Nuggets from The Business Plan Archive

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The Business Plan Archive has some really interesting information. In concert with the Library of Congress, the Archive collects old business plans and items related to entrepreneurship. In their words:

In partnership with the Library of Congress, the Center for History and New Media, and the University of Maryland Libraries, the Archive collects and preserves business plans and related planning documents from the Birth of the Dot Com Era so that future generations will be able to learn from this remarkable episode in the history of technology and entrepreneurship.

I poked around the Archive tonight and found some really interesting companies, most of which aren’t around anymore, but their memory is preserved in their business plans, executive summaries, and other artifacts relating to the company.

One company I found interesting and funny is Funeral.com, founded in 2000 and, at that time, they were seeking a $10,000,000 series A round of funding. They didn’t get it and they’ve folded. Below is their elevator pitch:

Although I didn’t read this document thoroughly, I have to admit that I have no idea what this business does. Maybe I wasn’t the only confused one, since they have since folded. But, the domain name still exists, and is probably worth some decent cash.

Below was their executive team:

• Chris Brown, CEO. The current owner and President of the largest Wilbert-brand burial vault (largest U.S. market share) franchisee in the U.S. based in St. Paul, Minnesota with manufacturing plants in three states.
• Dan Garrity, EVP of Sales. A licensed funeral director who is also the former Regional Sales Manager for the third largest casket manufacturer in the U.S.
• Bruce Bratton, CFO. A licensed funeral director who is also a former funeral home owner with experience in operating 40 funeral home locations in four states, is a nationally recognized expert on funeral home valuation, and holds and MBA in Finance and Marketing from The Wharton School, The University of Pennsylvania.

I’m sure the funeral industry is a stable and growing industry, but all of this talk of caskets, funerals, and burial sites feels creepy.

Anyway, check out The Business Plan Archive. There are some nuggets there, and a great place to learn about what does and what doesn’t work.

	This post was written by Pete Abilla