This is the third update (Week #3) as part of our quest to design and build a funding readiness framework. See initial proposal, week #1 and week #2 update here.
What we planned to do
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Identify the first draft of the evaluation criteria
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Decide on the mechanics of the framework
What we did
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Identified 8 core criteria that will form the first draft of the framework
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Team
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Track record
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Reputation
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Finance
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Revenue sustainability model
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Runway
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Planning
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Transparency
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Users
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Viable onboarding means
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Addressable market
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Traction
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Stickiness
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Risk
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Legal
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Other risk types
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Mitigation
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Problem Identification
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Impact
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Evidence of past impact
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Measurements
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Proof that funding will enable future impact growth
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Product/Service
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Meeting milestones
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Prepared to handle next wave of users
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Marketing
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Narrative
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Plan to attract and scale new potential users
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Partnerships
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Note: some finishing touches are still needed
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Decided on the first draft of the mechanics
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Two roles - Project and evaluator
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Statement based
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Project - Please provide evidence that you delivered impact and will continue to deliver impact
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Evaluator - The project provided evidence that it delivered impact and will continue to deliver impact
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Scale - agree, neutral, disagree
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Still TBD
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All criteria need to receive “agree” in order to be considered funding ready?
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Show “percentage funding ready” based on score
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What we learned
- Many of the criteria are interconnected, so it’s hard to isolate them and we risk duplication by doing so
Challenges encountered
- How to strike the right balance between past performance and future potential
Next steps
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Polish first draft of criteria and write statements for project/evaluator
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Create list of projects for testing
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Run the first test