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I am planning for a company. The company will build a university. The company has a plan of 10 years to build the university and make it functional.

What I need now is investment. The question is how to convince people to invest in the company without sharing all the detailed plans of the university project?

How much should the initial investment for the university project be?

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7 Answers

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what i need now is investment. the question is how to convince people to invest in the company without sharing all the detailed plan of the university project?

You can not. Seriously. THis plan sound very unrealistic to start with.

the company will build a university. the company has a plan of 10 years to build the university and make it functional.

Seriously? 10 years no payout and revenue. If the rest of the plan is as good, dont even try finding investors.

investment for the university project could be?

YOU TELL US. Seriously. It is your plan. If you dont even have an idea what investments you need, you dont have a plan at all, just an idea, and it sounds VERY ridiculous at this moment.

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I can't count the number of persons that said my plan where very unrealistic. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." [George Bernard Shaw] – user3997 Dec 31 '10 at 16:07
Let me formulatei t like this. There are unreasonable plans, and stupid ones, and yours souds like the later. Naive fools dont make plans - and most fail. Unreasonable men still havea plan, and you dont sound like you have one. Plan - that is like real plan, not wishfull thinking. – NetTecture Dec 31 '10 at 17:47
thanks for your answer. actually i have a serious plan that i work hard on it and this plan have steps. i am not going to click a button for the university to be built but instead i will start with an online university.which is actually a very huge phase of the plan and include a lot of steps inside. this is why it is a 10 years plan. because there is phases and steps and adjustments all over the road to the big picture. my plan is technical one and i don't know so much about putting this plan in a business model. that is why i came here to learn my missing part. – alhoseany Jan 2 '11 at 4:38
Even building a nuclear plant doesn't take 10 years. You need to re-evaluate your timeline because no investor is patient enough to invest on this project based on your given information. – Nick Jun 27 '11 at 23:37
I think what he means here is a plan as in things he plan to do to not a time to reach a profitability or make sales. – Peter K. Sep 22 '11 at 1:15
up vote 4 down vote

Without any knowledge of the country where you are operating, your background and connections, I'm sorry to say your question seems to be naive.

Anyway, there's no way you can convince people "to invest in the company without sharing all the detailed plan of the university project". Investors invest in a plan, you can't ask money without explaining what you are going to do with them (unless, of course, you are already a very successful entrepreneur or the investors are your personal friends).

As for the initial investment, it needs to be at least the amount of money you need to build the university before it becomes profitable. Salaries, office spaces, infrastructure, bills.

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the problem with my plan is this: 1- the plan will need a lot of money.maybe i should break it down to smaller ones. 2- i don't want to find 1 or 2 investors in my plan. i want to make it like a public investment plan. anyone can invest at anytime through the 10 years. – alhoseany Jan 2 '11 at 4:40
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You need three things to convince people to invest in your idea:

  • Executive Summary
  • A Pitch
  • A Financial Model

Executive Summary

This explains your idea and company crisply in under two pages, including what you want to build and how you will build it. It also includes the amount of money required and what that money will be used for.

The Pitch

The pitch is the high level summary of your business plan. It must contain enough details to entice people to want to continue on to the next meeting. Without a solid pitch, that details your idea and how it will happen, you will not get any traction with investors.

Financial Model

Your financials need to be modeled so that it's clear what the investment will be used for and when you will make money. All an investor really cares about is how much money you need to exit so he can get his investment back.

Both NetTecture and Filippo are right on when they say you need to disclose your idea and share the details. That's just how you have to do it in order for people to invest. You may ask them to sign an NDA but that will only work with some investors -- US VC's will never sign an NDA.

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thanks for your answer. i will Google them and check if there is any books available to help me get these things done. – alhoseany Jan 2 '11 at 4:39
up vote 0 down vote

Start by building your business plan.

One of the most important task in the market study.

This will helps you figure out most the questions you still have. And questions (all) investors will ask...

To convince an investor to give you lot of money, you have to prove you will make him gazillionaire ;)

You will have to work on your presentation. I liked the book Even a Geek Can Speak.

Good luck.

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thank you for your answer. – alhoseany Jan 2 '11 at 4:44
up vote 0 down vote

It is actually surprisingly easy:

Step 1. Decide the profit and assets you want in year 10

Step 2. Figure out your expenses and taxes for the next 10 years

Step 3. Figure out your revenue for the next 10 years.

Your initial investment will be $Step 3 - $Step 2 - $Step 1. But surely you have already done that in that business plan, right? Or is it a how-to-get-moon-rock style plan - go to moon, pick up a rock, come back. Investors want numbers and details, not ideas.

To all the nay-sayers, just remember the story that the guy that started Fedex wrote the business plan as a college assignment and the professor failed him because it was 'impossible to do'.

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if i do it this way. the initial investment will be too scary even if i get 10 investors. – alhoseany Jan 2 '11 at 4:44
What do you want to know? That your initial investment should be $1,456,391.09? Unless you are getting government money thrown at you for this project, you will need to build a forecast for the next 10 years. – james Jan 4 '11 at 7:44
up vote 0 down vote

There is answers to all your questions but only it you re-evaluate your idea. Its a good idea and it can be done with good understanding of all the requirement.The reason why I say its possible is, With my mind I have done the feasibility study and the results are positive. You need to do more research about this, do your viability study. NB.There is noway you can convince investors without knowing what you talking about, Investors are interested in making money. Be careful.

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up vote 0 down vote

I can read a lot of negativity in replies to this question. Why would you call this guy's plan naive? I personally wouldn't call it naive, rather put it into the some kind of perspective.

His plan is:

Hard to do? Yes Requires big sums of money? Yes Impossible to do? No

I would maybe suggest drop your big plans for the time being. Try to grow organically. If your an qualified educator and you have more partners with the same skill, establish a small "teaching institute" - an evening school type. Get people in your classes, show that you can offer quality education and work your way up. Step by step work on your accreditation and start that online platform your talking about. Grow organically.

To be honest I don't think establishing even a small size university with all the campuses, lectures etc. is likely in just 10 years. Not without a huge grant or significant investments from your personal fund. Starting small with 1 classroom and growing step by step would my advice here.

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