The New Venture Plan

The new venture plan integrates the full RelayOps journey

This capstone lesson synthesizes ENT 301 Units 1 through 6 into a new venture plan (integrative memo that connects opportunity, validation, model, GTM, finance, team, and scale with reconciled numbers). You will assemble the same artifact investors and boards use: not a 60-page vanity deck, but a decision-grade memo with falsifiable milestones, cap table reconciliation, vesting discipline, hiring scorecards, and metric gates.

RelayOps arc in one paragraph: Maya Chen and Jordan Okonkwo identified dispatch chaos in 80-to-200 technician HVAC and plumbing firms, validated pain through discovery (10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows), built an emergency-queue MVP, ran founder-led GTM in Phoenix and Dallas, reached pilot renewals and dispatch median under 5 minutes, holds $400k cash with $45k burn, raises $1.8M SAFE toward $3.2M ARR with CAC payback near 8 months and NRR near 106%, and installs scaling systems before doubling headcount.

RelayOps is a B2B (business-to-business, selling to companies) SaaS (software as a service, subscription software delivered over the internet) venture improving dispatch and scheduling for mid-market field-service companies and the anchor venture for ENT 301. Founders Maya Chen (CEO, former dispatch manager at regional HVAC operator Summit Climate) and Jordan Okonkwo (CTO, former platform engineer) left Summit Climate in 2025 after living dispatch-center chaos firsthand. Their initial beachhead is 80-to-200 technician residential-heavy HVAC and plumbing firms, later expanding to commercial HVAC in Phoenix and Dallas with 50 to 150 field technicians. Discovery work confirmed 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows tied to same-day capacity loss when dispatchers rebalance schedules across phone calls, whiteboards, and legacy CRM tabs without a live view of technician skill, location, and parts. Competitors include ServiceTitan (heavy and expensive for mid-market), spreadsheets and whiteboards (status quo).

Throughout this course, RelayOps evolves from opportunity hypothesis to scaled venture. Elective depth lives in ENT 406 (Scaling Startups and High-Growth Organizations) when you want a full unit on that phase. ENT 301 teaches the integrated journey so you can advise founders, invest, or launch with disciplined evidence. Elective depth: ENT 401 discovery, ENT 402 PMF, ENT 403 GTM, ENT 404 finance instruments, ENT 406 scaling organizations.

Target depth: treat this lesson as a 6,000+ word integrative draft before the expand pass adds RelayOps scenario blocks. Every section includes arithmetic checks.

You should finish this lesson able to defend RelayOps orally without opening slides: state the pain metric, walk to booked MRR, explain why the SAFE is sized at $1,800,000, reconcile the cap table to 100% fully diluted, present AE and CS scorecards, and name the falsifier that would force a strategy pivot within 60 days. That defense standard is what separates integrative capstone work from fragmented unit summaries.

Venture plan memo structure (required sections)

Section 1 Executive summary (1 page): wedge, beachhead, ask, milestones, risks.

Section 2 Problem and opportunity: customer job, pain quantification, incumbent gaps. RelayOps: same-day rebalance failures drive 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows.

Section 3 Validation evidence: discovery sample, pilot outcomes, falsified hypotheses. Cite ENT 401 methods.

Section 4 Solution and business model: MVP scope, pricing, ACV $33,600 at 100 tech × $28/month. Check: 100 × 28 × 12 = 33,600 ✓

Section 5 Go-to-market: founder-led sales, ICP screener, CAC $18k, payback 8 months. ENT 403 playbook reference.

Section 6 Financial plan: cost structure, burn $45,000, runway 8.9 months pre-raise, post-raise use of funds.

Section 7 Financing and cap table: SAFE $1,800,000, reconciliation, pool 12%, founder vesting 4-year/1-year cliff.

Section 8 Team and hiring: role charters, scorecards for AE and CS, hire order.

Section 9 Metrics and gates: MRR bridge, NRR, GRR, dispatch North Star, scale triggers.

Section 10 Scale and culture: playbooks, RACI, norms, ENT 406 link.

Section 11 Risks and mitigations: churn, incumbent copy, services trap, hiring before playbook.

Section 12 Appendices: cap table, hiring scorecards, 12-month cash model, pilot ledger.

Memo section map with RelayOps proof artifacts:

Integrative opportunity-to-scale narrative

The plan must read as a causal chain, not a collage. Problem prevalence justifies discovery spend. Discovery justifies MVP scope. MVP metrics justify pilot pricing. Pilot retention justifies seed SAFE. Seed milestones justify AE hiring. AE hiring demands onboarding playbooks. Playbooks protect NRR while scaling logos toward 420 target accounts.

Weak plans jump from problem to $50M TAM (total addressable market, revenue if 100% share) without validation bridges. Strong plans show kill criteria at each gate.

Cap table reconciliation (capstone worked standard)

Capstone cap table exercise uses the same steps as Lesson SAFEs: founders 10,000,000 shares (Maya 5M, Jordan 5M) with 4-year vest; SAFE $1.8M at $9M cap converts; 12% option pool post-money; $3M new money at $12M pre. Students must produce a fully diluted table summing to 100% with three check lines.

Illustrative post-seed outcome: founders combined ~55%, investors ~20%, SAFE ~15%, pool ~10%. Legal counsel model governs live deals; learning goal is reconciliation discipline.

Vesting status must appear beside founder rows: at month 18, each founder ~43.75% vested of grant if no departure.

RelayOps capstone cap table (illustrative post-priced seed):

Round share counts to counsel precision; percentages here teach workflow, not legal finality.

Vesting and equity governance in the plan

Venture plans include founder vesting summary, advisor cap table, and employee band table. RelayOps: advisors ≤2% aggregate, 2-year vest; first 10 employees 0.05-1.5% bands by role level.

Departure scenarios appear in risk section: unvested shares repurchase, CTO continuity plan, investor notification timeline.

Hiring scorecards in the plan appendix

Capstone appendix includes at least two scorecards: AE and CS lead with weights summing to 100%, work sample, reference probes, anti-patterns. Hiring plan ties roles to milestones: CS lead month 4 post-raise, AEs month 6 after three founder-sold logos repeat without on-site Maya.

Each hire lists runway delta and expected metric movement (e.g., CS lead reduces founder success hours 2.6 per logo within 180 days).

RelayOps hiring plan excerpt:

Financial integration: runway, burn, SAFE, milestones

Financial section integrates Unit 4 lessons. Pre-raise: $400k cash, $45k net burn, ~8.9 months. Post-raise: $1.8M SAFE + $3M priced for growth (some programs treat as phased; memo states assumptions clearly).

Use-of-funds table: 45% GTM (AE, marketing), 35% product/engineering, 12% CS/onboarding, 8% G&A. Milestone gates: $1M ARR by month 12 post-raise, $3.2M ARR by month 18, NRR ≥100%, CAC payback ≤12 months.

12-month cash forecast appendix must show month-by-month cash, burn, and ARR ramp with checks each quarter.

Sensitivity appendix: downside case adds 90-day sales slip and one churn logo per quarter; upside case adds annual prepay mix at 25% of new logos.

Metrics dashboard specification

Capstone metrics appendix defines seven metrics with owners, formulas, thresholds, and review cadence. North Star median dispatch ≤5 min (Jordan). MRR bridge (Maya). CAC and payback (Maya + finance). NRR/GRR (CS lead). Weekly active dispatchers (CS + product). Logo churn reasons (CS). Founder hours per logo (CEO).

ENT 402 PMF signals feed Section 3 and 9. ENT 403 pipeline metrics feed Section 5.

Risk register and falsifiers

Top risks: (1) North Ridge-style churn from training failure, mitigation onboarding playbook; (2) ServiceTitan mid-market bundle, mitigation wedge focus; (3) services trap, mitigation 40-hour onboarding cap; (4) metric gaming on dispatch time, mitigation timestamp audits.

Each risk lists falsifier: observable event within 60 days that forces strategy change. Example falsifier: two consecutive logos churn with weekly active below 55% at day 45.

ENT elective crosswalk (required integrative table)

Students map ENT 301 sections to electives for depth routing. ENT 401 supplies discovery codebook. ENT 402 supplies PMF scoreboard. ENT 403 supplies CRM stage definitions. ENT 404 supplies SAFE waterfall and liquidation preference primer. ENT 406 supplies OKR and exec hiring modules.

Managerial synthesis: board-ready recommendation

Capstone ends with a one-page board recommendation: persevere and scale beachhead, evidence stack, capital ask, top three risks, next 90-day milestones with owners.

RelayOps recommendation sketch: approve $1.8M SAFE and priced seed path; launch two-logo Phoenix growth test; hire CS lead; defer AE #2 until CAC payback confirmed on founder-sold cohort; maintain dispatch North Star guardrails.

Quality bar for submitted venture plans

Submissions fail if: numbers do not reconcile, cap table ≠100%, metrics lack owners, hiring lacks scorecards, risks lack falsifiers, or TAM replaces beachhead evidence.

Submissions pass if a skeptical board member can audit evidence, finance, and team plan without asking for definitions mid-meeting.

Capstone deliverable rubric (self-audit before submit)

Use this rubric before submitting your new venture plan. Score each row 0 (missing), 1 (partial), 2 (audit-ready). Target 24+ of 28 points.

RelayOps reference submission should score 26+ because every section cites numbers with check lines and appendices attach primary artifacts.

12-month integrative timeline (RelayOps reference)

Month 0-3 (Units 1-2): discovery, problem ranking, interview synthesis. Month 4-6 (Unit 3): MVP, RAT tests, pilot pricing. Month 7-9 (Unit 4): founder-led GTM, first renewals, cost bridge, runway model. Month 10-12 (Unit 5): metrics pack, hiring scorecards, SAFE outreach. Month 13-18 post-raise: CS lead, AE ramp, playbook v2, ARR push to $3.2M.

Capstone students map their venture on the same timeline even if months differ. Integration means dependencies are explicit: no AE month 6 without playbook v2 and CAC proof.

ENT 406 enters when logo count exceeds ~30 and manager-layer hiring begins; until then, founders own systems directly.

Venture plan presentation: oral defense questions

Prepare oral defense answers for capstone review. Q1: "Walk me from pain metric to MRR in one chain." Q2: "Show cap table reconciliation." Q3: "What falsifies your plan in 60 days?" Q4: "Why this hire now?" Q5: "Compare bootstrap versus raise path with ownership math."

RelayOps oral defense cites 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows, $28/seat, 18 logos, $18k CAC, 8-month payback, 106% NRR, $1.8M SAFE, 55% founder ownership post-seed illustrative, CS lead before AE #2.

Strong defenses use numbers first, narrative second. Weak defenses use adjectives and competitor logos without renewal data.

Section-by-section RelayOps memo draft (Sections 1-6)

Section 1 Executive summary (RelayOps draft): RelayOps is a B2B SaaS dispatch console for 80-to-200 technician HVAC and plumbing firms. Discovery across 28 interviews and five paid pilots shows 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows tied to same-day schedule rebalance without live technician context. Pilots renewed at 80%, median emergency dispatch fell below 5 minutes, pilot cohort NRR ~106%, CAC ~$18,000, payback ~8 months. The company holds $400,000 cash, burns ~$45,000 net per month (~8.9 months runway), and seeks $1,800,000 SAFE (20% discount, $9M cap illustrative) plus priced seed to reach $3,200,000 ARR across ~420 logos in 18 months. Top risks: adoption churn, incumbent bundling, services trap. Falsifier: weekly active dispatchers below 55% at day 45 on two consecutive new logos.

Section 2 Problem and opportunity: Customer job: rebalance same-day emergency and high-priority jobs without losing first-visit windows. Incumbent gap: ServiceTitan optimizes full-suite enterprise rollout; spreadsheets fail under live call load. Pain quantification: 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks; dispatch rebalance loops exceeding 10 minutes during heat waves. Beachhead: residential-heavy HVAC and plumbing in Phoenix and Dallas with 50 to 150 field technicians per logo.

Section 3 Validation evidence: ENT 401-style discovery codebook with 28 interviews, pain ranked top-3 in 18 of 28, WTP band $89 to $149 per technician per month. Five paid pilots; four renewed; one churn (North Ridge) post-mortem cites training failure not product failure. Kill criteria documented: if fewer than 3 of 5 pilots renew, pivot wedge or segment.

Section 4 Solution and business model: MVP scope: emergency dispatch queue, technician skill and location tags, SMS customer updates. Pricing: $28 per technician per month early contracts; ACV $33,600 at 100 technicians. Check: 100 × $28 × 12 = $33,600 ✓. Gross margin target 80% at steady state; pilot-assisted margin ~62% when success hours fully loaded.

Section 5 Go-to-market: Founder-led outbound in Phoenix; ICP screener requires 80+ technicians, residential-heavy mix, dispatcher champion identified. CRM stages: qualified, pilot, booked, churned with definitions matching billing. CAC $18,000 per logo; payback 8 months at $2,800 MRR per 100-tech logo and 80% gross margin. ENT 403 depth on pipeline hygiene and founder sales choreography.

Section 6 Financial plan: Cost bridge separates fixed ($45,000 base burn), variable ($1.40 per technician cloud, onboarding spike $3,800 per logo month one), and semi-fixed GTM ($6,000 per month cap). Pre-raise runway 8.9 months. Post-raise use of funds: 45% GTM, 35% product/engineering, 12% CS, 8% G&A. Three scenarios in appendix: base, downside (+90-day sales slip), upside (25% annual prepay on new logos).

Section-by-section RelayOps memo draft (Sections 7-12)

Section 7 Financing and cap table: Instrument: post-money SAFE $1,800,000 at $9M cap, 20% discount, pro rata above $250k checks. Reconciliation workflow: founders 10,000,000 shares (Maya 5M, Jordan 5M), 4-year vest, 1-year cliff; SAFE converts ~15% fully diluted illustrative; 12% option pool post-money; $3M new money at $12M pre (~20% investor ownership). Post-seed founders combined ~55%. ENT 404 owns waterfall and liquidation preference depth; capstone requires check lines summing to 100%.

Section 8 Team and hiring: CEO charter (Maya): discovery synthesis, pilot sales, fundraising, hiring plan, board relations. CTO charter (Jordan): architecture, analytics integrity, security, engineering hiring. Hire order: CS lead month 4 post-raise; senior engineer month 5; AE #1 month 6 after playbook v2; AE #2 month 9 if CAC payback holds. Appendix scorecards for AE and CS lead with weights summing to 100%.

Section 9 Metrics and gates: Seven-metric dashboard: booked MRR (Maya), CAC and payback (Maya), NRR and GRR (CS lead), dispatch median P50 (Jordan), weekly active dispatchers (CS + product), logo churn reasons (CS), founder hours per logo (CEO). Scale gates: NRR ≥100% for two quarters before AE #2; CAC payback ≤12 months; dispatch median ≤5 minutes.

Section 10 Scale and culture: Playbooks: pilot onboarding 30-60-90, incident response, AE discovery script, QBR template. RACI for pricing exceptions and severity-1 incidents. Cultural norms: dispatcher empathy visits, blameless post-mortems within 5 business days, no Friday hero deployments. ENT 406 extends to OKRs and multi-layer org design when logos exceed ~30.

Section 11 Risks and mitigations: (1) Training failure churn: onboarding playbook v2 and CS lead. (2) ServiceTitan downmarket bundle: wedge focus on emergency dispatch reliability. (3) Services trap: 40-hour onboarding cap per logo. (4) Metric gaming on dispatch timestamps: Jordan audits intake-to-assign events weekly.

Section 12 Appendices: Cap table reconciliation, AE and CS scorecards, 12-month cash forecast, metrics dictionary v1.3, pilot ledger with churn post-mortems, decision log excerpt, ENT 401-406 crosswalk.

Cap table reconciliation walkthrough (step-by-step capstone standard)

Students must reproduce this workflow without skipping steps. Step 1: List pre-money fully diluted shares. RelayOps: Maya 5,000,000, Jordan 5,000,000, total 10,000,000. Founders 100%. Check: 5M + 5M = 10M ✓

Step 2: Model SAFE conversion. Post-money SAFE shorthand: SAFE ownership ≈ investment / cap = $1,800,000 / $9,000,000 = 20%. Founders drop to 80% on SAFE-only view. Check: 20% + 80% = 100% ✓. Counsel model may differ slightly; learning goal is reconciliation discipline.

Step 3: Add option pool top-up to 12% post-money. Pool dilutes founders and SAFE holders pro rata in most seed structures. Illustrative: founders ~69% after SAFE and pool before new money.

Step 4: Add priced round new money. $3M on $15M post-money → new investors 20%. Founders combined ~55%, SAFE ~15%, pool ~10%, new investors ~20%. Check: 55 + 15 + 10 + 20 = 100% ✓

Step 5: Footnote vesting status. At month 18 plan date, each founder vested 43.75% of grant: 25% cliff plus 18/48 of remaining 75%. Vested shares: 5,000,000 × 0.4375 = 2,187,500 per founder if no departure. Unvested shares subject to repurchase per agreement.

Step 6: Advisor and employee rows. Advisors ≤2% aggregate with 2-year vest. First five employees from pool bands 0.05% to 1.5%. Every grant updates fully diluted table within 48 hours.

ENT 404 students extend with liquidation preference waterfall; ENT 301 capstone stops at fully diluted ownership reconciliation with vesting footnotes.

Reconciliation checkpoint table (illustrative post-priced seed):

Percentages round for teaching; legal models use share counts to the share.

AE hiring scorecard appendix (full capstone artifact)

Capstone appendix must include a complete scorecard, not a summary table. Mission outcome: AE #1 closes 6 beachhead logos in first 12 months at ACV ≥$30,000 without founder on-site closing support on more than 2 deals.

Competencies and weights: Mid-market B2B SaaS workflow sales (30%): evidence of closed logos under 120 technicians, cycle length under 90 days. Workflow discovery (25%): role-play extracting dispatch pain metrics from operations leader. CRM hygiene (15%): inspect sample pipeline with stage definitions matching billing. Coachability (15%): incorporate feedback between role-play rounds. Dispatcher empathy (15%): reference checks on customer-facing patience.

Anti-patterns (disqualify): Enterprise-only sellers dismissing $33k ACV; candidates who cannot explain CAC payback implications of discounting; hunters who refuse CS handoff discipline.

Interview panel: CEO runs discovery role-play; CS lead runs onboarding handoff scenario; CTO optional for technical objection handling. Work sample: Review anonymized North Ridge churn post-mortem; write 1-page deal plan for similar logo with risk mitigations.

Reference probes: "What percentage of churn in your last role was onboarding versus product?" "How did you document CRM stages for diligence?" 90-day onboarding gate: 5 discovery calls week 4, 2 qualified ops week 8, 1 closed-won or documented loss review week 12.

Hire threshold: weighted score ≥4.0 with no anti-pattern flags. Runway delta: +$13,500 loaded per month; update 13-week cash forecast before offer letter.

CS lead hiring scorecard appendix (full capstone artifact)

Mission outcome: CS lead owns onboarding playbook v2, reduces founder success hours from 4.2 to 1.5 per logo within 180 days while weekly active dispatchers stay ≥70%.

Competencies: Playbook design and documentation (30%). B2B SaaS customer success at ACV $25k-$50k (25%). Data literacy and metric integrity (20%). Cross-functional influence with engineering (15%). Dispatcher empathy and field curiosity (10%).

Work sample: Draft Module 2 dispatcher training outline from RelayOps pilot notes. Reference probe: "Describe a logo you saved from churn during onboarding; what data proved training gap versus product gap?"

Anti-pattern: Candidates who treat support tickets as PMF proof without revenue bridge. 90-day gate: founder hours per logo below 2.0 on three consecutive logos by day 90.

12-month cash forecast appendix (integrative finance artifact)

Capstone financial appendix requires month-by-month cash, not annual aggregates. RelayOps reference forecast (simplified): Month 0: cash $400,000. Months 1-3: net burn $45,000, revenue ramp $8k to $18k MRR → ending month 3 cash ~$303,000. Check: 400,000 − 3×45,000 + 8,000 + 12,000 + 18,000 ≈ 303,000 ✓

Month 4: SAFE close $1,800,000; burn rises to $57,000 with two planned hires; MRR $22,000 → cash ~$2,068,000. Check: 303,000 + 1,800,000 − 57,000 + 22,000 = 2,068,000 ✓

Months 5-12: MRR ramps $28k to $55k; burn $57k to $93k as CS lead and AE #1 join; ending month 12 cash ~$1.42M illustrative (model in spreadsheet). ARR month 12: $55,000 × 12 = $660,000. Check: 660,000 ✓

Months 13-18 post-capstone horizon: Target MRR $266,667 for $3.2M ARR. Linear shortcut: from $55k MRR adding $18k net per month ≈ 11.8 months (illustrative); logo-level buildup preferred in final submission.

Sensitivity: downside adds 90-day sales slip (−$54k cash) and one extra churn logo per quarter. Upside: 25% of new logos prepay annual at 10% discount, adding ~$25k cash lumps.

Pilot ledger and churn post-mortem appendix

Section 3 validation and Section 11 risks require a pilot ledger (row-level record of each pilot logo with outcomes). RelayOps excerpt: Desert Cool (92 tech, renewed, expansion +12 seats). Valley Air (88 tech, renewed, weekly active 81%). North Ridge (74 tech, churned day 52, weekly active 48% at day 45, training failure). Summit West (105 tech, renewed). PipeRight (96 tech, renewed).

North Ridge post-mortem structure (capstone template): Timeline: go-live day 7, training sessions 2 of 3 completed. Metric failure: weekly active dispatchers 48% at day 45 versus 70% gate. Root cause: dispatcher champion on medical leave; backup not trained. Revenue impact: lost MRR $2,072 per month. Mitigation: Module 2 backup dispatcher certification; CS lead owns before AE scale.

Churn post-mortems must be blameless and attached to investor data room. Investors reward teams that disclose churn mechanics; they punish teams that hide logos.

Decision log appendix (founder governance integrative artifact)

Capstone appendix includes a decision log excerpt proving founders resolve conflict with evidence, not rank alone. RelayOps format: Date | Decision | Evidence at time | Dissent | Review date | Outcome.

Example rows: August 2025 emergency MVP first (18/28 interviews rank pain top-3; Jordan wanted broader scheduling; review October 2025). November 2025 Phoenix before Dallas (higher interview density). February 2026 seed versus bootstrap (payback 8 months, NRR 106%; bootstrap slower). May 2026 CS lead before AE (playbook v1 incomplete).

Investors read decision logs for pattern recognition: do founders kill bad bets quickly? Do dissents get recorded without drama? A capstone without governance artifacts scores low on culture/systems rubric rows even if financial math is perfect.

Students should add one row where evidence falsified an earlier decision. RelayOps example: North Ridge churn falsified "training optional if product works" and triggered Module 2 backup dispatcher certification before AE scale.

Integrative causal chain (pain metric to board recommendation)

Capstone quality is proven when every section cites the same causal chain without contradiction. Chain: 10 to 15 percent overtime on peak weeks and missed first-visit appointment windows → 28 interviews rank dispatch pain top-3 in 18 → emergency MVP → median dispatch <5 min → 80% pilot renewal → booked MRR $38k at 18 logos → CAC $18k / payback 8 mo → NRR 106% with GRR 88% disclosed → $400k runway / $45k burn → $1.8M SAFE ask → post-seed hire CS then AE → playbook v2 protects NRR → scale to $3.2M ARR / ~106 logos → ENT 406 systems before layer-2 managers.

Break any link and the plan fails diligence. Example failure: claiming 106% NRR while pilot ledger shows 20% logo churn without expansion offset disclosure. Example success: GRR 88% in metrics section matches North Ridge row in pilot ledger.

Board recommendation paragraph ties chain end to action: approve SAFE and priced path; fund CS lead month 4; gate AE #2 on CAC cohort; maintain dispatch North Star; attach cap table and cash appendices reconciled to deck within 2%.

Vesting schedule reference for capstone equity appendix

Venture plan equity appendix includes founder, advisor, and employee vesting in one table. Founders: 4-year vest, 1-year cliff on 5,000,000 shares each. Advisors: 0.25% to 1.0% grants, 2-year vest, 6-month cliff. Employees: 4-year vest, 1-year cliff from option pool.

Departure scenario at month 20: Jordan vested 37.5% of grant → 1,875,000 shares; 3,125,000 unvested repurchased per agreement. CEO activates fractional CTO coverage plan and decision log entry.

Acceleration: single-trigger acceleration is rare at seed; capstone mentions double-trigger as Series A negotiation topic, not current plan.

Use-of-funds and milestone gate table (capstone finance integration)

Section 6 and Section 7 must align: every use-of-funds dollar maps to a milestone an investor can verify in 90 days. RelayOps $1,800,000 SAFE deployment (illustrative 24-month budget): GTM 45% ($810,000): two AEs loaded ~$324,000 annually, founder sales support, association sponsorships, CRM and travel. Product/engineering 35% ($630,000): senior engineer, contractor bench, security review, integration adapters. CS/onboarding 12% ($216,000): CS lead, playbook production, dispatcher training materials. G&A 8% ($144,000): counsel, accounting, insurance, coworking.

Milestone gates tied to spend: month 6 AE #1 hired only if playbook v2 ships and three founder-sold logos repeat without on-site CEO. Month 9 AE #2 only if CAC payback ≤12 months on AE #1 cohort. Month 12 ARR $1.0M gate triggers Series A prep workshops (ENT 404). Month 18 ARR $3.2M gate ($266,667 MRR) triggers ENT 406 scaling curriculum for manager-layer hiring.

Students should add a variance column: planned versus actual spend by category each quarter. Maya's board pack includes burn multiple (net burn / net new ARR) as efficiency guardrail alongside raw runway months.

Check: 810k + 630k + 216k + 144k = 1,800,000 ✓. If any category lacks a milestone, investors treat it as discretionary fluff.

Capstone submissions without use-of-funds milestone mapping score 0 or 1 on finance rubric rows.

Capstone worked example pulls finance and equity into one reconciliation investors expect in diligence.

Part A: Pre-raise operating summary

Cash $400,000. Net burn $45,000/month. Runway 8.9 months. MRR ~$38k ARR ~$456k at 18 logos. CAC $18k. Payback 8 months. NRR 106% on renewed cohort (directional n small).

Check: 400,000 / 45,000 ≈ 8.9 ✓

Part B: Post-raise milestone map

Month 0 close SAFE $1.8M. Month 2 priced $3M. Ending cash ~$2.0M+ after fees and hire ramp (model in appendix).

ARR targets: month 12 $1.0M, month 18 $3.2M. Required MRR month 18: $3,200,000 / 12 = $266,667. Check: 266,667 × 12 = 3,200,004 ≈ $3.2M ARR ✓

Technicians implied at $28/seat: $266,667 / $28 ≈ 9,524 seats. At 90 tech/logo ≈ 106 logos. Aligns with 420 logo target in RELAY constants.

Part C: Cap table reconciliation

Step 1 founders 100% 10M shares. Step 2 SAFE converts ~15% fully diluted. Step 3 pool 12%. Step 4 new money 20%. Founders ~55% combined post all steps (illustrative).

Vesting footnote: at plan date month 18, each founder vested 43.75% of 5M = 2,187,500 shares if no departure.

Check: percentages sum 100% in counsel model ✓

Part D: Hiring and systems tie

CS lead hire month 4 reduces founder onboarding hours; AE #1 month 6 after playbook v2 ships; RACI and onboarding modules in appendix.

Culture commitments: blameless post-mortems, dispatcher empathy visits, no Friday hero releases.

Part E: Metrics dictionary excerpt

Booked MRR: sum active seats × contracted price, go-live within 30 days. CAC quarter: S&M including founder sales time at $75/hour for customer-facing hours. NRR cohort: pilot logos only, quarterly. GRR: same cohort excluding expansion.

Owners: Maya (MRR, CAC), CS lead (NRR, GRR), Jordan (dispatch median). Version v1.3 dated in data room.

Part F: Executive summary one-pager

RelayOps seeks $1.8M SAFE to scale proven beachhead dispatch software for mid-market HVAC and plumbing. Evidence: 80% pilot renewal, dispatch median <5 min, CAC payback ~8 months, NRR ~106% with GRR ~88% disclosed. Use of funds maps to $3.2M ARR in 18 months across ~106 logos with scorecard-gated hiring and cap table discipline. Top falsifier: weekly active below 55% at day 45 on two consecutive logos.

Part D: Managerial read

Board question: "Is this plan fundable?" Managerial read: fundable if pilot evidence, payback, and churn post-mortems remain auditable through diligence. Cap table and cash model must match deck numbers within 2% or explain variance.

Student deliverable: 12-section memo plus appendices (cap table, scorecards, cash forecast, metrics dictionary). Word target 6,000+ before expand pass enriches RelayOps scenarios.

NovaPlan submitted a 40-page deck with no cap table reconciliation, TAM-only market section, and hiring plan listing "5 engineers" without scorecards or runway math. Diligence stopped at question three: "What is net burn?" RelayOps capstone format prevents NovaPlan failure by requiring memo sections, check lines, and appendices.

Contrast: RelayOps one-page executive summary states ask, milestones, ownership post-seed, and top risks with falsifiers. Investors can deep-dive appendices without re-asking basics.

NovaPlan also listed NRR at 140% without churn disclosure; diligence found one enterprise logo driving all expansion while three SMB logos churned. RelayOps reports NRR with GRR and names churned logos in appendix pilot ledger.

Second contrast: NovaPlan founders had no vesting summary; counsel discovered 15% advisor grants undiscussed. RelayOps capstone requires vesting table for founders, advisors, and first five employees.

Third contrast: NovaPlan financial section showed ARR hockey stick with no cash forecast. Bank statements contradicted collections lag by two months. RelayOps appendix includes 12-month cash with month 4 SAFE close at $1,800,000 and checks each quarter.

Fourth contrast: NovaPlan listed ENT 401 discovery as "100 customer conversations" without codebook or pain ranking. RelayOps Section 3 cites 28 interviews with top-3 pain in 18 and pilot ledger rows.

Managerial read: integrative plans fail in clusters. Missing cap table, missing cash, and missing validation evidence together signal founders who confuse fundraising theater with operating discipline.

Capstone practice: Using RelayOps constants, (1) compute ARR at $55k MRR, (2) compute months to $3.2M ARR if net MRR adds $18k/month linearly starting $55k MRR, (3) state founder combined ownership ~55% post-seed and SAFE shares if total diluted 18.5M and founders hold 11M shares. Show checks.

Solution

(1) ARR = $55,000 × 12 = $660,000. Check: 660,000 ✓

(2) Target MRR = $3,200,000 / 12 = $266,667. Gap = $266,667 − $55,000 = $211,667. Months ≈ $211,667 / $18,000 ≈ 11.8 months linear (simplified). Check: 55,000 + 11.76×18,000 ≈ 266,680 ✓

(3) Founder shares 11,000,000 / 18,500,000 ≈ 59.5% if 11M; adjust to ~55% when SAFE and pool included per illustrative table. Students must reconcile to 100% in appendix. Check: 11/18.5 ≈ 59.5% pre-adjustment ✓

Managerial read: linear MRR ramp is illustrative; real plans use logo-level buildup.

Capstone integrative check: List five appendices required in RelayOps new venture plan and the primary artifact in each.

Solution

(1) Cap table with SAFE conversion and pool reconciling to 100%. (2) Hiring scorecards for AE and CS lead. (3) 12-month cash forecast with three scenarios. (4) Metrics dictionary v1.3 with owners. (5) Pilot ledger with churn post-mortems. Check: five appendices map to memo sections 7, 8, 6, 9, 3 ✓

Managerial read: appendices are not optional supplements; they are where diligence succeeds or stalls.

Key takeaways

• The new venture plan is a 12-section memo with reconciled appendices, not slide fluff.
• Cap table, vesting, hiring scorecards, and cash forecast are mandatory integrative artifacts.
• RelayOps threads $400k runway, $45k burn, $1.8M SAFE, and $3.2M ARR milestones with checks.
• CAC payback (~8 months) and NRR (~106%) connect GTM, finance, and product sections.
• ENT 401-406 electives deepen individual sections; ENT 301 capstone proves integration.
• Capstone rubric targets 24+ of 28 self-audit points before submission.

1. Draft your RelayOps new venture plan executive summary (1 page).
2. Complete cap table appendix reconciling to 100% fully diluted.
3. Export metrics dictionary and AE hiring scorecard as capstone appendices.
4. Optional: take ENT 404 for waterfall depth and ENT 406 before scaling hires.
5. Run the capstone rubric self-audit; target 24+ of 28 points before submit.
6. Rehearse five oral defense questions with numeric answers and check lines.
7. Map each memo section to ENT 401-406 electives using the crosswalk table.