[schtono]

From my experience, the best way to start planning is to give your lecture its structure first. For a start, I'd divide it into 2 parts:

(1) Internal perspective [The bright idea, people, motivation, skills, legal aspects, gtd]

(2) External perspective [Market analysis, funding, communications]

Additionally, I think the key to success is mixing "theoretical frameworks" with real world examples in each session, to keep people motivated.

[mixmax]

Agree - I was thinking about having 6 main points and do 2 lectures on each. This, as you point out, makes it more structured and people know what's coming.

What I'm trying to do right now, and with this post, is to find out what the 6 main points should be. I'm thinking about the following: The idea, you as a person, partners and employees, financials, sales and marketing, and legal.

Is there something missing?

[schtono]

I'm trying hard finding something missing, but I think your points are very good already. I'd also choose this sequence.

Just brainstorming on the things I wish someone had told me before:

(1) Be careful when picking friends as business partners: Having good friends as business partners can be tough, especially when things don't go as expected. I think this is a personal thing, as some people can argue on a business level and still stay friends. Thing is, you have to be sensitized to that fact.

(2) Endurance It takes longer than you plan. Period.

(3) Set quantitative, measurable goals. When I started a project with some friends :) two years ago, we had a great product (e-commerce), but never implemented any "controlling" into our application. Of course, we could track units sold, but the whole idea would have given us much more data points that could be used for analysis and further development - only had the scripts to read them out never been implemented. Use numbers whereever possible to make your decisions.

[mixmax]

I have your second point in my notes already :-)

Your first and last points are great, and I'll definitely think about how to get them into the lectures.