Contacting Vista Ventures

We like to invest in entrepreneurs and companies with the vision and the drive to build market-leading technology companies. While there is no magic formula that guarantees success, our assessment of potential investments typically focuses on three core areas - the management team; the size and dynamics of the market; and the ability to build a long-term sustainable business.

Great Entrepreneurs and a World-Class Team

We look for the entrepreneurs with three core elements:

• Passion
• The determination and tenacity required to transform their ideas into successful businesses
• The ability to "lead", to have others bind to them and believe in their vision

We work with and assist our companies in building world-class management teams.

A Large and Growing Market

Of course, we look for large and growing markets. But we're interested in understanding more than just market size. We're big on customers. The company's product or service needs to solve a problem, or meet a well-recognized need. We work to have a clear understanding of the appropriate route to the customer (ie, channels and distribution), the buying process, and the sales cycle. Also, we are interested in the dynamics of the market - answering questions such as who is the competition, who could become the competition, or are there forces that would drive consolidation.

Building Businesses that Last

We look for business models with long-term viability and the ability to build sustainable competitive advantages. Often, this is accomplished through proprietary technology which creates barriers to entry, but this can be achieved through other means, depending on the stage of the company. Other compelling attributes include:

• Technology disruptive to industry, not to customer
• "Have to buy" versus "nice to have"
• Companies that target products of IT spending

Submit an Executive Summary

If you think your business fits our investment focus, and that your company is at a stage where it might benefit from our experience and resources, we invite you to submit an executive summary.

A good executive summary should contain:

• A description of the need being addressed
• An estimate of the market size and dynamics
• A compelling description of the company's solutions and value proposition
• A discussion of the company's competitive advantage
• Highlights of management's experience
• Five year pro-forma financials at summary level

We review every business plan and executive summary that we receive. Where possible, we prefer referrals from someone with whom we have worked closely. This referral can come from other entrepreneurs, our investors and advisors, accountants, attorneys, etc.

An introduction helps us learn more about you, and gives us a richness of background that no paper plan can. Introductions also help to establish chemistry and a strong working relationship. If someone we know likes you and your business, the chances are higher that we can establish an effective working partnership.

Note that we prefer plans in MS-Word or Adobe Acrobat format.

businessplan@vistavc.com