An Open Coffee collaboration
At some point every start-up will need documents to be written such as a Requirements document or a Business plan to explain their ideas to developers and investors.
Google may be a first port of call. It will provide you with many useful avenues to explore. As Open Coffee members I feel we have a great opportunity to collaborate to make solid and well rounded guidelines for anyone to use to promote their own ideas.
Any input from those of you who have business plans that served you well in the past is especially appreciated.
The best way I can think to do this is to start off with two documents using Google Docs. To be added as collaborators to the documents, please email me at gordon at ewrite dot ie.
Recommended Reading
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_25f9qcp4cm
Concept Document
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_17gn9z8zgx
Business Plan
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_18hdtd42dz
NDA
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_19d5g7ftf3
Tax Treatment of Share Options
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_244d2bznv4
Shareholders agreement template
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_23dqkm35c2
Director Memorandum template
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_22gstvp3db
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19 Responses to “An Open Coffee collaboration”
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I think this is a great idea Gordon.
In fact, what are people’s thoughts on donating documents like NDAs, simple contracts, BES Info Memos, EI Grant applications etc with the understanding that anyone using them does so at their own risk? I know the NDA I use has a verrrrrrry long history!
[...] from eWrite has written a great post on the Cork OpenCoffee blog about the potential for “crowdsourcing” some templates and guidelines for biz plans and [...]
Great idea about NDAs, Contracts etc. A Privacy Policy and Terms of use might also be good.
Anyone have any old documents they’d like to contribute as a starting point?
I’ll probably lob in the NDA I use to get the ball rolling.
It looks like trying to import existing Word docs into GoogDocs may be more hassle than it’s worth. So I suggest we keep GoogDocs for collaborating on new documentation and just uploading exisiting documents here.
I’ve kicked that off by creating the Documents page here and I’ve uploaded a fairly generic mutual NDA which I hope others find useful.
I would also encourage people to post links here to great biz docs, guides and PPTs. There are the obvious Kawasaki ones and I spotted a few fab ones on Slideshare that I must find the URLs for.
Hm, just wondering if the doc store should be on web2ireland.org due to much bigger potential audience and donor-pool? Thoughts?
I make that sound like something to do with organs
A central place such as corkopencoffee.org or web2ireland.org is definitely the way to go to allow visitors to get these documents.
The ability for people to log in and update the documents is also important, will this be possible on either of the above sites?
Might WIKI’s be an idea? I know they can sometimes be akward to use.
Alternatively, would FTP access to files and folders be an option?
If none of the above are suitable, then Google Docs may be the best for a while with pages on corkopencoffee.org and web2ireland.org linking to each one.
http://www.slideshare.net/search/slideshow?q=pitch&submit=post&commit=Search
For some great Pitch PPTs. Anything with the word Kawasaki is worth a look.
Nice one Conor, that looks very handy – thanks. I think these resources could be best presented in a wiki.
[...] nice collaboration going on here. Crowdsource using old business plans and other [...]
I love wikis but very few other people do. They actually scared off a bunch of people for the BarCamps.
I like what Gordon is doing with GoogDocs but the downside is that you need a Goog login.
I know I know, a proper CMS would deal better with this but then we’d be focusing on the wrong aspect of the exercise.
I have invited everyone into the 3 documents that are currently available, 13 people so far.
I have also publised each of them here:
Concept Document
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_17gn9z8zgx
Business Plan
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_18hdtd42dz
NDA
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgt8d8k9_19d5g7ftf3
Anyone that would like to be notified of changes to these documents can use ‘Yell if it changes’ here : http://www.yellifitchanges.com
Each person that has been invited to view the documents is a Collaborator, this means each of you can also invite others to view and participate in the documents.
You do no need to log in to anything to view the document.
A @gmail.com address is not needed to log into the documents, but you do need to have an email address registered to a Google account, this can be done here : https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
Brilliant Gordon, thanks.
I’ll update the links on the Docs tab here and do the same on Web2Ireland pointing over.
Hi Guys,
Great idea. I remember Rosey Broderick from http://www.homewise.ie starting something similar via an email group. But obviously would be a lot more useful on the web.
Rosey send me on templates for:
>director memorandum
>tax treatment of shareoptions
>shareholders Agreementtemplate
Have ye settled on a place to lodge these templates yet?
One other thing I’m sure you’ll be able to help with. Rosey is trying to put together a safety statement for the purposes of giving training today. If one of ye has one handy that would be really great
Niall
Thanks for that Niall. Gordon is pulling everything into GoogDocs and I’ll just link over from here and from Web2Ireland.org when I get a chance.
@Niall,
Those documents would be great, can you email them to me to put up?
Thanks for sending on those files Niall. I have uploaded them to Google docs. I’ve also edited the original content of this blog to include links to them.
I’ve added a ‘Recommended reading’ document to the list with some good titles worth picking up.