Company Application Instructions

COMPANY APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

InSITE sources metformin 500 mg 500 tablets startup companies from the New York area who are seeking to raise Venture Capital or Angel financing. We neither focus on a particular industry nor do we have a quota for industry and business types. Company submissions are evaluated by a committee of InSITE members and selected based on broad criteria.

DEADLINES

Spring 2012 applications are due Thursday, February 2, 2012, by midnight. We will begin reviewing applications immediately and inform you by Friday, February 10 if you have been invited for an interview.

Applications should be submitted online by clicking here. Please be sure that your application is complete. We reserve the right to reject any incomplete or late applications. If you have any questions about the application process, please read the FAQ first. But if you still have questions, email the VP Sourcing by clicking here.

SELECTION PROCESS

The company application process consists of three parts:

  1. Deliverables: Submit executive summary and investor deck.
  2. Telephone Interview: We will select approximately 25 companies for a follow-up interview. If your company is selected, you will be contacted by email by February 10, 2012 to arrange a telephone interview.
  3. InSITE Final Company Selection: Approximately 10 companies will be selected to present to the InSITE fellows on Company Selection Day. These presentations will be given on February 15, 2012. Final company selections will be made immediately following the presentations.

DELIVERABLES

InSITE applications require two primary documents:

Executive Summary: This one page document should sufficiently subscribe your business. It must be a Microsoft Word or PDF document only. You should address the following.

  • What does you company do?
  • What is your market/opportunity?
  • Who are your customers?
  • How do you make money?
  • What makes your company special? (Competitive advantage, differentiation, new market opportunity, etc)
  • Who is on your team?

Investor Deck: A 10 minute PowerPoint presentation that you would present to potential investors. Your goal is to offer a high-level summarized view of your company to excite investors and convince them to attend a follow-up due diligence session. The purpose is to get people interested in your business. Thus, you do not need to break-down every detail. If it would take you longer than 10 minutes to present your deck, it is too long.

Here is a suggested outline. You may adjust the content and order to your liking, but keep in mind a standardized format makes it easier for us to understand and evaluate your company. Please limit your deck to a maximum of 15 slides.

  1. Title page

  2. Business Overview – One or two short sentences or bullet points. Be clear and concise.
  3. Market – What is the market? How big is it? What are the market trends?
  4. Product – What is it? How does it solve a pain/need in the market?
    (keep this short – you are pitching the company not the product)
  5. Business Model – How do you make money?
  6. Customers – How many, who are they, distribution process, how will you reach/retain them?
  7. Strategic Relationships (if applicable)
  8. Competition – Who are they and what differentiates your company/product from them?(Everyone has competition. If you don’t include something here you likely will not get selected. Indirect competition is OK).
  9. Barriers to Entry – What will stop others from copying your business model?
  10. Financial Overview – Top line revenues and expenses, EBITDA, for the next four years. Please keep this simple and easy to follow.
  11. Capital Structure & Valuation – How much money do you want to raise? Be specific, this is required.
  12. Use of Funds – What will you use the money for?
  13. Management Team- Talent and experience and how it relates to your business.
  14. What do you hope to gain from InSITE? (This is a very important slide to demonstrate that you understand InSITE and how we work with entrepreneurs.)

CRITERIA

Each semester, the VP of Sourcing pre-screens all applicants based on the following criteria:

  1. Is this company based in or near New York City? Due to the nature of our services, we must meet face-to-face with the entrepreneur on a weekly basis.

  2. Is this entrepreneur committed to attending all Team Meetings and the Pitch Event? Team sessions occur weekly (see below). Since InSITE teams are composed of students from multiple graduate programs, it is not possible to reschedule any team meetings. Please refer to our calendar for the most up to date schedule.
  3. Is the entrepreneur who has committed to all the meetings either the Founder or CEO? As this is an iterative process and an on-going dialogue from meeting to meeting, we require that the person who is able to make decisions on behalf of the company be at the meetings.
  4. Is this company a likely candidate for venture capital financing? This is our focus and specialty. While VC funding is often the best choice for companies poised for extremely rapid growth, many promising start ups are often better served with other forms of financing.
  5. Is this company at the right stage for InSITE to add value? InSITE is most able to add value to companies that are actively seeking, or preparing to seek, their first significant angel or venture capital investment round. Companies that have already received several rounds of funding or are not looking for funding in the next six months are not a good fit.
  6. Is this company one that our Fellows would have interest in and add value to? We seek to find companies that are personally interesting to our Fellow’s interests as well.
  7. Is this company likely to become successful with the help of InSITE?

SCHEDULE

Company meetings are held roughly every week through the semester. Meetings are typically held near NYU, Columbia or in midtown and last for two hours (6:30-8:30). You must be available to attend all scheduled meetings.

1st Company Meeting – February 21/22
2nd Company Meeting – March 6/7
3rd Company Meeting – March 20/21
4th Company Meeting – March 27/28
5th Company Meeting – April 10/11
6th Company Meeting – April 17/18
Final Pitch Event – Friday, April 20

COMMITMENT REQUIRED TO BE IN THE INSITE PROGRAM

All prospective InSITE companies must be prepared to commit either their Tuesday or Wednesday evenings for the meetings. We will not know if you will be assigned to Tuesday nights or Wednesday nights until the teams have been assigned the evening of Company Selection Day. We ask that you hold all Tuesday and Wednesday dates on your calendar for the brief time that you are going through the application process. If there is a session you cannot attend, please do not apply.

APPLICATION FAQ

Still have questions about the application process or InSITE in general? Visit our frequently asked questions page.

DISCLAIMER
InSITE has attempted to make our decision process as transparent and fair as possible, but all decisions regarding the application process are final and are not open for discussion or explanation. InSITE reserves the right to accept or refuse any applicant.