If you are underway with your venture, bringing on new people and talking to customers, a business plan can help keep your founders and execs on the same page. A well constructed business plan takes a long time do right and even a good one is often out of date before it’s has been finished, so keep in mind, you’ll be updating it often.

We found an awesome breakdown of a business plan on Sequoia Capital’s website

“We like business plans that present a lot of information in as few words as possible. The following business plan format, within 15-20 slides, is all that’s needed”:

Company Purpose
• Define the company/business in a single declarative sentence.

Problem
• Describe the pain of the customer (or the customer’s customer).
• Outline how the customer addresses the issue today.

Solution
• Demonstrate your company’s value proposition to make the customer’s life better.
• Show where your product physically sits.
• Provide use cases.

Why Now
• Set-up the historical evolution of your category.
• Define recent trends that make your solution possible.

Market Size
•Identify/profile the customer you cater to.
•Calculate the TAM (top down), SAM (bottoms up) and SOM.

Competition
• List competitors
• List competitive advantages

Product
• Product line-up (form factor, functionality, features, architecture, intellectual property).
• Development roadmap.

Business Model
• Revenue model
• Pricing
• Average account size and/or lifetime value
• Sales & distribution model
• Customer/pipeline list

Team
• Founders & Management
• Board of Directors/Board of Advisors

Financials
• P&L
• Balance sheet
• Cash flow
• Cap table
• The deal