“Done and done.”
An experienced business operator had asked for a one-page summary of the managed infrastructure company my former Beatport teammate and I were building.
What do you do? Who buys it? How do you price it? How large is the market? Who else is already there? Put enough furniture in the room that somebody can see the business.
Two hours later, I sent the assignment back to my technical partner.
“Think of what we could do in 40 hours a week ;)”
The idea was becoming Monk Networks. We wanted to create clean, secure, virtual infrastructure for startups and other growing technology companies. The old hosting model was heavy on racks and manual work. We thought software could turn more of it into a repeatable product.
The advisor said we had something. He was willing to help with the model and introduce it to an early-stage investor, but he also wanted us to be open to a board, outside ownership, and actual feedback.
That last part mattered. I was energetic and could produce a lot of material quickly. A fast answer was not the same as a good business.
We still needed realistic revenue assumptions, customer acquisition costs, hardware costs, sales cycles, salaries, marketing, office expenses, and an honest explanation of why nobody else had already won the market.
The first answer would not survive unchanged. It gave us something specific to tear apart.
The business had moved from conversations between old coworkers to a document another person could challenge.
Two hours was enough for that step.