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What Investors are Looking for in a Startup Venture

February 11, 2014/in Angel Investors, Blog /by Robert Goodman

Investors look for two main things as they evaluate startup companies.
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WHO? WHAT? WHEN?

THE COMPLETE STARTUP ACTION PLAN WORKBOOK — FREE

The W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook — From Point A to Ready for Prime Time™ is a complete, continually improving, hands-on startup execution reference. The current 370+ page edition is the complete Workbook now delivered through our website signup forms: the free edition gives you the full methodology, 216 Action Items, 52 Milestones and nine coordinated Action Plans.

It helps founders identify WHO owns each action, WHAT result must be produced, and WHEN the work belongs in the sequence. It connects finance, customers, product, staffing, marketing, operations, fundraising and decisions that affect one another. This is practical help for both you as an entrepreneur and the company you are building.

Do not read it cover to cover. Use the Table of Contents and stage finder to go directly to the most urgent decision facing your company today. A mathematically perfect spreadsheet can still hide a fatal assumption; the Workbook shows how to test the assumption, find the evidence, and trace the financial and operating consequences before spending more.

The entire 370+ page Workbook is FREE — not a trial, teaser or reduced edition. There is no paid W³ Cubed™ Pro Workbook, no consulting requirement, and no credit card required for the free Workbook.

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W³ CUBED™ STARTUP COMPANY METHODOLOGY™
STARTUP ACTION PLAN WORKBOOK

What’s Inside the

W³ Cubed™

Startup Action Plan
Workbook

A COMPREHENSIVE, UNABRIDGED
STARTUP EXECUTION RESOURCE

NOT A TYPICAL BOOK —
A WORKING RESOURCE YOU CAN USE BY PRIORITY.

Use the Table of Contents to jump directly to today’s most important topic, get practical guidance, and take action.

▤

370+

PAGES

~100,000

WORDS

≡

ACTION PLANS

▥

MILESTONES

✓

216

ACTION ITEMS

⚑

GO/NO-GO GATES

SEE THE ENTIRE TABLE OF CONTENTS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS SIDEBAR ↓

What You Actually Get — FREE

The W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook gives you a working reference rather than a few pages of startup theory. The 370+ page edition now being delivered through every Workbook signup form provides detailed, actionable guidance, real-world examples, decision worksheets, checklists, investor-readiness tests and structured execution tools. It is designed to create many pivotal moments of discovery for you and your startup—not just give you a document to read.

216 Action ItemsA global-priority execution sequence that names WHAT must be done, WHO owns it, WHEN it belongs in the plan, which other actions depend on it and what proof establishes completion.

52 MilestonesMeasurable outcomes with Definitions of Done and evidence: know whether a milestone has actually been earned, not merely attempted.

9 Action Plans + Gantt ChartsNine detailed, coordinated Action Plans with timelines and Gantt charts connecting founder readiness, customers, economics, product, staffing, finances, operations, marketing and fundraising. The plan is equally useful for a new business initiative within an existing company.

4 Go/No-Go GatesFour evidence-based checkpoints to decide whether to proceed, change course, pause or stop before an unsupported assumption consumes your cash and time.

WHO Chart™ MethodologyBuild weighted, evidence-based hiring and mentor scorecards to define the expertise a job truly requires, compare candidates with a consistent yardstick and avoid the often enormous cost of a wrong key hire.

Driving-Assumption Stress TestsChallenge the inputs that drive your cash, hiring, launch and growth plans. Identify who selected each assumption, their relevant experience, what independent evidence supports it and what happens if it is wrong.

27 Field Notes + Founder ToolsDetailed real-world observations, overlooked costs, checklists, role guidance, Before You Move On checks, decision logs, templates and actionable founder tools.

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Beyond its five cover payoffs, the updated Workbook identifies a dozen less-obvious advantages. Each is designed to trigger a practical insight and a specific next action—not just another interesting idea.

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8. Stop paying twice for cheap talent. Evaluate key employees, contractors and advisers against the capabilities your company needs now and will need as it grows.

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10. Make consequential decisions auditable. Use Gate Decision Records, decision logs, dissent records and escalation tools so a partner, investor or manager can understand why you proceeded—or stopped.

11. Protect your household as well as your company. Put personal financial runway beside business runway so that startup spending does not quietly compromise your family’s security.

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The pivotal question is not “Does my plan look impressive?” It is “Which decision could destroy this company if the assumption behind it is wrong—and what can I prove before committing the money?”

My objective is to share what historically required thousands of dollars in one-on-one consulting, while reserving human consulting for decisions that truly justify it.

Explore the full-width Table of Contents on the homepage and choose the chapter, Action Item, checklist or decision record that addresses your most urgent question. The same complete current Workbook is delivered free through the website signup forms.

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A LIMITED OPTION FOR INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE JUDGMENT

Founder Slots — Up to 100 Entrepreneurs

As I transition toward retirement from consulting, I may accept Founder Slots for up to a maximum of 100 entrepreneurs across all service levels. This is a ceiling, not a promise to accept 100. I may close the opportunity much earlier, perhaps after 30–40 founders or fewer, depending on my availability and publishing commitments.

A Founder Slot counts an accepted entrepreneur, not a ten-hour retainer block. Accepted founders can request additional blocks later, subject to separate approval, agreement and availability; additional blocks do not create additional Founder Slots.

The purpose is to examine decisions and mission-critical driving assumptions that can determine the fate of a startup. A financial model may be 100% correct mathematically and still lead to catastrophic decisions if its revenue ramp, hiring plan, launch date, market assumptions or cash needs are unrealistic.

Founder Slot acceptance and a signed Statement of Work are required before payment and work. Please confirm availability before paying. Neither the free Workbook nor Lite reservations require consulting.

Prices and terms can change at any time without notice.

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AI Arsenal™ Lite

W³ Cubed™ tells you what needs to be accomplished. AI Arsenal™ Lite is being built to help you produce the work. The planned complete Lite package contains 50 guided AI founder workflows, each intended to create a useful, editable output instead of merely another AI conversation.

Each module is being developed and certified using Show → Explain → Interview → Deliver: inspect fictional test inputs and an actual sample work product, understand how the output was created, answer structured questions about your company and develop a personalized deliverable. Important estimates and UNKNOWN assumptions are identified for validation, not mistaken for facts.

Examples of planned Lite work products:

First-pass Business Plan and investor Executive Summary
Integrated financial models, projections and schedules
Startup costs, cash burn, runway and Maximum Cash Hole
Revenue staircase, sales requirements and lead-funnel math
Pricing, willingness-to-pay, CAC and gross-margin analyses
Launch-delay, growth-capacity and scenario stress tests
Go-to-market, sales-process and first-90-days plans
Hiring, contracting and outsourcing decisions
WHO Chart™ expansion and candidate tools under certification
Investor pitch, due diligence and weekly KPI preparation
Startup-wide red-team review of unsupported assumptions

AI Arsenal™ Professional is a separate planned advanced product, including a configurable Excel founder-control and Action Plan system. Neither Lite nor Professional is required to receive the free W³ Cubed™ Workbook, and neither is being represented as an immediately downloadable finished product.

Advance Reservation Price Tiers

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The W³ Cubed™ Founder Path

1 — FREE W³ Cubed™ WorkbookFind the most urgent action in the Table of Contents, determine WHO does WHAT, WHEN, and challenge the evidence behind the plan.Complete methodology — FREE

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2 — AI Arsenal™ LiteOptional 50-workflow production companion, being certified. Advance reservation only, with no purchase obligation.

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Use free tools for work you can do yourself. Pay for experienced judgment when the stakes justify it.

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Five Year Life™ Publishing

After more than 4½ decades of starting companies, raising capital, operating businesses and working with startup CEOs, my primary focus today is no longer building another consulting practice.

My focus is Good-Man LLC and the Five Year Life™ publishing program — preserving as much of the Compound Knowledge™ I have accumulated as possible while I still have the time and energy to do it.

I have already completed three books and have two additional books roughly 80% complete. My hope is to finish those and write several more while I still can.

That shift is also one reason W³ Cubed™ exists. I cannot personally mentor every founder who may benefit from the lessons I accumulated, but I can capture those lessons in books, methodologies, tools and AI-assisted systems that can continue helping people without requiring my direct involvement.

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FEATURED BOOK BY ROBERT LEE GOODMAN

Your Last Paycheck™

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Why Am I Giving the Complete Workbook Away?

I am Robert Lee Goodman, MBA, CEO and Chief ImpleMentor™ of CEO RESOURCE LLC. More than four and a half decades of founding, financing and running businesses have included 49 companies and partnerships, 44 outside-capital raises, approximately $120.1 million in today’s dollars and 1,342 investors, plus experience mentoring thousands of founders and CEOs.

What matters most now is the Compound Knowledge™ accumulated along the way: patterns, practical experience, mistakes and lessons that become more useful when connected across many companies and industries. I am shifting from direct consulting toward the Five Year Life™ publishing program and want to preserve that knowledge rather than leave it in consulting files.

The entire W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook is my FREE parting gift to the startup community.

If it helps a founder question one dangerous assumption, avoid one premature hire or uncover one overlooked cash requirement, the gift has served its purpose. There is no consulting purchase requirement.

W³ CUBED™ STARTUP COMPANY METHODOLOGY™
STARTUP ACTION PLAN WORKBOOK

What’s Inside the

W³ Cubed™

Startup Action Plan
Workbook

A COMPREHENSIVE, UNABRIDGED
STARTUP EXECUTION RESOURCE

NOT A TYPICAL BOOK —
A WORKING RESOURCE YOU CAN USE BY PRIORITY.

Use the Table of Contents to jump directly to today’s most important topic, get practical guidance, and take action.

▤

370+

PAGES

~100,000

WORDS

≡

ACTION PLANS

▥

MILESTONES

✓

216

ACTION ITEMS

⚑

GO/NO-GO GATES

COMPLETE TABLE OF CONTENTS

1	Open This Workbook and Choose the Priority That Matters Most Today	6
2	This Is a Living Document	9
3	Part One: Begin Here	15
4	Why I Built This for You	16
5	Where Are You Now? Find Your Stage	19
6	The W³ Cubed™ Startup Company Methodology™	21
7	Part Two: People First	24
8	The WHO Chart™: Hire With a Yardstick, Not a Gut Feeling	25
9	Who Does the Work: Your Role Roster	31
10	Avoid Cheap Talent — Even If That Talent Is You	36
11	Part Three: Money Before Everything	42
12	Financial First	43
13	Build Your First Model in One Sitting	45
14	The $1.5 Billion Spreadsheet: A Founder Case Study	53
15	The AI Sycophancy Trap — and How to Defeat It	55
16	Part Four: The Hiring Toolkit	58
17	The WHO Chart™ in Detail: Weights, Scores, and Scorecards	59
18	Selecting the Right Startup Mentor: The Expanded WHO Chart™	64
19	Part Five: What It Really Costs	78
20	Costs Founders Forget	79
21	The Costs Behind the Costs	80
22	Raising Money Takes Money and Time	82
23	Raising Capital: Why You Need Guidance Before You Begin	86
24	The Securities-Law Reality Check	88
25	Step 1: Plan the Raise in Phases	96
26	Step 2: Budget the Cost of Raising	98
27	Step 3: Know the Alternatives Before You Start	101
28	Step 4: Put the Funding Choice on One Page	103
29	Seven Critical Fundraising Blunders: Your Self-Audit	106
30	Part Six: Stress Tests and Gates	111
31	Driving Assumptions Deserve Their Own Stress Test	112
32	Run the Stress Test	114
33	Four Go/No-Go Gates	119
34	What to Bring to Each Gate	125
35	Part Seven: Run the Plan, Use AI	130
36	Running the Plan: A Cadence That Survives Real Weeks	131
37	Let AI Do the Expensive Production Work	137
38	AI Arsenal™ Lite: What Fifty Workflows Put in Your Hands	141
39	Using AI Responsibly With Founder Data	145
40	Part Eight: The Nine Action Plans	147
41	How to Work the Action Plan	148
42	Why There Are Nine Action Plans	153
43	Using W³ Cubed™ Inside an Established Company	156
44	One Row, Start to Finish	158
45	The Complete Global-Priority Action Plan	163
46	Milestones — The Wins the Plan Is Designed to Earn	207
47	Reading the Gantt Charts and Standalone Action Plans	214
48	Action Plan 1 — Point A, Founder Fit & Problem	217
49	Action Plan 2 — Quick Economics & First Go/No-Go	224
50	Action Plan 3 — Market, Customer & Sales Evidence	234
51	Action Plan 4 — Detailed Financial Model & Capital Need	244
52	Action Plan 5 — Strategy, Business Model & Legal Foundation	252
53	Action Plan 6 — Product, People & Operating Plan	266
54	Action Plan 7 — Brand, Website & Go-to-Market Engine	287
55	Action Plan 8 — Traction, Measurement & Funding Readiness	308
56	Action Plan 9 — Fundraising, Due Diligence & Scale	318
57	Part Nine: Worksheets and Tools	337
58	Founder Worksheets and Decision Tools	338
59	Glossary: Terms Used in This Workbook	347
60	Part Ten: Going Further	350
61	When AI and a Spreadsheet Are Not Enough	351
62	AI Arsenal™ Pro	355
63	Pro Founder Control Center™	359
64	One Final Opportunity: Challenge Your Mission-Critical Driving Assumptions	362
65	Why I Am Giving You This Free Startup Action Plan Workbook	364
66	Important Disclaimers	365
67	Your Personal Plan Beside Your Company Plan	368
68	Your Last Paycheck™	370
69	Reset Protocol™	371
70	Reset Protocol™ Workbook	372
71	Use This Workbook. Challenge It. Make It Better.	373

W³ Use the Table of Contents to go directly to the issue that matters most right now.

Not Sure Where to Start?

Start with the current complete FREE 370+ page W³ Cubed™ Startup Action Plan Workbook: 216 Action Items, 52 Milestones and nine Action Plans. Open the Table of Contents, find your most urgent decision, and begin there. There is no obligation to buy AI software or consulting.

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