The Business Plan torn to shreds...

DAY: 22
LBS TO GOAL: 2.4

I was reading in the CLEAN book that if you generally eat a clean diet (no wheat, dairy or red meat) that you may not experience as much weight loss as someone who eats much more of these high-allergen foods. Maybe this is the case since I am gluten-free, eat minimal dairy and rarely consume red meat. Either way, I really thought CLEAN could get me to my goal weight. I'll need to decrease my food portions and I worry that I might gain weight right back after CLEAN is over.

BREAKFAST:
Pineapple, Spinach and Blueberry Smoothie

Spinach has been a staple because you can get your leafy greens, but it doesn't add much of a taste to any smoothies with strong flavored fruits.

LUNCH:
Chicken stir fried with zucchini, carrots, shitake mushrooms, and scallions over brown rice. Plus a cabbage savoy salad made by Ernie.

DINNER:
Chocolate Almond Shake. I'm out of Agave syrup so this was actually pretty bitter. I'll need to make another Whole Foods Run

GROCERY BILL: $396.90

No one ever said this was a cheap diet!

BUSINESS PLAN:
Today in my business plan writing class, we had some experienced entrepreneurs come in to coach us through our business plan. We got torn apart by first the professor, then by a software serial entrepreneur then by a health care survey entrepreneur.  They told us our plan was incomplete, complicated and very ambitious.  Our team was SO grateful for all of their coaching and guidance.  This session really allowed us to be more focused on our plan and simplified our work tremendously.

Our plan is basically a non-invasive continuous glucose monitoring system for diabetics. Currently, there are two ways to monitor your blood glucose levels: (1) the finger prick method and (2) an invasive continuous monitoring device inserted into the fat of your abdomen. Our product offers a competitive advantage because the glucose is measured through the surface of your skin so it doesn’t have to break the surface of your skin like the existing two testing methods. Therefore there’s no pain, no scarring and no excuses to not measure your blood glucose levels. It’s important to monitor this because there are many health complications associated with diabetes including blindness, deafness, limb amputation and other degenerative illnesses. But diabetics currently don’t test as often as recommended because it’s painful, expensive and inconvenient.
Originally our business plan was written to encompass all the life stages of Product Idea, through development, manufacturing, distribution, marketing and sales. Thanks to our coaches, we are now just focusing on getting seed money to develop the product and get through clinical trials. Our exit strategy is to sell to a major diabetic care company such as Abbott, Bayer, Medtronic or LifeStyle.

I know you’re wondering how the heck we came up with this idea. Well, we started from a Men’s accessories company and as we continued to learn more information about smart fabric technology, we evolved our idea. So we landed on this idea because there is an enormous marketing opportunity with 36.4 Million Diabetic persons in the US, and growing at an alarming rate due to the aging boomer population and increasing obesity. The downside is that none of us really have any experience in this industry which will pose a challenge. My back ground as a biomedical engineer and my rotational program at Ethicon Endo Surgery (a minimally invasive surgical device company) is about the only experience in pharma/med devices that anyone in our five member team has. It will be a scary sight if we are relying on my experience to get us through…