The Lin Management group helps client CEOs with three critical stages of start-up company performance. We assist you in any or all of the following areas:

• Packaging your business plan and materials for investors.
• Approaching investors and raising capital.
• Operational planning and management.

Preparing for Investors

As the person who is responsible for securing the necessary funding from investors, the following questions may be very familiar to you:

• Have I examined my business plan objectively?
• How much capital should I raise? When should I raise the next round?
• What could be missing from my business plan that would affect my ability to raise the necessary funding?
• Does my business plan address all the important issues that investors are looking for and address them well?
• Have I analyzed the market and competitive environment to their satisfaction?
• Are we positioning the products correctly?
• Are our value propositions strong enough?
• Does our intellectual property strategy offer enough of a market barrier to entry?
• Are our forecast assumptions reasonable and will they encourage investors?
• Are our staffing plans adequate to execute according to plan?
• Are we planning our cash requirement to the correct level?
• Do the financials offer sufficient returns to attract investment at our desired valuation?
• What is a reasonable pre-funding valuation of my company?
• Is my presentation concise and convincing?
• Does my presentation convey my message?
• Which strengths should I focus on in my presentation? In what order should I present them?
• Does my presentation create the interest level to make investors want to pursue the due diligence process?
• Have I anticipated all the difficult questions that investors will pose to me and do I know how to answer them?

Our objective is to be your unbiased advisor to help you answer all of the above questions and to help you build confidence by knowing that you are well prepared. We will help you attract strategic investors at the most optimal terms and valuation in a timely manner. Our commitment is to leverage our venture investment experience to rehearse an actual investor encounter with you and to conduct a due diligence of your business plan. With preparation and constructive criticism, we can ensure that requirements of most investors are met. You will be well prepared and confident to present your plan in the best possible light.

In short, Lin Management Group will

• Conduct a presentation session with you, including a full review of your company and information package, and provide you suggestions for improvement .
• Guide you to package your plan and presentation to meet investor requirements.
• Help you to perfect the delivery of your message.

Raising Capital

Our service will help you identify the right types of investors and make the connection with them. We will help you understand the choices available to you so you can approach the most appropriate people. We will coach you in how to interest investors in meeting with you. This service includes:

• Identifying the right types of investors.
• Introducing your company to these investors.
• Bringing investor attention to your company.
• Setting up initial meetings for you to present your company.
• Serving as meeting observer, program manager and liaison between you and the investors.

Operational Planning and Management

The operational side of your business may be the most demanding of your time. Even after funds are raised, you may still find yourself wearing many hats. In addition, your management team may not yet be complete and you are expected to fill the gap in these openings. Due to the lack of infrastructure, you will be making decisions on almost all issues. This means your days will be interrupt-driven. Besides being the chief fund raiser, your other roles may include:

• Chief negotiator
• Chief legal officer
• Chief strategy officer
• Chief Operating Officer
• Chief Recruiting Officer

You now have a set of investors with very high expectations and low tolerance for missing plans. In today's financing environment, it is almost certain that your financing agreement with the investors will include terms that will allow your investors to re-define the valuation of your company if certain milestones are not met, or your funds are released based on meeting certain milestones. Meeting investor expectations and executing according to plan is critical to the survival of your company.

There are two key requirements to on-plan and on-budget execution: operational planning and cross-functional program management.

The Lin Management Group will assist you in developing and executing your operating plans to meet or exceed investors' expectations. By partnering with us, you can increase your management bandwidth, ensuring that operational milestones are met, while allowing you to focus on the most urgent and important problems. Our objective is to be your interim COO partner during the most demanding period for your company. We will provide exceptional planning and operations management to streamline execution through:

• Clear goal setting, prioritization and planning.
• Anticipation of problems before they occur.
• Optimal utilization of resources.
• Building and leveraging synergy among departments
• Development of employee satisfaction and morale
• Ensuring customer satisfaction.

Management problems that we specialize in defining and solving include:

1. Lack of management bandwidth to:
   1. Define corporate values, goals, priorities and resource allocation.
   2. Develop a clear plan to achieve short term and long term corporate goals and to meet investor demands.
   3. Address infrastructure and process needs.
2. Interim management bandwidth shortage in marketing, engineering and operations.
3. Execution problems, such as:
   1. Missing critical milestones
   2. Budget overruns
   3. Low productivity caused by frequent mistakes, miscommunication, finger-pointing, fire-fighting, and plan and priority changes.
   4. Lack of consistent results and performance.
4. Low synergy between departments - lack of communication, cohesive goals and plans, and teamwork.
5. Production issues:
   1. Supply chain problems.
   2. Lower yield and higher production variance
   3. Low inventory turn
   4. High inventory write-off
   5. Delivery delinquency
   6. Quality problems