The magic moment in any incubate phase is not pitch day, rather it is the moment when your team moves from pain to an exciting product, service, or solution. This is the phase where you ask: What should we build? Can we build it? Can we deliver it? If we can’t build it, can we buy, partner, or invest to make it happen?
If there is enough pain, and the product is feasible, then the team will move on to the last phase of incubation—building a very rigorous and robust business operating plan that you will present to your new venture board members to decide whether the business is worth funding or moving forward.
Besides information on the customer and the product, the business plan needs to include: size of market; the business model; the funding ask; the operating plan including staffing and organization chart; the gives and the gets; risks and competition; why us; and the immediate next steps you will take assuming you get funded.