startup business plan), we’ve outlined the 7 key components of any tech startup business plan:

As you tackle writing your own, make sure you refer back to this guide along with our template to ensure you’re writing a compelling business plan that is sure to win over investors!

Business Plan Template for Technology

• Ready-to-use, fully customizable Subcategory
• Get started in seconds

Starting a technology startup can be an exhilarating journey filled with endless possibilities. But without a solid business plan, those possibilities can quickly become overwhelming. That's where ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Technology comes in to save the day!

This template is specifically designed for tech startups, helping you outline your vision, set clear objectives, analyze your target market, assess the competition, project your finances, and strategize your funding approach. With this template, you'll have all the tools you need to effectively communicate your business model and secure the investments you need to thrive.

So, why wait? Get started on your tech startup journey with ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Technology today!

Business Plan Template for Technology Benefits

• Streamline the process of creating a comprehensive business plan, saving time and effort
• Clearly define your startup's vision, objectives, and target market, ensuring alignment within the team
• Conduct a thorough competitive analysis to understand your market position and identify opportunities
• Develop accurate financial projections to demonstrate the potential profitability and growth of your startup
• Present a well-structured plan to potential investors, increasing your chances of securing funding
• Continuously update and refine your business plan as your startup evolves and new opportunities arise

Main Elements of Technology Business Plan Template

ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Technology provides all the essential elements to help startup companies in the technology industry effectively communicate their business model and secure investments:

• Custom Statuses: Track the progress of different sections of your business plan with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do.
• Custom Fields: Use custom fields like Reference, Approved, and Section to add important details and categorize different parts of your business plan.
• Custom Views: Access different views like Topics, Status, Timeline, Business Plan, and Getting Started Guide to organize and visualize your business plan from different angles.
• Collaboration Tools: Utilize ClickUp's collaboration features such as comments, notifications, and task assignments to work together with your team members and stakeholders.
• Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with other tools like Google Drive, Microsoft Office, and more to easily import and export your business plan documents.

How To Use Business Plan Template for Technology

If you're starting a technology business and need a solid business plan, ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Technology can help guide you through the process. Follow these 6 steps to create a comprehensive and effective business plan:

1. Executive Summary

Start by writing an executive summary that provides an overview of your technology business. Include key information such as your company mission, target market, unique selling proposition, and financial goals. This section should be concise and capture the attention of potential investors or partners.

Use the Docs feature in ClickUp to create a professional and well-structured executive summary.

2. Market Analysis

Conduct a thorough analysis of the market for your technology product or service. Identify your target audience, competitors, and industry trends. Evaluate market size, growth potential, and any barriers to entry. This information will help you understand your competitive advantage and position your business for success.

Use the Table view in ClickUp to organize and analyze market research data, including market size, competitor analysis, and industry trends.

3. Product or Service Description

Provide a detailed description of your technology product or service. Explain how it works, its features and benefits, and how it solves a problem for your target audience. Highlight any unique selling points or proprietary technology that sets your offering apart from competitors.

Use custom fields in ClickUp to outline key product or service details, such as features, benefits, and competitive advantages.

4. Marketing and Sales Strategy

Outline your marketing and sales strategy for reaching and acquiring customers. Identify your target audience and develop a plan for reaching them through various marketing channels, such as social media, content marketing, or partnerships. Detail your pricing strategy, sales process, and distribution channels.

Use the Gantt chart view in ClickUp to create a timeline for your marketing and sales activities, ensuring that tasks are assigned and deadlines are met.

5. Financial Projections

Create financial projections that demonstrate the potential profitability and sustainability of your technology business. Include a sales forecast, expense budget, and cash flow statement. Evaluate your break-even point and projected return on investment. This section should provide a clear picture of your financial viability.

Use the Goals feature in ClickUp to set financial targets and track your progress towards meeting them.

6. Implementation Plan

Develop an implementation plan that outlines the steps and milestones necessary to launch and grow your technology business. This should include a timeline, resource allocation, and responsibilities for each task. Consider any potential risks or challenges and develop contingency plans.

Use the Dashboards feature in ClickUp to monitor the progress of your implementation plan and track key milestones.

By following these 6 steps and using ClickUp's Business Plan Template for Technology, you can create a comprehensive and compelling business plan that will impress potential investors and guide your technology business towards success.

Get Started with ClickUp’s Business Plan Template for Technology

Startup companies in the technology industry can use the ClickUp Business Plan Template for Technology to effectively communicate their business model and secure investments.

First, hit “Add Template” to sign up for ClickUp and add the template to your Workspace. Make sure you designate which Space or location in your Workspace you’d like this template applied.

Next, invite relevant members or guests to your Workspace to start collaborating.

Now you can take advantage of the full potential of this template to create a comprehensive business plan:

• Use the Topics View to organize your business plan into different sections, such as vision, objectives, target market, competitive analysis, financial projections, and strategies for obtaining funding
• The Status View will help you track the progress of each section, with statuses like Complete, In Progress, Needs Revision, and To Do
• The Timeline View will give you a visual representation of your business plan's timeline, allowing you to set deadlines and milestones
• The Business Plan View will provide a holistic overview of your entire business plan, allowing you to see how all the sections fit together
• The Getting Started Guide View will provide step-by-step instructions on how to use the template and create a successful business plan
• Utilize the custom fields, such as Reference, Approved, and Section, to add additional information and categorize your business plan
• Collaborate with team members to brainstorm ideas, gather data, and refine your business plan
• Regularly review and update your business plan to ensure it remains relevant and aligned with your company's goals
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Writing a Business Plan for a Technology Startup and the Benefits for Your Company

• 13064 views
• Jul 17, 2020

Business Analyst

Anastasiia S.

• Tech Navigator

Have a business idea but don’t know where to start? Consider creating a business plan first! An extensive and informative business plan allows you to understand your goals, opportunities, and threats, assess the market situation, and get a lot of insights to successfully launch your startup. Moreover, it can help you interest your investors.

Read our article to find out what a business plan is, what its benefits are, and how to create one. Let’s start with a definition.

What’s a business plan?

A business plan presents a detailed vision of your business idea. This document usually consists of 30 to 35 pages and several sections that cover vital topics for your business development such as goals, management, marketing, and funding.

A business plan is usually created before setting up a new business. It projects up to five years into the future to ensure you know where you’re headed at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey. It’s advisable to revise this plan every month or two to check whether you’re sticking to your goals.

Benefits of creating a business plan

Although creating a business plan requires a lot of time and research, it’s sensible to make one before launching your startup. A business plan helps you realistically assess your opportunities and provides more benefits that we’ll describe below.

Detect weaknesses in your startup idea

When preparing a business plan, you should carry out a SWOT analysis to understand your chances of success.

To perform a SWOT analysis, you need to determine your business’s s trengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat s. Take into account that strengths and weaknesses are internal characteristics of your company that you can control, while opportunities and threats are external factors out of your control.

Once you’ve completed SWOT analysis, pay close attention to your weaknesses. By being aware of your soft spots, you can transform them into workable solutions to make your business successful.

• Set goals and milestones

Setting goals is one of the core ideas behind creating a business plan, since by knowing your short- and long-term goals you can clearly understand where your business is heading.

Milestones allow you to track progress toward achieving your goals. Setting milestones is a strategic step that allows you to stick to your plan and not get distracted on your way.

Once you’ve listed your goals, you need to choose the path to achieve them. There are several options to choose from. For instance, you can map a long but predictable path with minimum risks and a short path full of challenges.

Let’s consider different options for launching your MVP as an example. You can choose a soft launch: a careful step-by-step presentation of your product to your target audience. When you use a soft launch approach, you reveal your product to a limited number of users, gather feedback from them, and fix bugs quickly. Thus, we can define a soft launch as a long yet predictable way to reach your goals.

A hard launch, on the other hand, is a short and risky path, since it means presenting a new product to a large number of people at once. It can bring you immediate revenue, but at the same time it can cause a lot of problems if your product isn’t perfect.

Once you’ve distinguished two different paths to reach your goals, which one to choose is up to you.

• Make data-driven decisions

Preparing a business plan entails carrying out a lot of research. To make a realistic business plan, you should dive deep into marketing, finance, and management. You should also perform a comprehensive analysis of your direct and indirect competitors to get a full picture of the market situation.

By gathering information about other market players, you can learn about their strengths and weaknesses along with your own. This gives you a chance to better determine your company’s unique value proposition (UVP) and stand out from the competition.

With this information, your business plan is not merely a suggestion but a realistic view of your startup, the challenges you might face, and the ways you can overcome them.

• Obtain an effective management tool

With a business plan in hand, it’s easier to manage your progress. Since a business plan includes a map with milestones, you can use it to keep track of how well you stick to and achieve your goals.

A business plan also helps you check whether you’re keeping within your budget and how profitable your business is. Plus, it allows you to monitor other financial aspects such as your employees’ incomes, pay raises, and your bonus system.

• Get more information than with a Lean Canvas

Creating a Lean Canvas is a fast way to assess business opportunities. A Lean Canvas is a one-page document with 10 to 12 fields that gives a general overview of the current state of your business, your opportunities, and your goals. Although it’s a nice option for a quick assessment, a Lean Canvas is not very informative.

Here’s an example of how a Lean Canvas looks and what information it can present:

A business plan, in turn, is an extensive document that covers a long period of time (usually up to five years). Consequently, it requires a more comprehensive approach to business analysis than a Lean Canvas does and includes more detailed information about your business idea.

Use your plan as a pitch deck

Once you create your business plan, you can use it as the basis for your pitch deck. Just select the most important information and you’ll have a ready presentation for your investors, business partners, or whoever you want to interest in your business idea.

An informative pitch deck based on your business plan can lead investors to consider your business worth supporting.

How to create a technology startup business plan

Once you understand the benefits a business plan can give you, it’s time to move to developing one. Here are the must-have sections for your business plan.

#1 Executive summary

An executive summary presents your overall business plan. Its aim is to capture your readers’ attention and make them interested in reading through all the details.

This summary should be written in clear language and be understandable even for people who don’t have specific knowledge of your business area.

Do your best to outline the maximum relevant information within a five- to ten-minute read.

To make your executive summary informative and captivating, it’s best to write this section after you’ve finished all the other sections. Also, you should answer all these questions briefly in the summary since you’ll cover them in detail in the following sections.

#2 Business idea

This section is a detailed presentation of your product or service. You should include the following information:

• Product/service description. Cover all the characteristics of your product, its uniqueness in the market, patent issues and compliance requirements (e.g. PCI DSS for payment systems, HIPAA for healthcare, or GDPR compliance), and a description of the development process.
• Benefits for customers. Explain why your product is outstanding, how it reflects the needs of your target audience, and how it will solve your customers’ problems.
• Pricing. Calculate how much it will cost to create your product and decide what monetization approach to choose (for instance, a subscription-based model or one-time payments). Make sure your revenue will cover your expenses.

#3 Business sector and market analyses

In this section, you’ll present the results of your research that show how successfully you can penetrate the desired market.

First of all, analyze your preferred business sector. Pay attention to the current situation in the sector, predicted trends, sources of profit, and entry barriers.

Then, carry out market analysis including geographical, socio-demographic, socio-economic, and behavior-oriented segmentation of your potential customers. These criteria will help you better understand your target audience and attract more customers in the short term.

Finally, perform competition and location analyses. Competition analysis will help you determine your and your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses while location analysis will help you decide on the location for your company.

#4 Marketing strategy

This section demonstrates how you will build your marketing campaign. You already know your target audience, your competitors’ weaknesses, and the strengths of your product, so it’s time to sell it. At this stage, it’s important to decide if your marketing campaign will be extensive or targeted, what steps it will include, how many customers you need to attract to make your campaign successful, etc.

#5 Management 

In this section, you should provide information about the key roles inside your company and your legal situation.

When introducing your team, it’s important to mention roles and responsibilities and the qualities that make each person a valuable team member.

By legal situation, we mean the legal structure of your company and the legal framework that determines how your startup operates. You should state whether your business is a one-person startup or a partnership, for instance.

#6 Opportunities and threats

This section describes external opportunities and challenges you can face when starting and expanding your business. To present this information as accurately as possible, you should create both positive and negative forecasts based on detailed research concerning your business sector, the current market situation, upcoming trends, your competitors, etc. Use the results of your SWOT analysis to provide information in this section.

#7 Financial plan

You should prepare a financial plan for the first five years of your business activity. It should include:

• Staff costs. This is the money you’ll spend on human resources at the beginning of your business and as it grows.
• Investment and depreciation information. In this section of the financial plan, you should enumerate any kinds of material investments you plan to make (vehicles, furniture, PCs, etc.) and their predicted service life.
• A profitability plan that includes your revenue and expenses. Make sure that planned revenue exceeds your expenses. There’s no point in starting a business that isn’t profitable.

#8 Funding opportunities

This section should list sources of investment and include the amount of money you need to start your business. You should also list investment options that you’re going to use. You can choose among local banks, venture capitalists, public funding schemes, business angels, and other options.

Once you decide how you’ll fund your business ‒ take out a loan or find investors ‒ include a repayment plan or mention the conditions of cooperation with your financiers.

#9 Map for the future with milestones

In this section, you should describe the step-by-step implementation of your plan. It’s important to set priorities, divide the whole plan into small scopes of tasks, and set realistic deadlines. By doing this, you’ll get milestones that lead to your business success.

It can be a sensible idea to present milestones graphically so it’s easier for your readers to perceive the information and track your progress. 

Final thoughts

With an elaborate business plan, you’ll have a clear understanding of your business opportunities and a chance to get into the desired market. Once you’ve created a comprehensive business plan, it’s time to create an MVP to attract your first customers.

What benefits does a business plan provide?

Writing a business plan is an important step before launching a startup. With a detailed business plan, you can:

• Detect weaknesses in your startup
• Have a starting point for creating a pitch deck

What sections should I include in a business plan?

There are nine main sections you should include in a business plan:

• Executive summary
• Business idea
• Business sector and market analyses
• Marketing strategy
• Opportunities and threats
• Financial plan
• Funding opportunities
• Map for the future with milestones

Is it necessary to create a business plan for my technology startup?

Writing a business plan isn’t obligatory, but you might want to do it since having a plan gives a lot of benefits. A business plan can help you understand your opportunities and threats, analyze the current market situation, learn more about your competitors, attract investors, and more. 

If you already have a business plan and need help creating your MVP, contact us for professional assistance .

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MassChallenge

Innovation Blog

7 steps to create a technology startup business plan.

• Published on: April 26, 2022
• Author: masschallenge

Many entrepreneurs still overlook the importance of a technology startup business plan. In a space as competitive as the tech industry, a lack of preparation will surely pave the way to disappointment.

Instead of diving in without any concrete strategy, a plan provides a foundation for sustainable business growth.

In this article, we’ll explore the essential elements of a tech startup business plan, and provide the insights you need to create a plan for success.

What Is A Business Plan?

A tech startup business plan is a document that details the premise of your technology business, summarizing vital financial objectives and operational goals, as well as details on how you will accomplish these goals.

Put simply:

It’s a road map that describes what you intend to do, and how you intend to do it.

A typical business plan will comprise the following seven elements:

• Executive Summary
• Company Description

Market Research

• Description of Products and/or Services
• Management & Operational Structure
• Marketing Plan
• Financial Plan

3 Reasons You Need a Business Plan

Before we dive into the individual aspects of a startup business plan, let’s first consider why you need one.

Just what are the benefits of a business plan?

1. It Offers Greater Clarity

Having a business plan will give you a much better understanding of your business and the objectives you are trying to achieve. Even the most basic technology startup business plan example will seek to define your goals in more objective terms.

For example, you can set specific targets for website traffic, sales volumes, or profit margins. This makes it easier to track and measure success and aligns your decision-making with sales and marketing initiatives.

2. It Increases the Chances of Success

A report from the Harvard Business Review found that companies with a business plan are 16% more likely to succeed.

Furthermore, companies that have a business plan also enjoy higher growth rates than companies without a plan.

3. You Are More Likely to Get Investment

Angel investors and venture capitalists aren’t in the habit of making bad bets. When they part with large sums of money, it’s a carefully considered decision they base on the likelihood of earning a positive return on investment (ROI). When you have a business plan, you give your startup strategic focus, which helps you create an identity that is built to succeed. This makes for a more attractive prospect in the eyes of investors, so it’s easier to raise capital for your startup when you have a plan.

How to Write a Business Plan for Your Tech Startup (7-Steps)

So, now that you understand the motivation behind creating a tech startup business plan, it’s time to see how it’s done. By including the seven elements below, you’ll have a plan that gives your company a much stronger footing.

1. Executive Summary

The executive summary is, without a doubt, the most critical element of your tech startup business plan. Despite this, a lot of plans fail here because the summary doesn’t captivate readers. If you can’t hook prospective investors, partners, or employees with your executive summary, they may never read the rest of your business plan.

Source: The Balance

This section should be compelling yet concise, giving people enough to understand what makes your startup unique, and how it will be able to offer solutions in an existing, competitive market.

While you want to keep it brief, there is a lot to pack into this opening section of your business plan. Here are the crucial components of an executive summary:

• Business Model – What is your product or service? How will you make money?
• Target Market – Who will benefit from this product or service?
• Business Opportunity – Why do consumers need your product or service?
• Marketing Strategy – How will these consumers learn more about your product or service?
• Competition – What other companies are competing for market share?
• Goals – How will your startup transform the marketplace with this product or service?

As the executive summary is such a vital aspect, it’s a smart move to write it last. By waiting until you have finished the rest of the business plan, you can draw from the other sections to craft an excellent executive summary.

2. Company Summary

The company summary essentially boils down to a single sentence, otherwise known as a headline statement.  When it’s done right, this summary can be the perfect elevator pitch to capture the imagination of would-be financial backers or partners, and it will serve as a natural lead-in to your more detailed business plan.

Source: Gusto (credit: LivePlan)

The company summary or headline statement should do the following:

• Give people a brief overview of what your company does.
• Communicate the value you offer.
• Highlight the opportunity in the market.

Here is a good template to create your company summary:

<Your company> is a <type of business> who sells <product or service> to <target customer> , who needs <solution> , but doesn’t get it from <competition> .

Don’t worry if you can’t create the perfect summary now. When you develop your business plan, you will get a better understanding of what this headline statement should be, and then you can refine it to reflect your vision and value proposition.

We’re sure you have a great idea, but that’s no guarantee that everyone is going to love it as much as you do. No matter how good you think your startup may be, you still need to conduct proper market research to learn more about your ideal customers and competitors.

Identify your Target Market

Without a viable market for your product or service, your business is doomed.

Many startups have failed quickly because the owners were so obsessed with their own product that they were effectively blind to the fact that nobody else cared about it.

Source: CB Insights Image: Cleveroad

Initially, you can adopt a broad scope to get a sense of your total addressable market (TAM), which is the potential revenue opportunity your new product or service could generate. Of course, with the competition, and changing consumer interests, it’s unlikely you will dominate the entire TAM.

Once you have this broad idea, you can hone your sights to go more niche. While this presents a smaller audience, it is more effective. By narrowing your targeting, you can market to a more engaged audience that will be more receptive and likely to purchase your product or service.

Consider the following factors when segmenting your audience:

• Demographic – What age group? What gender?
• Geographic – In what country or city do your prospects live?
• Behavior – What websites/blogs/news sources do they use? What are their purchasing habits? What retail sites or brands do they buy from?

With in-depth data analysis and evaluation of your prospective customers, you can create detailed buyer personas that help you refine your marketing strategies.

Perform Competitor Analysis

During the market research stage of your tech startup business plan, you should also carry out a thorough competitor analysis.

This will help you determine the key differentiators between your company and the competition.

Ask yourself these questions:

• Why should people choose my product or service?
• How can I improve on the existing solutions in the market?
• Why do people not already buy the products in the market?

By thinking about current trends or flaws in existing products, you can identify opportunities for innovation so that your business can connect with customers on a deeper level.

Knowing your audience is crucial, and therefore, your business plan must demonstrate a deep understanding of your target market, and your competitors.

3. Description of Products and/or Services

Here, you must highlight the link between what you are offering, and what people need, so you can prove that people are ready and willing to pay for your product or service.

Research Problems in Market

It helps to conduct some face-to-face research, asking potential customers about the problems they have. Don’t try to usher the conversation in any direction or shoehorn their answers to fit your product – instead, look to learn from their honest responses about the solutions they need.

You should do this research before creating the product. After all, it makes more sense to create a product for an existing problem, instead of trying to find a problem for your product.

Source: ProductTribe

Tailor Product to Problems

After doing your research on the existing problems in the market, trim your list to focus on a few of the most important issues. Describe how your product or service will be the ultimate solution to these problems.

For instance, if people believe the existing solutions are too expensive, you can offer a product with a more attractive price point.

By matching up consumer problems with specific solutions, you can develop a product or service that has a more significant value proposition.

4. Management & Operational Structure

The next stage of the traditional technology startup business plan template delves into the people that make up your company. You must highlight the strengths and experience of your existing team, as new partners effectively invest their money in the team as much as the business idea.

Ideally, your team will consist of several experts whose respective skill-sets complement one another. For example, your tech startup may have a coder, a graphic designer, an inbound marketing expert, and a sales professional. Discuss the merits of each team member to convey the value they add to the business.

You can also speculate about prospective new hires and the key attributes you will seek in future team members. If you haven’t already got a chief financial officer (CFO), it’s a smart move to mention adding one soon. This will add backbone to your business plan by reassuring people that you have good financial sense.

Organizational Chart

Here, your plan should clearly define the organizational structure of your startup. For now, it may just be you and a couple of business partners.

However, by including a graphic that visualizes the structure you intend to build, people will get a clear understanding of the distribution of power and chain of command.

For example, it may look something like this:

Having a hierarchy prepared before starting helps prevent any debates about who is in charge of each department, and makes it easier to understand who reports to who.

5. Marketing and Sales plan

No tech startup business plan would be complete without mentioning the marketing and sales strategies you intend to use.

Sales channels

To clarify the difference, marketing channels are used to promote your business, and its products or services, whereas sales channels are the mediums that enable people to purchase those products or services.

You may only have one direct sales channel to begin with, such as an online e-commerce store. Make sure you explain it in your business plan.

Marketing activities

In this section, you must detail how you will acquire leads and customers.

At the base level, you should do the following:

• Launch a company website
• Develop strategy to get organic traffic (i.e. visitors from search engines like Google)
• Develop a PPC strategy to get immediate online exposure for your most important product/service keywords
• Develop channel partnerships
• Build an email subscriber list

Over time, you can use marketing to nurture stronger customer relationships, which in turn, help you build an audience of loyal followers that will, hopefully, become customers.

The marketing section of your business plan will need to account for several factors, including your goals, risks in the market, and your budget. Which brings us to the final aspect of your tech startup business plan.

6. Financial Plan

Lastly, any good business plan must include pertinent details about your company budget and sales goals.

This can be daunting for many new entrepreneurs and is all the more challenging when you have no balance sheets, cash flow reports, or even any stable income on which to base your projections.

That being said, it’s still possible to make educated projections – so long as you have done solid market research.

When it comes to financial matters, your business plan should include details about:

• Revenue streams – how will the company generate income?
• Major expenses – What high costs do you anticipate in the year ahead?
• Salary demands – Are you still bootstrapping or are you and the partners taking a salary? If so, how much?
• Financial milestones – Detail your expansion strategy by considering future hires or store openings that will impact the books.

Many startups aren’t profitable in the first year. Your financial projections should maintain a long-term view for success, keeping ambitions realistic and honest. That way, you’ll be able to produce a more accurate break-even analysis .

With these long-term projections, you must consider the financial impact of expanding. You may be making more money in Year 3, but opening a new store will set you back.

Keep everything in perspective and make sure you don’t set yourself or your investors up for any nasty shocks down the road.

5 Tech Startup Business Plan Templates

When you have all the elements above in place, your business plan will be in good shape. However, presentation matters. If you want to make the best first impression, getting creative with your technology startup business plan template can make a big difference.

Not only will your research and expertise shine through, but you will have a visually stunning presentation that catches the eye of investors.

Here are five tech business plan examples to inspire you.

Business Plan Infographic PowerPoint

This plan allows you to present in-depth market analysis, statistics, and projections in a professional visual infographic. With several hundred editable slide options, it’s well worth the $16 fee for the license.

Source: Medium

Emaze Business Planning With Analytics

This is more than the average technology startup business plan template. Emaze has a diverse array of creative collaboration tools, making it easy and enjoyable for teams to create unique plans together from any of the built-in templates. Furthermore, you can incorporate analytics, which is perfect for impressing investors. That said, $19 per month for the premium version may seem a little steep for some small businesses.

Source: Emaze

Lean Canvas 1-Page Business Plan

A tech startup business plan doesn’t need to take weeks to create. In fact, with this template, you can have a basic – yet brilliant – business plan all together on a single page in just 20 minutes.

Source: Lean Stack

StartUp Pitch

For $15, you can access the full array of colorful slides in this presentation, which are all customizable to your needs. This template includes many ready-made aspects of the typical business plan, such as SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, and project timelines.

Source: Envato

This is another user-friendly tool for creating short business plans. You enter the information, and then LivePlan will generate a one-page plan in an infographic style.

Source: LivePlan

Make Your Tech Startup Business Plan a Priority

It’s not enough to have a great startup idea.

If you want to stand out from the pack, secure investment, and build a successful company that can earn real profits, growth, and customer loyalty, then you absolutely must have a solid tech startup business plan.

It’s time to create yours.

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IT Company Business Plan: Everything You Need to Know

An IT company business plan is a detailed plan for running and developing an information technology company. 3 min read updated on February 01, 2023

An IT company business plan is a detailed plan for running and developing an information technology company. It should describe all aspects of the business, including the company's description, product description, marketing strategy, and financial analysis, in a clear and precise manner.

Tips for Writing a Great Business Plan

A business plan should set out a clear roadmap for developing and expanding your business. Keep the following points in mind while writing a business plan:

• Test your idea. Avoid the temptation of jumping into a business merely on the basis of the success stories of others. Discuss your idea with prospective customers, vendors, and other people in the industry.
• Study the market to get an idea of industry trends, underlying challenges, and scope of future growth.
• Share your business plan with your employees. It is not something to be kept confidential.
• Write it in a clear and concise manner. Be specific, and cover all areas of the business.
• Put the plan to use; simply filing it away will not serve any purpose. Refer to it whenever possible.
• Revisit and revise your plan as your business grows.

Sections of a Business Plan

A typical business plan includes the following sections:

• Executive summary.
• Description of the company.
• Market research.
• Product or service description.
• Management structure.
• Sales and marketing strategy.
• Financial Analysis.

Benefits of Writing a Business Plan

Writing down your business plan offers the following benefits, among others:

• You get to understand your business better.
• It increases the chances of your business's success.
• It makes it easier to raise capital for a startup.
• Businesses with a written plan grow at a higher rate than those without any written plan.

Steps to Writing a Startup Business Plan

1. Have a Clear Objective

• Make sure that the company description is not ambiguous. The company description can also include your business's mission statement.
• State the reason for choosing that specific business. For example, you might be prompted to open a restaurant because no other restaurants in your area serve the cuisine your restaurant specializes in.
• Discuss the vision and growth prospects of your business in brief.

The summary should be concise and should not exceed four paragraphs.

2. Identify Your Target Market

Narrow down your target market based on geography, demography, psychology, and behavior. Your final target market may look like the following:

• Ages 20 to 35
• Living in the New York area
• With an annual income of $50,000-$60,000
• Who are interested in recycling and sustainable living

3. Analyze the Competition

Perform a competition analysis and differentiate your product accordingly. Price and quality can be two important differentiating factors. You should analyze the competition while simultaneously identifying your target market since both these steps are a part of the market research section of your business plan.

4. Prepare a Budget

Estimate the amount of funds you will need to start and operate the business. Many startups fail due to lack of funds. Preparing a budget beforehand will reduce this risk. When calculating your budget, consider all possible expenses, including the following:

• Cost of equipment.
• Money required for buying or leasing property.
• Legal fees.
• Employees' salaries.
• Insurance premiums.
• Inventory cost.

5. Make Financial Projections

Prepare financial projections based on the size of your target market and your expected market share. Include the expansion strategy in your projections. Keep your projections reasonable and make sure you cover three to five years of operations.

6. Define Your Business Structure

Define the organizational structure of your business. Having a clear hierarchy of power removes unnecessary doubt and debates over jobs and reporting positions. However, avoid adding too many layers in your business structure since that may create confusion and make the communication inefficient.

7. Prepare a Marketing Plan

A well-balanced marketing plan should include a strategy for customer acquisition in line with your target market, budget, and financial projections.

Some of the basic ideas for a marketing plan include the following:

• Launching a website.
• Being active on social media.
• Building a subscribers' list.
• Setting up loyalty programs.

8. Keep It Short and Simple

Although your business plan should be detailed and thorough, make it a point to keep it short and simple. Write it professionally and avoid using jargon. Proofread the plan for grammar, readability, and confusion.

If you need help with IT company business plan, you can post your legal need on UpCounsel's marketplace. UpCounsel accepts only the top 5 percent of lawyers to its site. Lawyers on UpCounsel come from law schools such as Harvard Law and Yale Law and average 14 years of legal experience, including work with or on behalf of companies like Google, Menlo Ventures, and Airbnb.

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Content Approved by UpCounsel

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• Service Business Plan
• Business Plan for Existing Company
• Business Plan for New Company
• Do I Need a Business Plan
• Parts of Business Plan and Definition
• LLC Business Plan Template
• Business Plan Contents Page
• Business Description Outline

• https://inoxoft.com/blog/7-steps-of-how-to-write-a-technology-startup-business-plan/ Steps of How to Write a Technology Startup Business Plan

Inoxoft Blog

Steps of How to Write a Technology Startup Business Plan

If you decided to launch a startup, don’t forget to write its tech startup business plan first. Business planning is essential and crucial for a newly-created business concept. Having a preplanned strategy allows you to allocate and eliminate possible risks and get ahead of your competitors. Risks trigger other important factors such as time and budget resources. And, if you are just getting on the market, these resources might make you fall behind significantly.

According to Excellentbusinessplans.com , businesses have more than a 30% chance of growth due to writing a software startup business plan. So, this article will speak about how to create a startup business plan of great use to entrepreneurs. Build your tech startup as a pleasant journey with the exact 7 steps of business planning that will allow you to win the competition.

Why do Startups Need a Software Startup Business Plan?

Providing great clarity, increased probability of success, higher probability of receiving an investment, 8 steps on how to make a tech startup business plan, tip #1. start with a company description.

• Tip #2. Proceed with a tech startup business model
• Tip #3. State how are you going to get noticed on the market
• Tip #4. Consider the financial aspect of your business
• Tip #5. Think about your future business team
• Tip #6. Write an executive summary of your business plan
• Tip #7. Add anything you might consider valuable (appendix)

Tip #8. Prepare a Great Pitch Deck for Prospective Investors

5 tech company business plan templates, business plan infographic powerpoint, emaze business planning with analytics, lean canvas 1-page business plan, startup pitch, consider inoxoft your trusted partner, final thoughts.

What is a technology startup business plan?

A tech business plan is a document that includes a detailed description of the startup’s objectives and the road to achieving goals. Usually, it’s a defined roadmap of marketing, financial, and operational procedures. – Investopedia

So, the need to write an IT startup business plan lies in the fact that any business can have a fully-described insight into its future operations.

For example, a tech startup business plan template has to include the following data:

• an executive summary, which is the mission statement, and information about the leadership, startup employees, and its location;
• products/services offered, where everything a business wants to do should be enlisted. I.e. a startup wants to create AI technologies, so it mentions what type of technologies, their cost, lifespan, and potential benefits to the end-users. And, also, research and development information about the product/services is always welcome;
• particular market analysis, where businesses can analyze the potential need of their product/service as well as the direct competition. This information will allow us to build a startup based on innovation, and strengths and eliminate weaknesses if possible;
• a marketing strategy, which can inform on the potential ways the business will use to attract end-users and how the company will reach them. Perhaps, advertising or marketing campaigns are needed? Social media to speak about the product/service? Any channel that will help more customers get engaged will do, but you still have to define it first;
• financial planning, which is composed of the potential targets and estimates for a couple of years ahead. With financial plans, you can attract the much-needed investors and prove to them your startup is going to make it with the concrete yearly estimations;
• a budget, where you should mention the costs to develop and design software, staffing, marketing campaigns, office, and extra spending. Having defined what you need costs for allows you to operate these costs in a more efficient way;
• a team that will work for you, share your goals and ideas, and lead your startup to success.

A startup tech company business plan pushes you to articulate your business objectives and goals in down-to-earth terms. Instead of vague aspirations like “grow the business” or “increase revenue,” you define specific and measurable targets like “increase website traffic by 30% in the first quarter” or “achieve $100,000 in sales within the first year”

This clarity allows you to track your progress objectively. You can compare your actual results to the goals outlined in the business plan, enabling you to see whether you’re on track or need some adjustments.

A well-structured business plan helps you stay focused on your objectives and minimizes the likelihood of drifting off course. By identifying potential challenges and threats to your startup, you can develop proactive strategies to mitigate them.

A business plan helps you allocate your resources — financial, human, and time — more efficiently. Outline your budget, staffing needs, and project timelines to ensure that you have the necessary resources to execute your strategies effectively. With market research and analysis, you can make informed decisions, tailor your products or services to meet market demand and stay ahead of your competitors.

If you’re seeking external funding, a well-prepared business plan can attract potential investors. It gives them a clear and detailed understanding of your business, including your market strategy, competitive analysis, and risk mitigation strategies. By addressing these risks proactively, you show investors that you know the potential pitfalls and have a plan to navigate them.

And, of course, investors are keenly interested in the financial prospects of a startup. Your business plan includes financial projections, which help potential partners assess the possible return on their investment.

Writing a business plan for a tech startup isn’t a one-day process. It is a commitment you should engage in at least for some time. But where should you start? There are the following sections to think about: technical plan, executive plan, marketing plan, financial plan, staffing plan, etc. But, we’re here to help you out with the technology startup business plan template.

The company description will surely include the company history, its location, type of business (industry, sector) it provides. Also, it will mention the leadership team, employees and management team, and company missions and principles.

What would this kind of information technology startup business plan detail do for your business? It’s easy. Anyone interested in your startup will achieve a complete understanding of who you are and what are you going to offer to the end-users. In the other words, you have to have a unique identity that is both informative and catchy.

Everything you need to know about digital product development phases !

Launching your startup you have probably had the thought of where it might lead you. But, this thought has to be put on the official paper as well. You need to define your business’ scaling strategy and business opportunities. So, mention how are you planning to grow and what should be the numbers. Include financial aspects, employees, technologies, and, basically, everything, that will be enhanced and should be doubled in the process.

The only way you can let everyone know about your business is to lead the right marketing campaign. Here, you should analyze your target audience, conduct surveys, analyze competitors, and create a user persona. On analyzing competitors use the SWOT model . In creating your potential buyer persona, make sure you have included all the valuable information.

Financially, it is vital to know beforehand what costs you will need to invest and what revenue you will achieve. So, while creating a business plan for a startup, the section with money requires additional effort. Here, you might need to include: a balance sheet, expense projection, income projection, cash flow projection, monetization strategy, other pricing, and a business sales plan.

What has to be done in the first place? Financial planning should ground in business planning. It should be a clear and realistic presentation. And, most importantly, use templates to make this process a bit easier for you.

Guidelines for Creating a Financial Plan

• Develop a sales forecast, considering market size, growth rates, pricing, and competition.
• List all the initial costs, including equipment, legal fees, marketing expenses, and working capital.
• Determine how much funding your startup needs to cover initial costs and sustain operations until it becomes profitable.
• Conduct a break-even analysis to determine the point at which your startup’s total revenue equals its total expenses, resulting in no profit or loss.
• Calculate gross margin, net profit margin, return on investment (ROI), and return on equity (ROE).

The leadership team is partners that should consist of the CEO – Chief Executive Officer, who will be responsible for the main processes in the company. Then, the startup should have a CTO – Chief Technology Officer, who is responsible for research and implementation, and the technological part. Also, there is a need for CMO – the Chief marketing officer, who is the one to involve potential customers and make them pleased with the product/service. Last but not least is the CSM – Chief Sales Officer, who closes the deals with potential clients and sells your product/service.

Need a skilled CTO? How to find a CTO for your startup? – click and have a look!

Among the leaders, you should think about the management team – project managers, developers, designers, testers, and other employees per your business need. Scalability is a must if you opt to grow further.

Inoxoft offers some tips on how to hire developers for startup !

Executive summary of a business plan for a software startup should be written last as it will summarise everything that you have defined and described before. It is of a certain structure, which makes it easier to read. With its help, you will catch the much-needed attention of a reader, and show him/her the real fact and the exit strategy. Avoid unnecessary wording and passionate over-positive thinking here. Be realistic, and show you can provide reasoning and decision-making. Be innovative.

The appendix section usually includes every additional fact or infographic that was mentioned in the business plan for a tech startup. So, these might be charts, tables, illustrations, patents, trademark documents, credit history, additional documents, market analysis, production plans, and operations planning. All the features your stakeholders might be interested in.

A well-structured pitch deck typically includes the following sections:

• A brief overview of your startup and its mission
• The problem or pain point that your product or service addresses
• Your innovative solution and how it effectively addresses the identified problem
• The market size, growth potential, and target customer segments
• Your pricing strategies, sales channels, and distribution models
• The key members of your team and their relevant experience 
• Your financial projections, including revenue, expenses, and profitability 
• The amount of funding you seek and how you intend to use it
• Your exit strategy

Pitch Deck Do’s

• Craft a compelling narrative that captures the essence of your business and its potential.
• Employ visuals like charts, graphs, and images to illustrate key points and make the presentation engaging.
• Use bullet points, brief sentences, and compelling storytelling to convey your message effectively.
• Customize your pitch deck for different investor meetings.
• Practice delivering your pitch multiple times to ensure you can present it confidently and within the time limit.

Pitch Deck Don’ts

• Don’t overwhelm your pitch deck with excessive data or information. 
• Don’t use jargon or overly technical language that might confuse investors who are not experts in your field.
• Don’t ignore potential challenges or risks. Address them honestly and discuss your strategies for mitigating them.
• Don’t forget to emphasize the market opportunity. Investors want to know there’s a sizable and growing market for your offering.
• Don’t dismiss feedback from mentors or advisors. Use their input to improve your pitch deck.

A well-designed presentation makes a positive impression on your prospective investors. But don’t spend too much time creating it from scratch. With professional templates, you can use a pre-designed structure and focus on adding content while adhering to a consistent format.

Many templates are readily available for free or at a low cost. Let’s overview the most promising ones:

With the PowerBiz PowerPoint template, you can showcase your ideas using visually engaging infographics. Key features:

• 200+ unique custom slides
• Fully editable with resizable vector
• Easy to change colors and text
• Bright and dark theme versions
• Super custom animated effects

Pricing: $7.40/mo for unlimited downloads, $21 for a personal license (one non-commercial product), and $63 for a commercial license.

Emaze has many creative tools for teams to collaborate and make unique presentations from ready-made templates. Key features:

• 2D & 3D solutions
• Eye-catching animations
• Mobile-friendly creation
• Customizable blueprints
• Analytics tools
• Multiple sharing options
• Industry-specific solution

Pricing: Free Basic plan for 5 projects, $9/mo for Pro plan, $25/mo for Business plan, etc

Lean Canvas is a valuable tool for entrepreneurs and startups to quickly sketch out, validate, and iterate on their business ideas in a structured and efficient manner. Key features:

• A 1-page business model 
• It takes 20 minutes to create
• Quickly updates

Pricing: $0 for a founding team of up to five people working on the same project.

StartUp Pitch has everything you need for a standard business plan tech startup, like SWOT analysis, competitor evaluation, and project schedules—all pre-prepared for you.

• Full financial forecast
• Easy pitch/plan export
• One-page pitch builder
• 550+ sample plans
• Support by email and chat
• A 35-day money-back guarantee

Pricing: $20 per month for the Standard plan and $40 per month for the Premium plan, with $20 for the first month.

Inoxoft is an international software service provider with more than 7 years on the market. We help startups achieve excellence with their products/services and succeed. Explore our software development for startup services and benefit from the quality end results!

Inoxoft finds business planning for tech startups one of the most needed steps in setting the right priorities. We engage in writing a startup business plan and may give valuable insights as to your solutions.

If you still don’t know how to make a tech startup business plan or need a consultation on your startup project idea – book a call with us and receive a free consultation!

Find out what’s KPI in software engineering !

This article has summarized how to make a business plan for a startup. If you are just launching and think that planning ahead is something you should skip – that’s wrong. Consider 7 tips provided by Inoxoft and become a profitable unicorn one day!

Need dedicated team?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a software startup business plan.

A tech business plan is a document that includes a detailed description of the startup’s objectives and the road to achieving goals.

What to include in the business plan for tech startup?

• an executive summary 
• products/services offered
• particular market analysis
• a marketing strategy
• financial planning

What are the tips for writing a startup business plan?

• Tip #1. Start with company description

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11 Steps for Building a Successful Tech Company

How to Start a Successful Tech Company

Starting a Successful tech company can be an exciting journey filled with new learnings, discovery, and, of course, a few challenges along the way. In this article, we’ll explore some foundational elements that drive success and resilience within the tech industry.

We will cover why a user-focused approach, starting small, prioritizing growth over immediate profit, and leading with innovation are critical steps in building a tech empire. As well, we’ll walk you through 11 pivotal steps, including assembling a dedicated team, creating a robust business plan, and establishing clear KPIs that will help in navigating the complex yet exciting landscape of the tech world.

So, whether you are a rising entrepreneur or an established professional looking to make your mark in the tech industry, you’ll gain valuable insights and actionable strategies to ensure your tech venture not only survives but thrives in today’s competitive market.

What Makes a Tech Company Successful?

To build a thriving tech company, understanding the key components that drive success is crucial. These elements are the foundation upon which resilient and innovative tech companies are built.

Successful Tech Companies Focus on the Users

User-centric companies are more likely to succeed. By understanding and addressing the needs and preferences of the users, companies can build products and services that resonate with the target audience, fostering loyalty and encouraging word-of-mouth referrals. A relentless focus on delivering value to users can be the differentiator in a competitive market.

This approach mandates companies to meticulously understand and address the needs, preferences, pain points, and expectations of their users, leading to the development of products and services that are highly resonant with their target audience.

Here’s how a user-centric focus becomes a catalyst for success:

• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction : By creating solutions tailored to users’ needs and solving their problems, tech companies ensure high customer satisfaction, which can translate to loyalty, positive word-of-mouth, and repeat business.
• Product Relevance: Understanding users’ needs helps in developing products and features that are relevant and valuable to them.
• Iterative Improvement: A focus on users encourages companies to continually seek feedback and make iterative improvements to their products or services, ensuring that they evolve based on users’ changing needs and preferences.
• Competitive Differentiation: Companies that prioritize users can differentiate themselves in a saturated market, offering unique value propositions and user experiences that competitors might not offer.
• Market Expansion: Delighted users become advocates for the company, leading to organic growth and expansion through referrals and recommendations, allowing companies to penetrate new markets and customer segments with lower acquisition costs.
• Revenue Growth: Addressing the genuine needs and wants of users generally translates to higher adoption and usage rates, directly impacting a company’s bottom line and paving the way for sustainable revenue growth.
• Brand Equity: Providing value and consistent positive experiences will enhance brand image and reputation, which are invaluable assets for tech companies in establishing industry authority and attracting partnerships and investments.
• Informed Decision-Making: User feedback and insights lead to more informed business decisions, helping in aligning business strategies, resource allocation, and development efforts with user needs and market demands.
• Innovation Drivers: The constant quest to meet and exceed user expectations pushes companies to innovate continuously, exploring new technologies, methodologies, and solutions that can deliver enhanced value to users.
• Risk Mitigation: Understanding user preferences and expectations helps in identifying potential issues and addressing them proactively, reducing the risk of product failure and negative customer experiences.

Most Successful Tech Companies Start Small

Starting small allows companies to be agile, adapting quickly to market needs and changes. It also facilitates a deeper understanding of the target market, enabling more personalized and effective solutions. Small beginnings often lead to refined, scalable models that are more attuned to the market’s pulse.

Related resource: The Do’s and Don’ts of Rapid Scaling for Startups

Successful Tech Companies Lead and Don’t Follow

Innovation is the heartbeat of successful tech companies. Leading tech companies distinguish themselves by breaking conventions and setting trends, shaping industries and consumer behaviors.

Their commitment to innovation, willingness to embrace risk, and focus on proactive problem-solving allows them to chart new territories and redefine possibilities. By fostering a culture of innovation, establishing thought leadership, and driving industry evolution, these companies not only achieve unparalleled success but also contribute to the broader advancement of technology and society.

• Foster a Culture of Innovation: Leading tech companies nurture an environment that encourages creative thinking, exploration, and experimentation. This culture of innovation is pivotal in developing groundbreaking solutions and staying ahead of the curve. Employees are motivated to think outside the box, challenge the status quo, and seek transformative solutions, thereby contributing to the company’s visionary endeavors.
• Embrace Risk and Learn from Failures: The journey of innovation is fraught with uncertainties and risks. Successful tech companies are not afraid to take calculated risks and venture into the unknown. They view failures as learning opportunities, refining their approaches, and gaining insights that fuel further innovation. This resilience and learning mindset are crucial for navigating the volatile tech landscape and discovering untapped potential.
• Proactive Problem Solving: By proactively identifying and addressing problems, innovative tech companies create value and fulfill unmet needs. They employ foresight, research, and intuition to anticipate challenges and develop solutions that not only resolve issues but also enhance user experiences and quality of life.
• Establish Thought Leadership: Successful tech companies establish themselves as authorities in their respective fields by sharing knowledge, insights, and expertise. They engage with communities, participate in dialogues, and contribute to the industry’s intellectual capital. This thought leadership enhances their credibility, influence, and impact, paving the way for shaping industry trends and consumer behaviors.
• Drive Industry Evolution: Leading tech companies play a pivotal role in steering the direction of industry evolution. They introduce disruptive technologies, redefine business models, and influence industry standards and practices. By pushing boundaries and challenging conventions, they drive progress and transformation across sectors, fostering a more dynamic and inclusive tech ecosystem.
• Customer-Centric Innovation: Leading tech companies prioritize their customers in the innovation process. They actively engage with users to understand their needs, preferences, and challenges. By aligning innovation with customer insights, they ensure that their solutions are user-centric, relevant, and value-driven.

Incorporating these critical success factors, the following steps provide a roadmap to launch a successful tech company.

1) Start With a Unique and Strong Idea

An innovative idea is the cornerstone of a successful tech company. It should address a genuine need or problem, offering a unique solution that stands out in the market. Validate your idea through research and feedback to ensure it has potential.

2) Build an Efficient Team Starting With Technical Experts

Assemble a dedicated team of skilled individuals who share your vision. Technical experts are crucial for developing a robust product, while diverse talents in marketing, sales, and operations contribute to a well-rounded business strategy.

Related resource: How to Build A Startup Culture That Everybody Wants

3) Create a Business Plan

A comprehensive business plan outlines the company’s vision, mission, target market, competitive landscape, financial projections, and operational plan. It serves as a blueprint for your tech startup, guiding you through each stage of development.

What Should Be Included In the Business Plan

• Executive Summary
• Company Description
• Market Analysis
• Organization and Management Structure
• Service or Product Line
• Marketing and Sales Strategy
• Funding Requirements
• Financial Projections

Related Resource: The Business Model Canvas

“The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management and entrepreneurial tool. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model. This method from the bestselling management book Business Model Generation is applied in leading organizations and start-ups worldwide.”

4) Choose a Name for Your Startup

Selecting a suitable name is crucial as it represents your brand and leaves a lasting impression on your audience. It should be memorable, easy to spell, and reflective of your company’s essence.

How to Choose a Name for Your Tech Startup

Brainstorm a list of potential names that align with your company’s vision and values. Use online tools to check availability and consider the relevance, pronounceability, and uniqueness of the name before making a final decision.

Related resources & tools:

• Shopify’s Business Name Generator & Guide
• Namelix name generator
• The 8 Best Startup Naming Tools

5) Choose a Business Structure

The right business structure impacts liability, taxation, and regulation compliance. Consider your business needs, goals, and the level of control you wish to maintain when deciding on the structure.

Should You Form an LLC?

An LLC (Limited Liability Company) combines the liability protection of a corporation with the tax benefits of a partnership. It’s suitable for those seeking flexibility and protection from personal liability.

Should You Form a Sole Proprietorship?

A sole proprietorship is the simplest structure, ideal for single-owner businesses. However, the owner is personally responsible for all debts and liabilities.

Should You Form a Corporation?

A corporation is a separate legal entity that offers the most protection against personal liability but involves more regulations and tax requirements.

6) Conduct Extensive Market Research

Thorough market research informs product development, marketing strategies, and business decisions. It provides insights into market trends, competition, and customer preferences, enabling you to tailor your offerings and identify opportunities.

Related resources:

• Hubspot: 20 Tools & Resources for Conducting Market Research
• Neil Patel: 19 Market Research Tools To Uncover Actionable Insights

7) Build a Go-to-Market Strategy

Building a meticulously crafted go-to-market strategy is paramount for tech startups aspiring to carve a niche in the competitive landscape. It serves as a strategic roadmap, guiding startups to position their innovations effectively, communicate compelling values, and reach the right audience with precision. A well-executed GTM strategy paves the way for sustained growth, market penetration, and lasting success in the dynamic tech ecosystem.

• Define Clear Objectives: Establish specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) objectives for your GTM strategy. These objectives could range from acquiring new customers, expanding market share, to increasing brand awareness. Clear objectives serve as a guiding light, providing direction and focus for all GTM activities.
• Identify Your Target Audience: Deeply understand who your ideal customers are. Consider demographics, psychographics, behavior, and needs. The more nuanced your understanding, the better you can tailor your approach, messaging, and solutions to meet their specific needs and expectations.
• Understand the Competitive Landscape: Analyze your competitors, their offerings, strengths, weaknesses, market position, and strategies. Understanding the competitive landscape enables you to identify your unique value proposition and differentiate your solutions effectively.
• Develop Value Proposition: Articulate the unique benefits and values your product offers to the customers. A compelling value proposition addresses customer pain points, provides solutions, and clearly communicates the unique advantages of choosing your product over others.
• Price It Right: Your pricing strategy should reflect the value you’re providing, the market demand, and what the market can bear. It’s crucial to consider various pricing models, evaluate competitors’ pricing, and understand your cost structure to set a price that’s attractive to customers yet profitable for you.
• Create Persuasive Messaging: Develop powerful, concise, and clear messaging that resonates with your target audience. Your messaging should address the needs and aspirations of your audience, highlighting how your product is the solution they’ve been looking for.
• Select Appropriate Channels: Determine the most effective channels to reach your target audience, whether they are online or offline. These could include social media platforms, email marketing, content marketing, trade shows, or direct sales. The choice of channels should align with where your audience spends their time and how they consume information.
• Design a Comprehensive Marketing Mix: Leverage a mix of promotional strategies, including advertising, public relations, content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing, to create awareness and generate interest in your product. A balanced and well-executed marketing mix optimizes reach and impact.
• Optimize Sales and Distribution: Define your sales approach, whether it’s direct sales, inbound marketing, channel sales, or a combination, and establish effective distribution channels to ensure your product is accessible to your customers. Align your sales and distribution strategies with customer preferences and behaviors.
• Implement, Monitor, and Adjust: Once your GTM strategy is in place, implement it meticulously, monitor its performance against the set objectives, and gather feedback. Use data-driven insights to adjust and optimize your strategy, ensuring it remains aligned with market dynamics and continues to drive desired outcomes.

8) Figure Out How to Scale Successful Efforts

Scaling is not merely about growing bigger; it’s about growing smarter. By refining and fortifying successful strategies, optimizing resource allocation, and embracing innovation and flexibility, tech companies can scale their efforts efficiently, creating a ripple effect of sustained growth and market leadership. The intersection of diligent evaluation, strategic adaptation, and relentless pursuit of excellence is where tech companies find the momentum to rise above and reshape the technological frontier.

• Develop Scalable Systems and Processes: Building scalable systems and processes is crucial. Invest in technology and automation to streamline operations, reduce manual workload, and enhance efficiency. Establishing systems that can handle increased load and complexity ensures consistent service delivery as the company grows.
• Regular Analysis and Evaluation: Continuously assess your business strategies, marketing campaigns, and operational processes. Use analytics and performance metrics to determine what’s working and what’s not. Regular evaluations pinpoint successful efforts that can be amplified and optimized for better results.
• Resource Allocation and Management: Effective scaling requires meticulous resource management. Allocate your resources—time, personnel, and capital—where they yield the most impact. Prioritizing high-return activities and reallocating resources from less productive areas are essential for sustained growth.
• Diversify Product or Service Offerings: Identify new markets or segments where your products or services can have a significant impact. Diversification reduces dependency on a single revenue stream and opens up new opportunities for growth.
• Customer Retention and Expansion: Focus on retaining existing customers while acquiring new ones. Develop strategies to upsell and cross-sell to your current customer base. Satisfied customers often become advocates, facilitating organic growth through word-of-mouth referrals.
• Talent Acquisition and Development: Hiring and nurturing the right talent are vital for scaling. Bring in individuals with the skills, experience, and mindset that align with your company’s culture and growth objectives. Investing in employee development enhances capabilities and fosters a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
• Foster Partnerships and Collaborations: Build strategic alliances and partnerships with other organizations. Collaborations can provide access to new markets, technologies, and resources, enabling mutual growth and expanding your company’s reach and influence.

Related resource: The 16 Best Startup Newsletters

9) Create a Fundraising Plan

Fundraising is vital for fueling growth. Explore various options, considering the suitability, terms, and implications of each.

Related resource: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages

Should You Pitch an Angel Investor?

Angel investors are affluent individuals who provide capital for startups in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt. Angel investors, often heralded as the saviors of early-stage startups, inject not only much-needed capital but also bring valuable insights, expertise, and networks to the table, propelling nascent ideas into actionable, scalable ventures. They are suitable for startups that may be too risky for venture capitalists and too small for traditional lenders.

Typically, angel investors are individuals with a keen sense of market dynamics and a willingness to take risks. They tend to invest in companies in their early stages when the venture is shaping its core idea, refining its product or service, and establishing market fit. The investments from angel investors are generally more flexible and personal, allowing room for negotiation and alignment with the startup’s unique needs and goals.

Should You Pitch a Venture Capitalist?

Venture capitalists manage pooled funds from many investors to invest in high-potential startups, fueling innovative startups with the substantial financial injections they often need to scale and expand. They are most suitable for companies that have moved past the ideation and product development stages and have proven business models showcasing significant growth potential and a path to profitability.

Venture capitalists typically focus on high-growth markets and industries, seeking companies that can deliver exceptional returns on investment. Their involvement usually goes beyond mere financial investment; they also bring a wealth of experience, industry connections, and mentorship to help startups navigate the complexities of market expansion, talent acquisition, and corporate governance. The collaborative approach of VCs can help in refining business strategies, identifying new market opportunities, and establishing partnerships that can be pivotal for sustained growth and success.

Is Bootstrapping Right for Your Company?

Bootstrapping involves building your business using your resources, allowing you to retain control but requiring cautious financial management.

While bootstrapping requires meticulous financial management and may present a slower growth trajectory initially, it can yield a robust, customer-centric business model marked by sustainable growth and resilience. For founders who value autonomy and are willing to navigate the initial challenges, bootstrapping can be a rewarding journey.

10) Market Your Company

In today’s increasingly digital landscape, the significance of a multifaceted and dynamic marketing strategy cannot be overstated. Effective marketing goes beyond mere visibility—it is about creating meaningful engagements, building relationships, and fostering trust with your audience. It necessitates a holistic approach that combines various elements harmoniously, tailored to resonate with your target demographic.

Developing a comprehensive marketing plan involves a meticulous understanding of your audience’s needs, preferences, and behaviors. It requires identifying the most effective channels and platforms to reach them, leveraging the potency of social media, email marketing, influencer collaborations, and online advertising to create impactful touchpoints. The integration of content marketing, enriched with value-driven articles, blogs, and multimedia content, can bolster your brand’s authority and drive organic traffic, aiding in building a strong brand presence.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains a crucial component of any marketing strategy. Optimizing your digital content for search engines can significantly enhance your visibility, driving sustained organic traffic to your platform. By focusing on relevant keywords, meta tags, and backlink strategies, you can improve your ranking on search engine result pages, increasing the likelihood of attracting potential customers.

Partnerships, both strategic and collaborative, can be an invaluable asset in expanding your reach. By aligning with other brands, influencers, or platforms sharing a synergistic vision, you can tap into new audience segments, enhance brand credibility, and drive mutual growth. Joint ventures, affiliate marketing, and co-branding initiatives can create win-win scenarios, propelling brand awareness and user acquisition.

Performance analytics and data-driven insights should guide your marketing endeavors, enabling a deeper understanding of your audience’s interactions and preferences. Regularly analyzing the effectiveness of your campaigns, engagement rates, and conversion metrics allows for continuous refinement of your strategies, ensuring that your marketing efforts remain aligned with your business objectives and are responsive to evolving market dynamics.

User-generated content and customer testimonials can be leveraged to enhance authenticity and build trust. Encouraging your user base to share their experiences, reviews, and content can create a community around your brand, strengthening customer relationships and augmenting your brand’s image.

Incorporating a blend of inbound and outbound marketing strategies can optimize reach and engagement. While inbound strategies focus on attracting customers through value-driven content, outbound strategies like targeted ads and email campaigns can proactively reach potential customers, enhancing brand recall and conversions.

11) Decide Which Metrics To Monitor Success

Deciding which metrics to monitor is integral for steering the company in the right direction and making informed decisions. Established Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) act as a compass, indicating whether the business is on the path to achieving its goals. Besides the listed metrics, several other nuanced and contextual KPIs might be critical depending on the unique nature and needs of your business.

KPIs That Measure Success

• Monthly Active Users (MAUs)
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Lifetime Value (LTV)
• Conversion Rate
• Retention Rate
• Revenue Growth Rate

Each KPI serves a specific purpose. For instance, Monthly Active Users (MAUs) gauge the level of user engagement and the overall health of the product, while Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) helps in assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing strategies. Monitoring Lifetime Value (LTV) aids in understanding the long-term value of a customer relative to the acquisition cost, guiding resource allocation, and retention strategies.

The Conversion Rate is pivotal as it quantifies the percentage of users who take a desired action, offering insights into the effectiveness of your user interface and call-to-actions. The Retention Rate evaluates the ability of your company to retain customers over a specific period, highlighting the sustainability and appeal of your product or service.

The Revenue Growth Rate is fundamental for assessing the financial trajectory of the company, allowing you to measure the pace at which your revenue is increasing, which is essential for evaluating the scalability and long-term viability of the business model.

In addition, focusing on user satisfaction metrics, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and churn rate can also provide valuable insights. User satisfaction metrics reveal the overall contentment levels of your customers, allowing for enhanced user experience and product improvement. The NPS measures the willingness of customers to recommend your product or service, serving as a reliable indicator of customer perceptions and loyalty. A lower churn rate indicates higher customer satisfaction and better product-market fit.

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Related resource: Top 18 Revolutionary EdTech Startups Redefining Education

How to Start a Tech Company

Starting Your Own Tech Startup Company

We are living in the digital age. It is no surprise that people want to start their own tech business. But, what does it take to be a successful entrepreneur in the tech industry? What steps should you follow when starting your own tech startup? This article will discuss those questions and more.

We have a selection of articles for how to start a variety of tech-related businesses that can help you get started. Choose a link from the list below to start on your path to success.

• How to Start a Mobile App Business
• How to Start a Software Company
• How to Start a Solar Farm
• How to Start a Web Design Business

14 Steps to Starting a Tech Company

Choose the name for your tech startup company.

The first step to starting a new tech business is to choose your business’ name.

This is a very important choice since your company name is your brand and will last for the lifetime of your business. Ideally you choose a name that is meaningful and memorable. Here are some tips for choosing a name for your tech startup:

• Make sure the name is available . Check your desired name against trademark databases and your state’s list of registered business names to see if it’s available. Also check domain availability.
• Keep it simple . The best names are usually ones that are easy to remember, pronounce and spell.
• Think about marketing . Come up with a name that reflects the desired brand and/or focus of your tech business.

Develop Your Tech Business Plan

One of the most important steps in starting a tech company is to develop your tech business plan . The process of creating your plan ensures that you fully understand your market and your business strategy. The plan also provides you with a roadmap to follow and if needed, to present to funding sources to raise capital for your business.

Your business plan should include the following sections:

• Executive Summary – this section should summarize your entire business plan so readers can quickly understand the key details of your tech startup.
• Company Overview – this section tells the reader about the history of your tech startup and what type of tech business you operate. For example, are you a software development company, mobile app business , web hosting service, or website design / development company, provide numerous paid usability services, conduct usability tests, or do you provide creative and professional services within the tech industry?
• Industry Analysis – here you will document key information about the tech industry. Conduct market research and document how big the industry is and what trends are affecting it.
• Customer Analysis – in this section, you will document who your ideal or target audience is and their demographics. For example, how old are they? Where do they live? What do they find important when purchasing products or tech solutions like the ones you will offer?
• Competitive Analysis – here you will document the key direct and indirect competitors you will face and how you will develop your value proposition.
• Marketing Plan – your marketing plan should address the 4Ps: Product, Price, Promotions and Place.
• Product : Determine and document what products/services you will offer
• Prices : Document the prices of your products/services
• Place : Where will your business be located and how will that location help you increase sales?
• Promotions : What promotional methods will you use to attract customers to your tech startup? For example, you might decide to use pay-per-click advertising, public relations, search engine optimization and/or social media marketing.
• Operations Plan – here you will determine the key processes you will need to run your day-to-day operations. You will also determine your staffing needs. Finally, in this section of your plan, you will create a projected growth timeline showing the milestones you hope to achieve in the coming years.
• Management Team – this section details the background of your company’s management team, including the Chief Executive Office and Chief Technology Officer.
• Financial Plan – finally, the financial plan answers questions including the following:
• What startup costs will you incur?
• How will your tech business make money?
• What are your projected sales and expenses for the next five years?
• Do you need to raise funding to launch your business?

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Choose the legal structure for your tech business.

Next you need to choose a legal structure for your tech company and register it and your business name with the Secretary of State in each state where you operate your business.

Below are the five most common legal structures:

1) Sole proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is a business entity in which the owner of the tech startup and the business are the same legal person. The owner of a sole proprietorship is responsible for all debts and obligations of the business. There are no formalities required to establish a sole proprietorship, and it is easy to set up and operate. The main advantage of a sole proprietorship is that it is simple and inexpensive to establish. The main disadvantage is that the owner is liable for all debts and obligations of the business.

2) Partnerships

A partnership is a legal structure that is popular among small businesses. It is an agreement between two or more people who want to start a tech company together. The partners share in the profits and losses of the business.

The advantages of a partnership are that it is easy to set up, and the partners share in the profits and losses of the business. The disadvantages of a partnership are that the partners are jointly liable for the debts of the business, and disagreements between partners can be difficult to resolve.

3) Limited Liability Company (LLC)

A limited liability company, or LLC, is a type of business entity that provides limited liability to its owners. This means that the owners of an LLC are not personally responsible for the debts and liabilities of the business. The advantages of an LLC for a tech business include flexibility in management, pass-through taxation (avoids double taxation as explained below), and limited personal liability. The disadvantages of an LLC include lack of availability in some states and self-employment taxes.

4) C Corporation

A C Corporation is a business entity that is separate from its owners. It has its own tax ID and can have shareholders. The main advantage of a C Corporation for a tech startup is that it offers limited liability to its owners. This means that the owners are not personally responsible for the debts and liabilities of the business. The disadvantage is that C Corporations are subject to double taxation. This means that the corporation pays taxes on its profits, and the shareholders also pay taxes on their dividends.

5) S Corporation

An S Corporation is a type of corporation that provides its owners with limited liability protection and allows them to pass their business income through to their personal income tax returns, thus avoiding double taxation. There are several limitations on S Corporations including the number of shareholders they can have among others.

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Secure Startup Funding for Your Tech Company (If Needed)

In developing your tech business plan , you might have determined that you need to raise funding to launch your business.

If so, the main sources of funding for a tech business to consider are personal savings, family and friends, credit card financing, bank loans, crowdfunding and angel investors. Angel investors are individuals who provide capital to early-stage businesses. Angel investors typically will invest in a tech company that they believe has high potential for growth.

Secure a Location for Your Business

Having the right space can be important for your tech startup, particularly if you’d like to meet clients there.

To find the right space, consider:

• Driving around to find the right areas while looking for “for lease” signs
• Contacting a commercial real estate agent
• Doing commercial real estate searches online
• Telling others about your needs and seeing if someone in your network has a connection that can help you find the right space

Register Your Tech Startup with the IRS

Next, you need to register your business with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which will result in the IRS issuing you an Employer Identification Number (EIN).

Most banks will require you to have an EIN in order to open up an account. In addition, in order to hire employees, you will need an EIN since that is how the IRS tracks your payroll tax payments.

Open a Business Bank Account

It is important to establish a bank account in your tech startup’s name. This process is fairly simple and involves the following steps:

• Identify and contact the bank you want to use
• Gather and present the required documents (generally include your company’s Articles of Incorporation, driver’s license or passport, and proof of address)
• Complete the bank’s application form and provide all relevant information
• Meet with a banker to discuss your business needs and establish a relationship with them

Get a Business Credit Card

You should get a business credit card for your tech business to help you separate personal and business expenses.

You can either apply for a business credit card through your bank or apply for one through a credit card company.

When you’re applying for a business credit card, you’ll need to provide some information about your business. This includes the name of your business, the address of your business, and the type of business you’re running. You’ll also need to provide some information about yourself, including your name, Social Security number, and date of birth.

Get the Required Business Licenses and Permits

Every state, county and city has different business license and permit requirements.

Nearly all states, counties and/or cities have license requirements including:

• General Business License : getting your Articles of Incorporation as discussed above
• Sales Tax License or Seller’s Permit : for selling products
• Zoning Approval : typically at the city or county level, this provides authorization for construction or use of a building or land for a particular purpose
• Fire Department Approval : a process by which the local fire department reviews and approves the installation of a fire alarm system.

Get Business Insurance for Your Tech Business

Other business insurance policies that you should consider for your tech startup include:

• General liability insurance : This covers accidents and injuries that occur on your property. It also covers damages caused by your employees or products.
• Workers’ compensation insurance : If you have employees, this type of policy works with your general liability policy to protect against workplace injuries and accidents. It also covers medical expenses and lost wages.
• Commercial property insurance : This covers damage to your property caused by fire, theft, or vandalism.
• Business interruption insurance : This covers lost income and expenses if your business is forced to close due to a covered event.

Buy or Lease the Right Tech Company Equipment

Most tech startups don’t need much equipment. To start a tech company, you probably only need a computer, phone, dedicated web hosting, and internet access. You might also need office furniture, printers, or other accessories.

Develop Your Tech Startup Marketing Materials

Marketing materials will be required to attract and retain customers to your tech business.

The key marketing materials you will need are as follows:

• Company’s Logo : Spend some time developing a professional-looking logo for your tech company. Your startup’s logo will be printed on company stationery, business cards, marketing materials and so forth. The right logo can increase customer trust and awareness of your brand.
• Website : Likewise, a professional tech business website provides potential customers with information about the products and/or services you offer, your company’s history, and contact information. Importantly, remember that the look and feel of your website will affect how customers perceive you. Invest in search engine optimization (SEO) efforts to help boost your keyword rankings and generate more organic traffic.
• Social Media Accounts : establish social media accounts in your company’s name and start generating interest and increase customer anticipation for upcoming products or particular features. Accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or other social media networks will help customers and others find and interact with your technology company.

Purchase and Setup the Software Needed to Run Your Tech Business

Most tech companies need accounting software and customer relationship management (CRM) software.

While there are many different software options available, some of the most popular programs for accounting include QuickBooks and Xero. Some of the most popular CRM programs include Salesforce, and Zoho.

You may also need other software such as business development, project management, design software, web hosting, DNS hosting, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, online web applications, and/or a simple website wireframe tool.

Open for Business

Here are some additional tips to help you increase your success in the tech world:

• Be Patient : It takes time for your business to take off. If you are not seeing the results you want, keep at it. With any luck, your company will achieve success and provide customers with great products or services.
• Hire Professionals : To build your tech business, you most likely enlisted the help of professionals to develop strategies and offer guidance. For any issues that they cannot handle alone, consider hiring additional professionals or outsourcing work to freelancers.
• Ask for Customer Feedback : Customers are your best source of valuable feedback about your business and how it compares to your competition. Talk to them to find out what they like and do not like about your business, what could be improved, and how you can provide value. This will be an ongoing process to continually improve your business and customer satisfaction. Over time this will also increase your customer retention.

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  Below are answers to frequently asked questions that might further help you.  

How to Start a Tech Company FAQs

What does a tech startup do.

A technology startup is a company that uses new technology to create products and services. Technology startups also focus on rapid growth, innovative thinking, and a team-oriented culture.

Is a Tech Business Profitable?

A tech business can be very profitable. Some of the most valuable companies in the world are tech-oriented including Apple, Uber, Google, Microsoft and Dell.

To increase the likelihood of success, tech startups generally need to invest money in developing products with high-tech value. This often means spending capital on new technologies, equipment and talent.

What Kind of Technology Business Can You Start?

A tech business can develop and sell a wide range of products and services including: mobile app design, software development, hardware manufacturing, e-commerce platform development and more. As one of the fastest-growing industries in existence, there are endless opportunities to develop new technologies.

How Much Does It Cost To Start a Tech Company?

It varies. The cost to start a technology company depends on the type of business, location and necessary equipment and expenses. For example, if you are opening an IT company, you will probably need equipment. If you are starting a web design agency, you may have to hire freelance designers or developers until your in-house team is large enough for full-time work.

Fortunately, as a tech business, there are many opportunities to save money by using open-source software, code sharing sites and utilizing shared or virtual office spaces to help you save on startup costs. As your business grows, you will be able to re-invest those savings into new equipment and talent.

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How to Start a Business With No Money

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How to write a business plan for a technology consulting company?

Creating a business plan for a technology consulting company is an essential process for any entrepreneur. It serves as a roadmap that outlines the necessary steps to be taken to start or grow the business, the resources required, and the anticipated financial outcomes. It should be crafted with method and confidence.

This guide is designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge necessary for creating a technology consulting company business plan, covering why it is so important both when starting up and running an established business, what should be included in your plan, how it should be structured, what tools should be used to save time and avoid errors, and other helpful tips.

We have a lot to cover, so let's get to it!

In this guide:

Why write a business plan for a technology consulting company?

What information is needed to create a business plan for a technology consulting company.

• What goes in the financial forecast for a technology consulting company?
• What goes in the written part of a technology consulting company business plan?
• What tool can I use to write my technology consulting company business plan?

Understanding the document's scope and goals will help you easily grasp its structure and content. Before diving into the specifics of the plan, let's take a moment to explore the key reasons why having a technology consulting company business plan is so crucial.

To have a clear roadmap to grow the business

It's rarely business as usual for small businesses. The economy follows cycles where years of growth are followed by recessions, and the business environment is always changing with new technologies, new regulations, new competitors, and new consumer behaviours appearing all the time...

In this context, running a business without a clear roadmap is like driving blindfolded: it's dangerous at best. That's why writing a business plan for a technology consulting company is essential to create successful and sustainable businesses.

To write an effective business plan, you will need to take stock of where you are (if you are already in business) and where you want the business to go in the next three to five years.

Once you know where you want your technology consulting company to be, you'll have to identify:

• what resources (human, equipment, and capital) are needed to get there,
• at what pace the business needs to progress to get there in time,
• and what risks you'll face along the way.

Going through this process regularly is beneficial, both for startups and existing companies, as it helps make informed decisions about how best to allocate resources to ensure the long-term success of the business.

To get visibility on future cash flows

If your small technology consulting company runs out of cash: it's game over. That's why we often say "cash is king", and it's crucial to have a clear view of your technology consulting company's future cash flows.

So, how can you achieve this? It's simple - you need to have an up-to-date financial forecast.

The good news is that your technology consulting company business plan already includes a financial forecast (which we'll discuss further in this guide). Your task is to ensure it stays current.

To accomplish this, it's essential to regularly compare your actual financial performance with what was planned in your financial forecast. Based on your business's current trajectory, you can make adjustments to the forecast.

By diligently monitoring your technology consulting company's financial health, you'll be able to spot potential financial issues, like unexpected cash shortfalls, early on and take corrective actions. Moreover, this practice will enable you to recognize and capitalize on growth opportunities, such as excess cash flow enabling you to expand to new locations.

To secure financing

Whether you are a startup or an existing business, writing a detailed technology consulting company business plan is essential when seeking financing from banks or investors.

This makes sense given what we've just seen: financiers want to ensure you have a clear roadmap and visibility on your future cash flows.

Banks will use the information included in the plan to assess your borrowing capacity (how much debt your business can support) and your ability to repay the loan before deciding whether they will extend credit to your business and on what terms.

Similarly, investors will review your plan carefully to assess if their investment can generate an attractive return on investment.

To do so, they will be looking for evidence that your technology consulting company has the potential for healthy growth, profitability, and cash flow generation over time.

Now that you understand why it is important to create a business plan for a technology consulting company, let's take a look at what information is needed to create one.

Writing a technology consulting company business plan requires research so that you can project sales, investments and cost accurately in your financial forecast.

In this section, we cover three key pieces of information you should gather before drafting your business plan!

Carrying out market research for a technology consulting company

Before you begin writing your business plan for a technology consulting company, conducting market research is a critical step in ensuring precise and realistic financial projections.

Market research grants you valuable insights into your target customer base, competitors, pricing strategies, and other crucial factors that can impact the success of your business.

In the course of this research, you may stumble upon trends that could impact your technology consulting company.

You might find that more companies are shifting to cloud-based technology solutions, so you may want to consider offering cloud consulting services. Additionally, you could discover that many businesses are looking to invest in technologies that automate manual processes, so you might want to consider consulting services related to automation.

Such market trends play a pivotal role in revenue forecasting, as they provide essential data regarding potential customers' spending habits and preferences.

By integrating these findings into your financial projections, you can provide investors with more accurate information, enabling them to make well-informed decisions about investing in your technology consulting company.

Developing the marketing plan for a technology consulting company

Before delving into your technology consulting company business plan, it's imperative to budget for sales and marketing expenses.

To achieve this, a comprehensive sales and marketing plan is essential. This plan should provide an accurate projection of the necessary actions to acquire and retain customers.

Additionally, it will outline the required workforce to carry out these initiatives and the corresponding budget for promotions, advertising, and other marketing endeavours.

By budgeting accordingly, you can ensure that the right resources are allocated to these vital activities, aligning them with the sales and growth objectives outlined in your business plan.

The staffing and capital expenditure requirements of a technology consulting company

Whether you are starting or expanding a technology consulting company, it is important to have a clear plan for recruitment and capital expenditures (investment in equipment and real estate) in order to ensure the success of the business.

Both the recruitment and investment plans need to be coherent with the timing and level of growth planned in your forecast, and require appropriate funding.

Staffing costs for a technology consulting company might include salaries for software engineers, systems administrators, and IT consultants, as well as costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and training new employees. Equipment costs for a technology consulting company might include the purchase of computers, servers, software licenses, and other tools needed to perform services like cloud computing, application development, and network security.

In order to create a realistic financial forecast, you will also need to consider the other operating expenses associated with running the business on a day-to-day basis (insurance, bookkeeping, etc.). 

Once you have all the necessary information to create a business plan for your technology consulting company, it is time to start creating your financial forecast.

What goes into your technology consulting company's financial forecast?

The objective of the financial forecast of your technology consulting company's business plan is to show the growth, profitability, funding requirements, and cash generation potential of your business over the next 3 to 5 years.

The four key outputs of a financial forecast for a technology consulting company are:

• The profit and loss (P&L) statement ,
• The projected balance sheet ,
• The cash flow forecast ,
• And the sources and uses table .

Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail.

The projected P&L statement

The projected P&L statement for a technology consulting company shows how much revenue and profit your business is expected to make in the future.

A healthy technology consulting company's P&L statement should show:

• Sales growing at (minimum) or above (better) inflation
• Stable (minimum) or expanding (better) profit margins
• A healthy level of net profitability

This will of course depend on the stage of your business: numbers for a startup will look different than for an established technology consulting company.

The projected balance sheet of your technology consulting company

The balance sheet for a technology consulting company is a financial document that provides a snapshot of your business’s financial health at a given point in time.

It shows three main components: assets, liabilities and equity:

• Assets: are resources owned by the business, such as cash, equipment, and accounts receivable (money owed by clients).
• Liabilities: are debts owed to creditors and other entities, such as accounts payable (money owed to suppliers) and loans.
• Equity: includes the sums invested by the shareholders or business owners and the cumulative profits and losses of the business to date (called retained earnings). It is a proxy for the value of the owner's stake in the business.

Examining the balance sheet is important for lenders, investors, or other stakeholders who are interested in assessing your technology consulting company's liquidity and solvency:

• Liquidity: assesses whether or not your business has sufficient cash and short-term assets to honour its liabilities due over the next 12 months. It is a short-term focus.
• Solvency: assesses whether or not your business has the capacity to repay its debt over the medium-term.

Looking at the balance sheet can also provide insights into your technology consulting company's investment and financing policies.

In particular, stakeholders can compare the value of equity to the value of the outstanding financial debt to assess how the business is funded and what level of financial risk has been taken by the owners (financial debt is riskier because it has to be repaid, while equity doesn't need to be repaid).

The projected cash flow statement

A cash flow forecast for a technology consulting company shows how much cash the business is projected to generate or consume.

The cash flow statement is divided into 3 main areas:

• The operating cash flow shows how much cash is generated or consumed by the operations (running the business)
• The investing cash flow shows how much cash is being invested in capital expenditure (equipment, real estate, etc.)
• The financing cash flow shows how much cash is raised or distributed to investors and lenders

Looking at the cash flow forecast helps you to ensure that your business has enough cash to keep running, and can help you anticipate potential cash shortfalls.

It is also a best practice to include a monthly cash flow statement in the appendices of your technology consulting company business plan so that the readers can view the impact of seasonality on your business cash position and generation.

The initial financing plan

The initial financing plan - also called a sources and uses table - is an important tool when starting a technology consulting company.

It shows where the money needed to set up the business will come from (sources) and how it will be allocated (uses).

Having this table helps understand what costs are involved in setting up the technology consulting company, how the risks are distributed between the shareholders and the lenders, and what will be the starting cash position (which needs to be sufficient to sustain operations until the business breaks even).

Now that the financial forecast of a technology consulting company business plan is understood, let's focus on what goes into the written part of the plan.

The written part of a technology consulting company business plan

The written part of a technology consulting company business plan is composed of 7 main sections:

• The executive summary
• The presentation of the company
• The products and services
• The market analysis
• The strategy
• The operations
• The financial plan

Throughout these sections, you will seek to provide the reader with the details and context needed for them to form a view on whether or not your business plan is achievable and your forecast a realistic possibility.

Let's go through the content of each section in more detail!

1. The executive summary

In your technology consulting company's business plan, the first section is the executive summary — a captivating overview of your plan that aims to pique the reader's interest and leave them eager to learn more about your business.

When crafting the executive summary, start with an introduction to your business, including its name, concept, location, how long it has been running, and what sets it apart. Briefly mention the products and services you plan to offer and your target customer profile.

Following that, provide an overview of the addressable market for your technology consulting company, current trends, and potential growth opportunities.

Next, include a summary of key financial figures like projected revenues, profits, and cash flows.

Finally, in the "ask" section, detail any funding requirements you may have.

2. The presentation of the company

As you build your technology consulting company business plan, the second section deserves attention as it delves into the structure and ownership, location, and management team of your company.

In the structure and ownership part, you'll provide valuable insights into the legal structure of the business, the identities of the owners, and their respective investments and ownership stakes. This level of transparency is vital, particularly if you're seeking financing, as it clarifies which legal entity will receive the funds and who holds the reins of the business.

Moving to the location part, you'll offer a comprehensive view of the company's premises and articulate why this specific location is strategic for the business, emphasizing factors like catchment area, accessibility, and nearby amenities.

When describing the location of your technology consulting company, you may want to emphasize the potential and opportunity that the area has to offer. You could point to its access to major transportation hubs, its well-developed infrastructure, and its proximity to sources of talent, such as universities and research centers. You could also emphasize the potential for growth and the availability of resources, both in terms of physical infrastructure and the local business climate. You may also want to highlight the potential for networking and collaboration opportunities that the area may offer.

Lastly, you should introduce your esteemed management team. Provide a thorough explanation of each member's role, background, and extensive experience.

It's equally important to highlight any past successes the management team has achieved and underscore the duration they've been working together. This information will instil trust in potential lenders or investors, showcasing the strength and expertise of your leadership team and their ability to deliver the business plan.

3. The products and services section

The products and services section of your business plan should include a detailed description of what your company offers, who are the target customers, and what distribution channels are part of your go-to-market. 

For example, your technology consulting company could offer strategic planning services to help customers develop long-term technology goals, IT audit and assessment services to help customers identify areas of opportunity and improvement in their technology infrastructure, and managed services to help customers manage their day-to-day IT operations. These services would help customers make smarter technology decisions, maximize their existing investments, and save time and money.

4. The market analysis

When presenting your market analysis in your technology consulting company business plan, you should detail the customers' demographics and segmentation, target market, competition, barriers to entry, and any regulations that may apply.

The goal of this section is to help the reader understand how big and attractive your market is, and demonstrate that you have a solid understanding of the industry.

You should start with the demographics and segmentation subsection, which gives an overview of the addressable market for your technology consulting company, the main trends in the marketplace, and introduces the different customer segments and their preferences in terms of purchasing habits and budgets.

The target market section should follow and zoom on the customer segments your technology consulting company is targeting, and explain how your products and services meet the specific needs of these customers.

For example, your target market might include small to mid-sized businesses who are looking to develop custom software solutions. These businesses may have limited in-house IT staff, and need to outsource some of their technology needs. Additionally, these businesses may need help with improving their overall IT infrastructure, such as system maintenance and security.

Then comes the competition subsection, where you should introduce your main competitors and explain what differentiates you from them.

Finally, you should finish your market analysis by giving an overview of the main regulations applicable to your technology consulting company.

5. The strategy section

When crafting the strategy section of your business plan for your technology consulting company, it's important to cover several key aspects, including your competitive edge, pricing strategy, sales & marketing plan, milestones, and risks and mitigants.

In the competitive edge subsection, clearly explain what sets your company apart from competitors. This is particularly critical if you're a startup, as you'll be trying to establish your presence in the marketplace among entrenched players.

The pricing strategy subsection should demonstrate how you aim to maintain profitability while offering competitive prices to your customers.

For the sales & marketing plan, outline how you plan to reach and acquire new customers, as well as retain existing ones through loyalty programs or special offers.

In the milestones subsection, detail what your company has achieved thus far and outline your primary objectives for the coming years by including specific dates for expected progress. This ensures everyone involved has clear expectations.

Lastly, in the risks and mitigants subsection, list the main risks that could potentially impact the execution of your plan. Explain the measures you've taken to minimize these risks. This is vital for investors or lenders to feel confident in supporting your venture - try to proactively address any objection they might have.

Your technology consulting company could face the risk of a data breach. If customer data is not properly secured, malicious actors may be able to gain access to sensitive information, potentially leading to financial losses or reputational damage. Additionally, your company could face the risk of a major project failure. If a project is not managed properly, the timeline, budget, and quality of the work could suffer, resulting in unhappy customers who may choose to take their business elsewhere.

6. The operations section

The operations of your technology consulting company must be presented in detail in your business plan.

The first thing you should cover in this section is your staffing team, the main roles, and the overall recruitment plan to support the growth expected in your business plan. You should also outline the qualifications and experience necessary to fulfil each role, and how you intend to recruit (using job boards, referrals, or headhunters).

You should then state the operating hours of your technology consulting company - so that the reader can check the adequacy of your staffing levels - and any plans for varying opening times during peak season. Additionally, the plan should include details on how you will handle customer queries outside of normal operating hours.

The next part of this section should focus on the key assets and IP required to operate your business. If you depend on any licenses or trademarks, physical structures (equipment or property) or lease agreements, these should all go in there.

You may have key assets such as experienced personnel and proprietary technology. For example, your personnel may have expertise in areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cloud computing. Your proprietary technology could include customized software solutions or a suite of industry-specific applications. Additionally, your company may have intellectual property such as trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and copyrights. This IP could be used to protect the uniqueness of your products and services from competitors.

Finally, you should include a list of suppliers that you plan to work with and a breakdown of their services and main commercial terms (price, payment terms, contract duration, etc.). Investors are always keen to know if there is a particular reason why you have chosen to work with a specific supplier (higher-quality products or past relationships for example).

7. The presentation of the financial plan

The financial plan section is where we will include the financial forecast we discussed earlier in this guide.

Now that you have a clear idea of what goes into a technology consulting company business plan, let's look at some of the tools you can use to create yours efficiently.

What tool should I use to write my technology consulting company's business plan?

In this section, we will be reviewing the two main solutions for creating a technology consulting company business plan:

• Using specialized online business plan software,
• Outsourcing the plan to the business plan writer.

Using an online business plan software for your technology consulting company's business plan

The modern and most efficient way to write a technology consulting company business plan is to use business plan software .

There are several advantages to using specialized software:

• You can easily create your financial forecast by letting the software take care of the financial calculations for you without errors
• You are guided through the writing process by detailed instructions and examples for each part of the plan
• You can access a library of dozens of complete business plan samples and templates for inspiration
• You get a professional business plan, formatted and ready to be sent to your bank or investors
• You can easily track your actual financial performance against your financial forecast
• You can create scenarios to stress test your forecast's main assumptions
• You can easily update your forecast as time goes by to maintain visibility on future cash flows
• You have a friendly support team on standby to assist you when you are stuck

If you're interested in using this type of solution, you can try The Business Plan Shop for free by signing up here .

Hiring a business plan writer to write your technology consulting company's business plan

Outsourcing your technology consulting company business plan to a business plan writer can also be a viable option.

These writers possess valuable experience in crafting business plans and creating accurate financial forecasts. Additionally, enlisting their services can save you precious time, enabling you to concentrate on the day-to-day operations of your business.

It's important to be mindful, though, that hiring business plan writers comes with a cost. You'll be paying not just for their time but also for the software they use, and their profit margin.

Based on experience, a complete business plan usually requires a budget of at least £1.5k ($2.0k) excluding tax, and more if revisions are needed after initial meetings with lenders or investors - changes often arise following these discussions.

When seeking investment, be cautious about spending too much on consulting fees. Investors prefer their funds to contribute directly to business growth. Thus, the amount you spend on business plan writing services and other consulting services should be negligible compared to the amount you raise.

Another aspect to consider is that while you'll receive the output of the business plan, you usually won't own the actual document. It will be saved in the consultant's business plan software, which will make updating the plan challenging without retaining the consultant on a retainer.

Given these factors, it's essential to carefully weigh the pros and cons of outsourcing your technology consulting company business plan to a business plan writer and decide what best suits your business's unique needs.

Why not create your technology consulting company's business plan using Word or Excel?

Using Microsoft Excel and Word (or their Google, Apple, or open-source equivalents) to write a technology consulting company business plan is a terrible idea.

For starters, creating an accurate and error-free financial forecast on Excel (or any spreadsheet) is very technical and requires both a strong grasp of accounting principles and solid skills in financial modelling.

As a result, it is unlikely anyone will trust your numbers unless - like us at The Business Plan Shop - you hold a degree in finance and accounting and have significant financial modelling experience in your past.

The second reason is that it is inefficient. Building forecasts on spreadsheets was the only option in the 1990s and early 2000s, nowadays technology has advanced and software can do it much faster and much more accurately.

And with the rise of AI, software is also becoming smarter at helping us detect mistakes in our forecasts and helping us analyse the numbers to make better decisions.

Also, using software makes it easy to compare actuals vs. forecasts and maintain our forecasts up to date to maintain visibility on future cash flows - as we discussed earlier in this guide - whereas this is a pain to do with a spreadsheet.

That's for the forecast, but what about the written part of my technology consulting company business plan?

This part is less error-prone, but here also software brings tremendous gains in productivity:

• Word processors don't include instructions and examples for each part of your business plan
• Word processors don't update your numbers automatically when they change in your forecast
• Word processors don't handle the formatting for you

Overall, while Word or Excel may be viable options for creating a technology consulting company business plan for some entrepreneurs, it is by far not the best or most efficient solution.

• Having an up-to-date business plan is key to maintaining visibility on your future cash flows.
• A business plan has 2 parts: a financial forecast highlighting the expected growth, profitability and cash generation of the business; and a written part which provides the context needed to interpret and assess the quality of the forecast.
• Using business plan software is the modern way of writing and maintaining business plans.

We hope that this guide helped you to better understand how to write the business plan for a technology consulting company. If you still have questions, do not hesitate to contact us.

Also on The Business Plan Shop

• How to write a 5 years business plan
• Business plan myths

Know someone who owns or wants to start a technology consulting company? Share this article with them!

Founder & CEO at The Business Plan Shop Ltd

Guillaume Le Brouster is a seasoned entrepreneur and financier.

Guillaume has been an entrepreneur for more than a decade and has first-hand experience of starting, running, and growing a successful business.

Prior to being a business owner, Guillaume worked in investment banking and private equity, where he spent most of his time creating complex financial forecasts, writing business plans, and analysing financial statements to make financing and investment decisions.

Guillaume holds a Master's Degree in Finance from ESCP Business School and a Bachelor of Science in Business & Management from Paris Dauphine University.

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More From Forbes

Managing project portfolios: 16 best practices for tech companies.

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It can be challenging for a technology business to assess and manage its product portfolio. A thorough evaluation goes beyond quantifying its dollar value; it also requires understanding the unique position your company and offerings hold in the marketplace. Only when you have a solid grasp of the holistic value of your offerings can you wisely allocate resources, pursue innovation that will be valued by the market, and remain competitive in a crowded, ever-evolving industry.

When leaders of a tech business have a clear view of the value and potential of their offerings, it’s far easier to chart the optimal path ahead. Below, 16 members of Forbes Technology Council share best practices for tech companies seeking to assess and wisely manage their project portfolios.

1. Focus On Early Disruption

Focus on two things. Disrupt your products before someone else does, and keep an eye out for inflection points—such as technological changes, macroeconomic conditions and so on—and strive to design new digital products before these inflection points arrive! - Cristian Paun , DuPont

2. Start With External Selling Tactics

Tech companies often have strong external value-selling tactics. Use that foundation to evaluate your product(s) within your own organization. Establish core OKRs, targets and meaningful impacts. Then, assess how each product performs and make a rollup of that. Finally, establish KPIs to continuously track and measure deviations in performance over time. - Jimmie Lee , JLEE

Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?

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Major quake hits taiwan at least nine killed as dozens of buildings are damaged, real madrid team ‘much better than galacticos’, says club legend, 3. conduct market analysis.

Be sure to conduct market analysis: Assess current market trends, customer needs and your competitors’ offerings. It’s crucial because it provides insights into where your product stands in the market and identifies opportunities for innovation or improvement. It ensures that your portfolio remains relevant and competitive, guiding strategic decisions on development, marketing and discontinuation. - Miguel Llorca , Torrent Group

4. Implement A Dynamic Evaluation Framework

A best practice for product portfolio management in technology businesses is implementing a dynamic evaluation framework. This approach emphasizes continuous assessment of products against market demands and technological changes. Its importance lies in fostering adaptability and enabling timely decisions that align with evolving industry trends, thus enhancing sustainability and growth. - Nicola Sfondrini , PWC

5. Ensure You Fully Protect Your IP

One thing to keep in mind is intellectual property protection. Make sure you copyright your code, apply for patents for hardware and generally review what proprietary stuff is worth protecting. It’s important to remember that the value of your patents and copyrights—including the R&D that goes into them—represents an item on your balance sheet. - Jordan Yallen , MetaTope

6. Know What Differentiates Your Product

Most organizations evaluate the size and growth rate of the market they are attempting to penetrate to project the value of a component of their portfolio. However, many organizations fail to identify what specific capabilities of a given product or portfolio will enable them to differentiate their offerings and drive compelling interest in their products. - Russ Kennedy , Nasuni

7. Build On What You’re Best At

Know what you are better at than any of your competitors, and make sure you expand your portfolio by building on that strong foundation. Everyone wants to work with the best in the industry, but too often, we chase expanding our portfolios to our detriment rather than expanding from a position of differentiation and our strength in what we’re the best at. - Richard Ricks , Silver Tree Consulting and Services

8. Engage In Data-Driven Review And Analysis

A best practice for product portfolio management is regular, data-driven review and analysis. This approach allows businesses to assess each product’s performance, market demand and strategic alignment. It’s crucial because it informs decision making on resource allocation and product improvements (or discontinuation), ensuring the portfolio remains competitive and aligned with business goals. - Saif Sultan , Volos Portfolio Solutions, Inc .

9. Incorporate Cross-Functional Collaboration

Foster a culture of holistic innovation by engaging teams in product portfolio management. This shared-vision approach leverages diverse insights, aligning products with market needs for sustainable growth and leadership. Incorporate cross-functional collaboration, enhancing product relevance and innovation and ensuring your portfolio’s adaptability and competitive edge in a fast-evolving market. - Andres Zunino , ZirconTech

10. Establish A ‘Portfolio Health Index’

Implement a “Portfolio Health Index” that combines traditional metrics with novel indicators such as customer sentiment analysis, sustainability impact and societal relevance. This holistic approach ensures that the portfolio not only meets financial targets, but also resonates with broader stakeholder values, fostering long-term resilience and positive brand perception. - Jagadish Gokavarapu , Wissen Infotech

11. Regularly Reinvent The Mix

For effective product portfolio management, regularly reinvent your portfolio mix for relevance. Prioritize, evaluate and optimize service offerings based on market trends, needs and constant feedback to ensure sustained alignment with dynamic consumer demands. Also, decide what portfolio items to deprioritize. - Jo Debecker , Wipro

12. Account For The Time And Money Your Portfolio Saves

Humans, from customers to employees, ultimately make or break a business. One significant way to estimate the value of your technology portfolio is to account for the time and money it saves in creating a dollar of revenue. Whether it is an internal project or a product we sell, the value of each component in a technology stack is easily determined by the money it saves. Every product should increase the difference between expenses and returns. - Kevin Korte , Univention

13. Invest In ROI Modeling For Each Product

Invest heavily in clear ROI modeling for each product. Quantifying business impact is truly hard but utterly essential. We build robust models that capture not only financial returns, but also less tangible, yet critical, benefits, including brand equity, talent retention and strategic positioning. This rigorous, 360-degree analysis provides the pivotal fact base to inform difficult resourcing trade-offs among products. - Marc Fischer , Dogtown Media LLC

14. Adopt A ‘Lean’ Approach

Adopt a “lean” approach that’s focused on iterative development and customer feedback. By valuing what customers truly need, businesses can prioritize projects that offer real value, reduce waste and increase ROI. This method ensures resources are optimally allocated, driving innovation and sustainability. It’s crucial for staying competitive and responsive in a rapidly evolving tech landscape. - Shelli Brunswick , SB Global LLC

15. Practice Agile Portfolio Management

Agile portfolio management emphasizes flexibility and rapid iteration, both of which are crucial for adapting to market changes. By continuously evaluating products against current trends and feedback, it ensures timely alignment with consumer demands, enhancing product success and market responsiveness. - Andrew Blackman , EZ Cloud

16. Leverage AI-Driven Analytics

Leverage AI-driven analytics for real-time insights into market trends, customer feedback and competitive landscapes. This not only quantifies the value of each product with precision, but also identifies synergies and gaps, guiding strategic decisions. Why? Because adaptability informed by data is the cornerstone of sustained success. - Marc Rutzen , HelloData.ai

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VERB's MARKET.live Livestream Shopping Business Plan is Now Fully Funded

LOS ALAMITOS, Calif. and LAS VEGAS, April 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Verb Technology Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERB) ("VERB" or the "Company"), the force behind MARKET.live, the popular livestream social shopping platform, announces that for the first time in the history of the Company, as of March 28, 2024, the disclosures concerning the Company’s audited financial statements, as set forth in its 2023 Form 10-K filed on April 1, 2024 (the “Form 10-K”), do not contain a “Going Concern” opinion.

As further set forth in the Form 10-K, the Company disclosed that it had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $14.2 million and notes payable of approximately $1.2 million. This represents an increase in cash and cash equivalents of $10.9 million and a decrease in notes payable of approximately $7.3 million over the same period last year as previously disclosed in the Company’s 2022 Form 10-K filed on April 17, 2023.

As further stated in the current Form 10-K “[W]e believe that our enhanced cash position coupled with our substantially reduced current operating costs means our operations are fully funded for at least the next 14 months, and possibly longer subject to revenue generation during that period. As a result, we have alleviated substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”

“With our current new partnerships including TikTok, new technology integrations and innovations, new strategic relationships, and a plethora of opportunities, together with significant financial resources for a company our size, our management team can now focus our efforts exclusively on growing revenue and working to generate the kind of returns our stockholders deserve,” stated VERB CEO, Rory J. Cutaia.

For more information, please visit MARKET.live or follow the latest updates on social media.  

Verb Technology Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: VERB), is a market leader in interactive video-based sales applications. The Company’s MARKET.live platform is a multi-vendor, multi-presenter, livestream social shopping destination at the forefront of the convergence of ecommerce and entertainment, where hundreds of retailers, brands, creators and influencers can monetize their base of fans and followers across social media channels. Brands, retailers and creators that join MARKET.live have the ability to broadcast livestream shopping events simultaneously on numerous social media channels, including TikTok, as well as on MARKET.live, reaching exponentially larger audiences. Creators and entrepreneurs that join MARKET.live’s drop ship program and TikTok affiliate program can earn income selling products from popular MARKET.live retailers. The Company is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV and operates creator studios in Los Alamitos, California and Philadelphia, PA.

Follow VERB AND MARKET.LIVE here:

VERB on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/market.liveofficial

VERB on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@market.live_official

VERB on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/market.liveofficial/

VERB on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/verb-tech/

VERB on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@market.liveofficial

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This communication contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and include, without limitation, any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain words such as "anticipate," "expect," "project," "plan," or words or phrases with similar meaning. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, forecasts and assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties. If any of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if any of our assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Investors are referred to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Reports on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, for additional information regarding the risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we do not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

Investor Relations: [email protected]

Media Contact: [email protected]

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Refunds for Benefytt customers who paid for health plans and products

Did you pay  Benefytt , which also did business as “MyBenefitsKeeper,” for a health plan or product that didn’t deliver the comprehensive insurance coverage the company promised? You might be getting some of your money back.

The FTC will return nearly $100 million dollars to Benefytt customers who paid for health plans the FTC says were falsely marketed as comprehensive health insurance or an “Obamacare” plan under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Here’s what to know about refunds:

• Customers who paid Benefytt $1,000 or more between 2017 and 2022 will get some money back. Checks will be mailed automatically and should arrive within the next two weeks.
• Cash or deposit the check as soon as possible. Refund checks expire after 90 days. 
• For more information or questions, call the refund administrator, Epiq Systems, at 888-574-3126.
• The FTC never requires you to pay money or give account information to cash a refund check. Anyone who contacts you and says they’ll help you file for a refund or get your money back — if you pay them first — is a scammer.

Before you sign up for health coverage or products:

• Compare plans, coverage, and prices at a trusted source .  HealthCare.gov and state marketplaces are the first stop for information about comprehensive, ACA-compliant health insurance coverage.
• Find out more about the seller.  Ask for the name of the agent and the agency that's offering you a plan. Search online for the names plus “complaint,” “scam,” or “fraud.” Read what others are saying.
• Check with your  state insurance commissioner’s office  to see if they have a license and find out if there are complaints. If they don’t have a license, what they’re selling is not insurance.

Resist pressure to make a decision on the spot. Legitimate health plans won’t pressure you to make a decision on the spot, and they’ll always give you a chance to compare their plan with other options.

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I had over $15k in bills that I am being told to pay because they did not pay them and money that I paid towards and beyond the "deductible" for services and then was stuck. I spoke with several attorneys but nobody wanted to discuss.

As much as I appreciate the refund, 124.13. It doesn't touch the amount owed to the hospital. I do believe we still owe 37,000.00. Nor the premiums paid for nothing. The way I see it...is the big wigs of this scam, took our money and spent it on themselves. Sell everything they have and there families have to repay these people us. I'm sick over this debt of ours.

I have given them $15,184.80 in the past 10 years too my benefit keeper. I should be getting a big refund for this scam

ALTTHOUGH IM HAPPY THAT THIS WS NOTICED AND THE COMPANY WAS PUNISHED IT DOESNT MAKE UP FOR THE $10,000 THAT WAS LOST WITH THIS COMPANY IN BOGUS COVERAGES AND CLAIM ...$340 IS WHAT I GOT

In reply to ALTTHOUGH IM HAPPY THAT THIS… by TAYLOR ATCHISON

My refund was $197 even though I paid them over 3 years!

I've been paying for a Medicare plan I did not SIGNUP for. I NEVER had access to the company, the card, or the benefit letter. The company has many products listed that they deal with...and to even find the address and proper phone number has been a nightmare. I'm in process of reporting to FTC as my bank keeps getting mislead (3x s). Wish me luck $13,000.+ Has been deducted in total.

In reply to I've been paying for a… by EDrach.

Report Medicare fraud to Medicare at 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).

They are still billing me and can't get anyone on the line to cancel

Intel’s turnaround plan won’t bear fruit anytime soon

There’s more news on Intel’s plan to reinvent itself as a manufacturer of other companies’ chips—and it’s not particularly encouraging for anyone who has been hoping for a quick turnaround.

The legacy processor giant yesterday unveiled a new financial reporting structure that accounts for the effective separation of its chip development (Products) and manufacturing (Foundry) businesses, which it announced in February . And in doing so, it filed a retrospective revision to its 10-K for the last quarter of 2023, revealing growing losses in its Foundry unit—nearly $7 billion in 2023, up from just over $5 billion in each of the preceding two years.

The revelation knocked Intel’s share price by over 7%, wiping more than $13 billion off the company’s value, and CEO Pat Gelsinger is desperate to reassure investors that Intel Foundry will be profitable. But not just yet. Indeed, this year will probably pan out even worse, he acknowledged yesterday, before an improvement leading to break-even in 2027.

There are clear reasons for this slow progress.

Intel’s only really big Foundry deal that’s been announced thus far is a recently won contract ( reportedly  worth up to $15 billion) to make Microsoft’s custom chips, which it will start doing using its upcoming 18A manufacturing process, due to roll out by the end of this year. But Intel gave itself a disadvantage by last year deciding to forego the use of ASML’s bleeding-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) chipmaking machines.

Gelsinger has since reversed that decision but, for now, Intel is forced to outsource a sizeable chunk of its production to Taiwan’s TSMC, its biggest rival in the foundry game. “In the post EUV era, we see that we’re very competitive now on price, performance [and] back to leadership,” he told investors yesterday, as  quoted by Reuters . “In the pre-EUV era we carried a lot of costs and [were] uncompetitive.” Unfortunately, even if Intel Foundry reaches the 40% gross margin it’s forecasting for 2030, that’s still behind TSMC’s margin, which was 53% in Q4.

Speaking of TSMC, the market leader just had to pause production due to Taiwan’s biggest earthquake in a quarter century. It says the stoppages were procedural, and workers have already returned to some factory lines, but analysts have pointed out that any disruption to TSMC’s operations could have spoiled entire batches of chips. A lot of companies will be nervously keeping their eye on the situation.

More news below.

David Meyer

Correction, April 3, 2024:  This article was updated to correct information about the chronology of Intel’s rollout of EUV technology and to clarify the reported value of Intel’s Microsoft deal.

Want to send thoughts or suggestions to Data Sheet? Drop a line  here .

Net neutrality looms. The U.S. will soon get its net neutrality rule back, with the Federal Communications Commission setting April 25 as the date for what everyone expects to be a vote of approval on the matter, Reuters reports . The rule bans internet service providers from prioritizing the traffic of certain online service providers over that of others. The Trump-era FCC ditched the original net neutrality rule, which had been introduced by the agency in the Obama era. 

Truth Social funding revelation. Trump Media, the parent company of former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, only made it through to its recent IPO thanks to loans in 2022 that partly came from a Russian-American businessman named Anton Postolnikov, the Guardian reports . Postolnikov is reportedly the nephew of Vladimir Putin ally Aleksander Smirnov (not to be confused with the former FBI informant of the same name, who has been charged with lying about the Biden family). Postolnikov is also under investigation in the U.S. in connection with alleged money laundering and insider trading in the lead-up to the SPAC deal through which Trump Media went public.

Yahoo buys Artifact. Instagram cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger released the Artifact AI-powered news app at the start of last year, forecasted its imminent demise at the start of this year, and now they’ve sold the tech. Yahoo is the buyer, and it doesn’t get Systrom and Krieger as part of the deal, The Verge reports —though they will hang around as special advisors.

ON OUR FEED

“Nelson Peltz should definitely be on the Disney board!”

— Elon Musk throws his weight behind activist investor Peltz in his proxy contest with Bob Iger’s Disney, which will be settled today at Disney’s annual meeting. Musk has been furious with Disney and Iger since the entertainment giant yanked its advertising from X.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Amazon is removing its cashierless Just Walk Out system from its Fresh grocery stores , by Bloomberg

Tesla reports its first year-over-year sales decline since the pandemic—and its shares are plummeting , by Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez

Slack’s chief product officer steps down, leaving none of the messaging service’s top early executives remaining , by Kylie Robison and Alexandra Sternlicht

Singers and stars try to pump the brakes on AI, as 200 artists including Billie Eilish and Jon Bon Jovi sign open letter denouncing unmitigated innovation , by Chloe Berger

The ‘Meta AI mafia’ brain drain continues with at least 3 more high-level departures , by Sharon Goldman

Is Microsoft’s $100 billion ‘Stargate’ OpenAI supercomputer AI’s ‘Star Wars’ moment? , by Jeremy Kahn

BEFORE YOU GO

Browser with downloadable AIs. The browser firm Opera, which tends to be more innovative than popular, will let users download large language models such as Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemma, to be run locally on their computers, through the Opera One browser. TechCrunch reports that the feature will offer over 150 AI models, each of which will be bigger than 2GB. Opera VP Jan Standal: “It is expected that they may reduce in size as they get more and more specialized for the tasks at hand.” Meanwhile, the privacy-first mobile browser Brave also just integrated an AI assistant that taps into a choice of different LLMs.

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Trump Media Merger Provides Trump a Potential Cash Lifeline

Having closed the merger of his social media company, Mr. Trump could find ways to raise cash against the value of his stake in the company, estimated at more than $3 billion.

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By Matthew Goldstein

Former President Donald J. Trump’s social media company — and the parent of his favorite communications platform, Truth Social — became a public company on Friday through a merger that will raise Mr. Trump’s wealth by billions of dollars and potentially help pay his mounting legal bills.

Trump Media & Technology Group is poised to debut on Wall Street at a market value of around $5 billion — based on the $37 share price of its merger partner, Digital World Acquisition Corp. Given that Mr. Trump owns more than 60 percent of the company, his overall net worth will increase by $3 billion — instantly doubling his wealth from the $2.6 billion estimate by Forbes magazine in October.

So far, those gains are on paper, and Mr. Trump is unlikely to be able to quickly turn it into cash because of restrictions in the merger agreement that prevent major shareholders from selling shares for at least six months, or using them as collateral for loans. But because Mr. Trump controls so much of Trump Media, and because his allies are expected to make up a majority of the new board, they could waive those restrictions on his request.

The question of where Mr. Trump can raise cash has become an urgent one because he is on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars of legal bills tied to the multiple cases against him. Mr. Trump is facing a Monday deadline to cover a $454 million penalty in a civil fraud case brought by the New York State attorney general, which accuses him of greatly inflating the value of his real estate holdings in deals with banks.

If Mr. Trump cannot come up with the cash or a bond to cover the penalty while he appeals the ruling, the attorney general’s office could seize some of his properties.

Trump Media’s board might be reluctant to allow Mr. Trump to sell shares early as that would likely deflate the company’s share price. But lifting the restriction on using shares as collateral would help him secure a bond and minimize the negative impact on the stock price.

Before the merger closed, Mr. Trump was chairman of Trump Media but neither it nor Digital World disclosed whether he will continue to retain the title. Either way, Mr. Trump will hold enormous sway over the company as the company’s new seven-member board includes Mr. Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and three former members of his administration. His 79 million shares give him a large majority stake in the company and his brand is critical to the success of Truth Social, which has become his main megaphone with communicating to his supporters.

There is no guarantee that the stock of Trump Media will continue to trade at its current levels. If the share price falls over the coming months, the sizable increase to his net worth could be smaller over time. Digital World’s shares dropped about 14 percent after the shareholder vote approving the merger.

As part of the merger, investors in Digital World — the cash-rich shell company that voted to merge with Trump Media — will now become shareholders of Mr. Trump’s three-year-old company. The deal will transfer more than $300 million from Digital World’s coffers to Trump Media, a struggling business with little revenue, and allow Truth Social to keep operating.

Shares of Trump Media could begin trading on the stock market as early as Monday under the stock symbol DJT.

Many of Digital World’s 400,000 shareholders are ordinary investors and fans of Mr. Trump, whose enthusiasm about the former president has propped up the shares for years. But it remains to be seen whether they will hold on to the stock now that the merger is done.

In a statement before the vote, Trump Media said that “the merger will enable Truth Social to enhance and expand our platform.”

With the future of his real estate business in flux because of the ruling in the New York civil fraud case, Trump Media could become one of Mr. Trump’s main moneymakers — and a potential source of conflict should he win the presidency in November. Trump Media currently gets most of its revenue from Truth Social, its flagship platform where several upstart companies advertise their products, targeting Mr. Trump’s supporters and using slogans that are variations on America First or Make America Great Again.

In using the stock symbol DJT, Trump Media is taking a trip back in time. One of Mr. Trump’s former publicly traded companies, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, had traded under that stock symbol until it filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

The merger of Digital World and Trump Media, first proposed in October 2021, is one of the more prominent deals to emerge from a strategy that many companies used to go public that was all the rage during the pandemic. Special purpose acquisition companies like Digital World are speculative investment vehicles set up for the purpose of raising money in an initial public offering and then finding an operating business to buy.

In going public through a SPAC merger, Trump Media is following other so-called alt-right businesses like Rumble, an online video streaming service that caters to right-leaning media personalities, and PublicSquare, which bills itself as an online marketplace for the “patriotic parallel economy.”

Trump Media took in just $3.3 million in advertising revenue on Truth Social during the first nine months of last year, and the company, during that period, incurred a net loss of $49 million.

“It’s unclear to me what is the strategy to building out the platform especially so it may reach a broader advertiser,” said Shannon McGregor, a professor of journalism and media at the University of North Carolina. “There does seem to be a ceiling in these niche markets.”

The merger was almost derailed by a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into deal talks between the two companies that took place before Digital World’s initial public offering. Securities rules prohibit SPACs from engaging in meaningful merger talks before going public.

But the deal got back on track after Digital World settled with the S.E.C. in July, agreeing to pay an $18 million penalty after the merger was completed and to revise its corporate filings.

After the deal was done on Friday, many shareholders and Trump fans celebrated online. Chad Nedohin, a vocal proponent of the merger on Truth Social, posted a livestream of the shareholder meeting on Rumble. In a chat room, viewers shared their enthusiasm for the deal, with messages such as “Great day to be alive” and “The day is finally here.”

Matthew Goldstein covers Wall Street and white-collar crime and housing issues. More about Matthew Goldstein

Ready or not, self-driving semi-trucks are coming to America’s highways

Autonomous truck companies plan a major expansion this year to deliver your packages and food, speeding well ahead of federal safety regulations.

PALMER, Tex. — Perched in the cab of a 35,000-pound semi-truck lumbering south on Interstate 45, AJ Jenkins watched the road while the big rig’s steering wheel slid through his hands. Jenkins was in the driver’s seat, but he wasn’t driving. The gigantic 18-wheeler was guiding itself.

Over several miles on the popular trucking route between Dallas and Houston, the truck navigated tire debris, maneuvered around a raggedy-looking flatbed and slowed for an emergency vehicle. Exiting the highway, it came to an abrupt stop as a pickup jumped its turn at a four-way intersection.

“You need to be ready for anything,” said Jenkins, 64, a former FedEx driver whose job is to take control if anything goes wrong. “People do some crazy stuff around trucks.”

Operated by Aurora Innovation, the truck is part of a new class of autonomous big rigs plying the nation’s highways. By the end of this year, the trucks will for the first time start traveling alone, without human minders like Jenkins, as two major companies — Aurora and Kodiak Robotics — launch fully autonomous trucks in Texas.

The advent of robot trucks could have a massive impact on America’s supply chain, dramatically reducing the time it takes to transport goods from place to place and unbinding the trucking industry from the costs and physical limitations of human labor. But the technology’s advancement has sparked concerns about highway safety, job loss, a lack of federal regulation and a patchwork of state laws regarding where and how autonomous trucks can operate.

By default, driverless passenger vehicles and trucks can ride anywhere in the United States, unless a state explicitly says they can’t. That means companies can test and operate their vehicles across most of the country. Two dozen states, including Texas, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, specifically allow driverless operations, according to data compiled by Aurora, while another 16 states have no regulations specific to autonomous vehicles. The remaining 10 — including California, Massachusetts and New York — place limits on autonomous vehicles within their borders.

Alarmed by the slow pace of federal regulation, labor and safety advocates are pushing legislation in several states to ban driverless trucks outright. So far, the effort has been unsuccessful. The California legislature approved a measure last year that would have required human operators in all autonomous trucks, but Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed it, calling it “unnecessary” in light of state regulations that already ban autonomous vehicles over 10,000 pounds.

Transportation experts have been frustrated at how slowly the federal government has moved on the issue, given its potential to disrupt a massive part of the American economy.

Steve Viscelli, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania who studies the trucking industry, said autonomous trucking could “change the geography of our economy in the way that railroads and shipping did.”

“There are real concerns that drivers have of the impacts of this,” Viscelli said, “and we need to take them seriously.”

Driverless passenger cars have caused chaos in cities like San Francisco, including one horrific accident last year when a robotaxi hit a jaywalking pedestrian and dragged her about 20 feet. The potential for catastrophe is even greater with massive autonomous trucks, critics say.

“Even with these small vehicles, it has been a disaster,” said Peter Finn, a vice president of the Teamsters Local Union 856, which represents truck drivers. “The notion that there is going to be no human being in large trucks barreling down the highways absolutely frightens me.”

Major expansion

Today, Aurora’s long-haul trucks are transporting packages and produce — about 100 deliveries a week — for FedEx, Uber Freight and others. Founded in 2017 by former executives at Uber, Google’s self-driving project and Tesla, the company has been training its driverless trucks in Texas since 2020.

By the end of this year, Aurora says it plans to have about 20 fully autonomous trucks working the 240-mile stretch between Dallas and Houston. Eventually, it plans to operate thousands of trucks all across America.

Kodiak Robotics, which was founded by a former employee of Uber and Alphabet’s Waymo, similarly plans to launch a fleet of trucks by the end of the year in Texas. A third company, Daimler Trucks — a subsidiary of German-owned Daimler that has partnered with Torc Robotics — is a few years behind, with plans to launch a driverless fleet in America by 2027.

Nat Beuse, Aurora’s chief safety officer, said the self-driving truck industry has been “methodical” in deploying its technology, adopting strict safety standards, including how the trucks respond to various system failures. Beuse said the company has learned from the mistakes of other autonomous vehicle companies, including General Motors-owned Cruise, which recalled its entire driverless fleet after the San Francisco crash.

“The federal government has been clear in that unless a state says you can’t deploy, you can. But that doesn’t mean as a company we don’t have responsibilities,” Beuse said. “This is not a science experiment.”

Marc Williams, executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, said Texas has a good relationship with the companies testing on its roads. The state has been at the “forefront” of supporting the industry, he said, and it is critical for its economic growth as demand grows for moving freight around the state.

“If we’re going to meet that challenge, it requires us to be successful in these partnership and collaborations with trucking and autonomous trucking industry,” Williams said at a February panel with Partners for Automated Vehicle Education, a coalition of industry advocates.

The average driver would find it tough to spot one of Aurora’s trucks, which bear only a small rear-facing sign that reads “AUTONOMOUS TEST VEHICLE.”

The view from inside the cab looks very different, however. On a recent day in February, two computer screens animated a flurry of potential hazards: Tire debris dotting the shoulder. Impatient SUVs and sedans eager to pass. An SUV merging without a turn signal.

Stephen Tune, a vehicle operations specialist, sat in the passenger seat, monitoring the screens. He narrated the truck’s every movement for Jenkins: “Moving to the right to avoid tire debris,” Tune said as the turn signal began to blink. “Moving to the left as a courtesy to the car behind us.”

On this drive, the truck followed all the rules of the road and even demonstrated an uncommon courtesy to other drivers. But it’s the unexpected scenarios — from errors by human drivers to sudden mechanical issues — that worry veteran truck drivers like Lewie Pugh.

“I know my computer and cellphone make mistakes. Machines can have bad days, too,” said Pugh, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a national organization representing professional truck drivers.

While Texas has been the center of autonomous truck testing, companies also have been running vehicles in Oklahoma and New Mexico, among other places. Since 2021, trucks operated by all three major companies have been involved in a handful of traffic incidents, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

None have been fatal or caused serious injuries, but the incident logs provide a window into the range of obstacles the trucks have faced.

In July 2022, a Daimler truck rolled over an object on a New Mexico highway that punctured its fuel tank, causing oil to spill onto the highway. In December 2023, a deer stumbled onto the path of a Daimler truck testing in Texas. The test driver took over, but the truck still hit the deer.

Earlier that month, a pickup truck trying to overtake an Aurora vehicle hydroplaned and hit the Aurora’s trailer. The Aurora detected the pickup but was unable to avoid contact.

The companies will be attempting to succeed in an industry that has faced setbacks. Waymo, the self-driving company owned by Alphabet, said in July that it would push back the timeline of its trucking efforts so it could instead focus on ride-hailing. Chinese autonomous trucking company TuSimple Holdings wound down its U.S. operations in 2023, a year after one of its automated trucks was involved in a crash while testing.

Still, autonomous trucks will make highways safer, those working on the technology say. According to the latest federal data, 5,788 people were killed in crashes involving a large truck in 2021, representing 13 percent of traffic deaths that year.

Tech moving faster than regulation

As profit-driven companies race toward deployment, the federal government has been slow to grapple with the implications of the new technology. The U.S. Transportation Department has largely allowed the companies to test their products on public roads, as long as companies comply with the same safety standards that apply to traditional human-driven trucks.

Within the Transportation Department, NHTSA and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration have been working for more than five years on a proposal to create basic “safety guardrails” for autonomous trucks, including requirements for remote assistants to monitor the driverless vehicles, inspections and vehicle maintenance. The proposed rule, which was submitted to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget in December, would be the Biden administration’s most significant action on autonomous trucking.

Transportation Department spokesperson Sean Manning was unable to say when the rule might be finalized, as it still has to go through several more bureaucratic steps. Until then, Manning said existing laws prohibit any vehicle, including those equipped with automated technology, from “posing an unreasonable risk to safety.” Meanwhile, NHTSA “will continue its vigorous enforcement using its defect and oversight authorities,” Manning said — including investigations or recalls — if it finds evidence of risk.

Aurora and Kodiak both support the idea of federal regulation, which would give them more certainty about standards as they expand nationally.

“Having a federal framework gives confidence to regulators and the public that the federal government is watching this closely,” said Daniel Goff, the head of policy at Kodiak.

Anxious truck drivers

Richard Gaskill, a truck driver in Texas since 1998, said he spots an autonomous test vehicle every now and then as he carries loads along I45.

“It’s too new for me to trust,” Gaskill, 50, said of the technology. “I don’t like the idea of these being out there taking our jobs.”

Gaskill’s anxiety is shared by union and trade groups like the Teamsters. But a 2021 study from the Transportation Department suggests concerns about widespread job loss may be misplaced: Autonomous trucking could at most lead to 11,000 layoffs in the next five years, the study says — less than 2 percent of the long-haul driver workforce.

Meanwhile, the study notes that the technology could create new job opportunities for maintenance technicians, dispatchers and fuelers while helping to relieve the drudgery that sometimes comes with being a long-haul trucker. And the autonomous truck companies say their technology can help transport goods around the country faster, as robot trucks can drive longer hours than human drivers.

Gaskill doesn’t buy it. He says he can’t fathom how a robot could navigate the nation’s chaotic highways better than he can. But as companies like Aurora expand, he is resigned to the fact that autonomous trucks are part of the future.

“It’s just a matter of time,” he said.

A previous version of this article misstated the year since when Richard Gaskill has been a truck driver in Texas. It is 1998. The article has been corrected.