WASHINGTON (18 December 2009) — If you’re a high-tech entrepreneur looking for some feedback on your new business plan, IEEE-USA TechMatch is for you. IEEE-USA has established a strategic alliance with The Business Catapult to offer this feedback service free to IEEE members. “TechMatch provides IEEE members the benefit of interacting with IEEE-USA volunteers who are well versed entrepreneurs and have gone through the process of starting companies,” IEEE-USA Entrepreneurial Activities Committee Co-Chair Mauro Togneri said. “We’re not providing business advice, but we are able to share our experience.”

Here’s how it works. First, you receive a detailed, automated assessment of your business plan and objectives, and then a committee of experienced reviewers provides sustained, customized feedback to help improve the plan prior to presentation to prospective investors. After you submit your plan online, you fill out the Benchmark Survey and Investment Summary and upload your executive summary and other relevant documents. In the Benchmark Survey, you are asked about your business concept and strategy. Based on your answers, a Benchmark Report demonstrates how your business compares with businesses that have achieved key success milestones.
The Investment Summary provides a clear snapshot of the investment opportunity to potential investors and helps educate you on how to think like an investor. Your plan is then assigned to an advisory team, which review it and make detailed comments in eight key areas on how it can be improved. The plan is returned to you with a recommendation on how to proceed and whether you’re ready to seek funding. If you wish to submit your plan to investors, you may then transfer it to Business Catapult’s general deal flow (a fee may apply). In June, IEEE-USA and the U.S. Small Business Administration signed an agreement to assist high-tech entrepreneurs starting new businesses. Both organizations pledged mutual cooperation in promoting, strengthening and expanding small business development throughout the country.