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Venture Acceleration Fund (VAF) Application with embedded example
Updated February 2015
Instructions: To apply for VAF funding, download this document, fill in each question below, and email the document to Kim Sherwood of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) at
ksherwood@lanl.gov. Please use the subject line “VAF Application” in your e-mail. While the
application requests substantial information, the Application should not exceed five (5) single-spaced
pages. You will be given a chance to elaborate on the same questions if you are invited to present to the
review panel. You may delete all italicized text in this application before submitting it, so the text does
not count toward your page limit. With each question we have included a sample response to give you
an idea of the information that is requested.
Please use Times New Roman font, 12-point size in your application. Submission of a VAF application
indicates that you have read and accept VAF Terms and Conditions.
For more information about the LANS Venture Acceleration Fund, please contact:
Shandra Clow at 505-665-3049 or clow@lanl.gov.
Please note that this “sample application” is entirely fictional!
1. Company Description
Describe your proposed or existing company by filling in the chart below:
Company Name
Name of primary contact
Email of primary contact
Phone of primary contact
Date established
Company Location
# Employees
Are you incorporated? If so, list where, when,
and your form of incorporation (e.g. LLC, Ccorp)
Latest annual revenues (if you are prerevenue, just list that)
Solar Wombat LLC
Mary Doe
wombat@gmail.com
505-888-9999
2014
Taos, NM
2 part time founders
NM LLC established August 2014
Pre-revenue
2. Abstract
Provide an abstract that summarizes the proposed project. The abstract should “tell a story” and
should be written so that a non-technical person can understand it. The abstract may be used, in
whole or in part, in public documents, including press releases, and shall not contain
proprietary/trade secret information. The abstract section is broken up into three parts. See below
for what is needed in each section.
2a) Company Abstract
In 150 words or fewer, describe your proposed product or service. Why is it unique? What
problem are you addressing and what is your solution? How will you make money? Do you have
any notable achievements to report?
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We are developing a unique, patent-protected module-level power electronics solution for largescale solar setups (utility and commercial) that not only decreases installation costs, but also
provides recurring benefits in reliability, efficiency, and safety. Our solution can be implemented
easily with very little reconfiguration needed, as our printed circuit board can be “dropped in” as a
replacement for existing modules. Our module is the only one that allows for real-time monitoring
of the system at the panel level, allowing operators to troubleshoot problems in real-time to
improve ROI. We have a letter of support from a major project developer who is interested in
having us test our module in a new demonstration system. We plan to make money by a
combination of product sales and a recurring revenue stream based on a fee for each percentage
efficiency improvement over pre-install baseline. Manufacturing will be outsourced.
2b) Project summary
In 150 words or fewer, describe in layman’s terms what you want to accomplish with VAF funds and
how this project will increase the success of your business. Make sure to cover why VAF is critical at
this time to advance your commercial success. This is your opportunity to generate excitement about
why your project is worth doing and why it will lead to business success!
We are requesting $40K in VAF funding to accomplish both technical and market goals.
We need to make customer visits to learn more specifically how our product will integrate
into their systems and to get final product requirements. Once we have this information
we will be able to do the final engineering work on version 1 of the final product. After
that we will contract a third-party to conduct the required certifications for the product.
We are also requesting funding to develop materials and travel to a trade show. VAF
funding now is critical as attendance at the trade show in August is a key place to meet
customers, and if we have to continue self-funding we will not be ready to attend until
2016.
2c) Overview (It might help to fill this section in LAST, as you will be instructed on how to provide
detailed information later in the application.)
How much VAF money are you requesting?
$40K
What is the total value of your matching funds?
$45K
Estimate the regional economic impact 3 years after VAF funding in terms of:
Total New Mexico jobs created by 2018
17
Projected Revenue by 2018
$2.4 mil
Total Projected Investment by 2018 (cumulative; excluding
$125K
any VAF funding)
3. Milestones and Use of Funds
Milestones are key components of the proposal. Milestones are short-term, well defined, goaloriented events. For example, good milestones might include the following:
 Constructing a prototype within 12 months of receiving a VAF award
 Measuring the efficacy or efficiency of a prototype by a specific date
 Validating initial customers
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 Developing a marketing strategy
Milestones unacceptable for VAF include:
 General development work
 Time-specified rather than task-specified work
 Work for which a tangible result cannot be communicated (e.g. “operating capital”)
In the box below, use text to describe the activities to be completed for the project, covering issues such
as how, specifically, the VAF funds will be used, who will be doing the work, etc.
We need to get customer feedback on our early prototype and plan to do this by
visiting two customers (ABC corp and XYX corp) to better understand customer
requirements and to test the product on their system. With that information in hand
we will finalize features of version 1 of our product and then use both internal R&D
resources and a contract engineer to finish our final product and have it certified.
Finally, we plan to attend the XYZ trade show in August 2015 to begin marketing the
product.
State the tasks to be completed and the milestones to be achieved using the chart below. Include a
tentative timeline. Express time as “months after VAF funds awarded,” (which is usually 6-8 weeks
following presentations to the panel). An example is given below.
#
1
2
3
Amount
requested
$7,000
$20,000
$10,000
4
total
$3,000
$40,000
Brief description of milestone
2 customer site visits for validation
Complete final product
Product certification and testing (by EFG
Corporation, a third party)
Attend XYZ trade show
Start
Month
1
3
6
End
Month
2
6
8
8
8
4. Matching Funds
The applicant is required to show a 100% match for any VAF funds requested. In-kind (i.e. noncash) contributions are acceptable as a match, but you need to translate in-kind into dollars, i.e. the
equivalent cost of labor, materials, etc. State whether the in-kind will come from the company itself
or an outside entity. If the match will come from investment, state the source of investment. Please
note that the match must be for the VAF project you are proposing, and cannot be in the form of a
prior investment or labor that has already been expended.
$45K
What is the total value of your matching funds for the entire project?
Briefly list how the match for this project will be accomplished below:
Your own
Cash from Outside
Someone else’s
Other (please
labor/
owners/bus Investment/Gra labor/equipment
specify)
equipment
iness
nt
$36K
$4K
$0
$5K
N/A
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Please expand on the match with specifics. Demonstrate how the combination of VAF funds and
matching resources will be used to complete tasks.
Example:
-$27K will come from the in-kind match of the labor of 3 team members valued at $70/hr
 Mary at 257 hours for electronics work and customer validation ($17.9K)
 Ann at 128 hours for software engineering ($9K)
 Carla at 128 hours for mechanical engineering. ($9K)
-The company will also match $4K in cash for travel expenses and marketing materials
for the trade show
-A match of $5K comes the value of donated time on the use of electronic test equipment
donated by EFG corporation.
5. Commercial Impact
The proposed project must demonstrate its ability to meet a compelling market need. The proposed
project’s product or service should be well defined or developed.
In 250 words or fewer describe why you will be successful in the marketplace if this project is funded.
Convince the judging panel that you understand your customers (who are they and why they will buy
from you), your value proposition, the market opportunity, differentiating factors of your
technology/product, and your competitive advantage. What problem are you trying to solve? How do
you think you sell and price your product (subscription, license, recurring revenue, etc.)? Indicate which
channels will be used to deliver your products/service to your target markets (i.e. website, direct sales
force, resellers, and channel partners). If you have done anything to validate customer interest, please
describe it here.
Our product increases the efficiency of existing large commercial or utility scale solar
arrays. Our first customers will be those who already have an investment in solar arrays
larger than XX. Our initial talks with these customers, including companies a, b, and c,
revealed that they see an immediate boost to their ROI if they can increase the
functioning of their solar arrays by 12%, and our prototypes have shown an increase of
up to 19%. After getting market feedback from 3-5 installations, we will serve the
installed base market via direct sales and explore distribution partnerships with other
solar suppliers to go after new installs. Customers have told us that they are dissatisfied
with existing modules because they require a costly, extra installation step that our
system does not need, and they are not able to diagnose panel problems at the level of
detail that ours can.
We estimate that the average sale will be $65K per customer who already has an
investment in a large-scale solar array and we have identified a population of 18,000
potential customers that we could theoretically approach. This yields a total market size
of $1.17 Billion in the U.S. alone. We estimate that by Year 6 we can capture 8 percent of
this market for revenues of over $9 million. This translates to about 144 actual sales in
Year 6 and we project that 40% of these will be to customers who bought modules in the
prior years.
6. Regional Impact
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The proposed project should offer strategic value and economic potential that can further develop
the New Mexico high-tech economy. To the extent possible, quantify the impact by estimating new
job creation, new product sales, new investments in the company and/or the region, new regional
facilities, etc. Projects that demonstrate impact to the economy of Northern New Mexico will be
given high priority.
Briefly explain and justify the summary economic numbers you provided in the project abstract (2c).
If there are more qualitative measures that you feel the panel needs to understand, describe them
(but remember the primary focus will be on jobs, revenues and investment).
Jobs: We feel it is realistic to have 17 NM jobs by Year 3 based on our revenue
projections; most of these jobs will be in executive functions, R&D, sales,
marketing, operations and customer service. (Manufacturing will be outsourced).
Investment: we expect to go after Angel funding in late 2015 and anticipate needing
to raise only about $150K by 1Q 2016 to begin filling orders.
7. Team Composition
Identify who will work on this project and, if applicable, the company’s management team with roles
and responsibilities described. Include a short description summarizing the technical, management,
and commercialization experience and capabilities of the principals. Use this section to convince the
judging panel that your team is capable of successfully realizing the milestones proposed and, more
importantly, of achieving the commercial success that will lead to increased revenues, jobs, and/or
investment. Don’t just insert a resume! Please make clear if anyone listed here works for any other
company (either as a day job or because you need to outsource tasks to another company). We won’t
hold it against you if you have a “day job” but we want to have an idea how much time you can
commit to the project.
Mary, who has a PhD in electrical engineering from Purdue developed the product after
leaving LANL and working for a year at a solar panel manufacturer where she was called
on to troubleshoot efficiency issues with the “balance of system” components of solar
arrays at utility installations. After this company went bankrupt she spend 6 months scuba
diving in Indonesia, where a novel solution occurred to her. Upon her return to Taos, she
filed a patent and then met Ann, who had the software engineering skills that were
needed to turn the ideas into a prototype. They have spent the past 6 months working on
the prototype and talking to customers. VAF funding will allow the team to bring in
Carla, who has expertise in mechanical engineering needed for final prototyping. We
have an advisory board the consists of veterans from the solar project and solar system
industries and one of these people, Sally Smith, whose expertise is in business
development and sales, plans to come on as CEO in mid 2015; at that time Mary will
become CTO. The certification work will be done by the EFG company of Boulder, CO,
who specializes in this sort of testing.
8. Use of LANL Technology or Expertise (if applicable)
Describe the project’s relationship to LANL intellectual property or expertise. A preference will be
given to projects that increase the impact and value of technology licensed from LANL in a way that
improves the economy of Northern New Mexico. Please describe one or more of the following in
your application:
 LANL technology or expertise is not applicable to the project.
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 Does the company have a license to LANL intellectual property? (Licenses must be executed and
in compliance before any VAF funds can be allocated.)
 Was the company founded by former LANL employees?
 Has the company ever participated in the New Mexico Small Business Assistance (NMSBA)
program with LANL?
 Has your company had other types of interactions with LANL? Please describe.
Check all that apply in the table below and briefly describe the project’s relationship to LANL
intellectual property or expertise based on the criteria listed above.
Executed
LANL license
(Include
License #)
LANL or exLANL NMSBA?
LANL founder (If Yes, list the
year of the
NMSBA project
X (Mary was a
fulltime
employee who
left LANL in
2011)
Not
applicable
Other
(please
describe)
9. Financials
If you have received any investment (friends, family, angel, VC), list how much, from whom, and when
received:
$15K loan from family in Nov 2014
How much of their own money have the company founders put into the business (do not count “sweat
equity,” only real dollars):
$27K in cash to the business from Mary.
How much debt are you carrying on your books? (E.g. loans, business credit cards?)
$10K owed to friends/family
Do you anticipate raising additional money? If so, how much?
Yes, we think we will be looking for additional Angel money of around $150K in late 2015.
Please fill out the following table.
Historical (if
applicable)
2013
2014
Income
Net
Profit/Los
s
Projected (required)
2015
$15
2016
$600
2017
$1200
2018 (Year 3)
$2400
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(all $ in thousands)
Provide any narrative that you think might be necessary to explain revenue projections.
In 2015 we see revenue as coming from some early installations, whereas real product revenue starts
coming in 2016. We estimate that by Year 6 we can capture 8 percent of this market for revenues of
over $9 million. This translates to about 144 actual sales by Year 6.
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