About the Circle

The Circle of Prosperity has been used with great success at venture capital firm NCT Ventures for almost 20 years.

 

Find out more

  

Circle of Prosperity - Modules

 

Entrepreneurs Circle of Prosperity

Proven Entrepreneurial Process

The model was created to provide an infrastructure for bringing an idea to market effectively through a series of well defined development phases. This coursework is an expanded version of the original model created by venture capital firm NCT Ventures, in conjunction with The Center for Entrepreneurship at The Ohio State University. We are thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity to learn to all entrepreneurs. 

Venture Highway's proven roadmap for entrepreneurs is based on the Circle of Prosperity.  We believe successful ventures start with the personal vision and passion of the Entrepreneur, so vision and passion sit in the heart of the Circle. The Circle's four quadrants bring into focus the actions in which businesses engage - Innovation, Viability, Planning and Operations. These quadrants correspond with our modules that make up Venture Highway. The fifth module "Exit" is represented outside the Circle.

The venture's forward momentum comes from the Entrepreneur transferring their passion and vision to others on their team. Once you know what your personal vision and passions are, and you tie those into the vision and mission of the business, you will be able to navigate the various roadblocks and detours. Keep in mind that people are a key element in all stages of the Circle, but they are critical during formation. The venture’s first potential products and/or services will emerge from the entrepreneurial team.

Each Entrepreneur can enter and exit the Venture Highway based on their needs. Many Entrepreneurs have driven around the circle more than once as they innovate for successive products. And when you are ready, we can help you plan your exit strategy.

Here is a little more detail on what each of our modules cover.

Module 1 - Innovation  Here we focus on forming this entrepreneurial team, and using all of the available resources to innovate for a new idea.  This team will gather, research ideas, brainstorm and continue to dialogue until an idea begins to form.  Some call this the "napkin" idea.  This new idea should be an identified need in the market, or one where you believe you can create that need.  At this stage, you might actually identify several potential ideas that you want to explore further.  Venture Highway provides tools to capture random ideas and put them together to see new potential opportunities that will go into the next Module.

Module 2 - Viability.  The focus of Viability is to further refine, define, and test your idea, or ideas.  This napkin idea will be expanded.  Potential customers will be surveyed.  Market sizing will need to occur to ensure the market is large enough, or not too saturated to allow for your entry.  Ideally, one idea should emerge from the viability process that appears to make sense as a Venture.  Venture Highway provides tools to capture the results from surveys, and research so that a compelling Venture Summary can be created.  This Venture Summary should be detailed enough to get others interested in the idea, including team members, or investors.

Module 3 - Planning.  This module takes the Venture Summary and expands it dramatically.  An Entrepreneur should do more than create a simple business plan and Venture Highway ensures that this happens.  A business plan is created, as well as a financial plan.  At this stage the Entrepreneur must also begin to test this idea in the market with prototypes or beta products.  This expanded detail is now ready to be presented to investors, and Venture Highway makes that process very smooth.  Finally, at this stage the Entrepreneur will begin to create Key Performance Indicators to track the growth and progress of the Venture.

Module 4 - Operations.  All of this planning and researching is wasted if you do not actually bring the product to market and create the business.  The Operations module leads the Entrepreneur though the process of actually launching the Venture.  At this stage one of the most important things to focus on is the corporate culture.  Your people will be your most valuable asset, and we have tools and resources focused on creating and growing the entrepreneurial culture.  You will also need to create strategic plans for long range success.  We also focus heavily on bootstrapping measures, which we feel are critical to success.  Even if the Venture has investors, a focus on bootstrapping will ensure that the investment is utilized well.  As the Venture grows, a focus on marketing and business development is critical to success.  The sales engine drives the business and creates capital which can be used to further grow the business.

At this stage, many businesses will simply start the Circle over and innovate for the next product in their product line.  Others may move to exit the business.

Module 5 - Exit.  You will exit the business at some point in the future, it is a reality.  Various ways to exit include selling the entire Venture to investors, selling it or giving it to relatives, or the business simply goes under.  In Module 5, we look at these various ways to exit and help you understand each one and begin to plan for the one that you choose.