Claude Prompts for Investor-Grade Business Plans

Help me build TAM/SAM/SOM for [business]. Approach: top-down (industry size × penetration) AND bottom-up (target customers × ARPU). Show both. Output: TAM (total industry $), SAM (addressable for our model $), SOM (realistic capture year 1-3 $), assumptions explicit, where data is from. Pressure-test math.

Map competitive landscape for [business]. Output: direct competitors (3-5 with positioning + revenue if known), indirect competitors (substitutes), adjacent threats (could enter), incumbents possibly entering, market structure (consolidating / fragmenting). Frame YOUR positioning relative to all. Honest about strengths.

GTM strategy for [product] launching to [target market]. Output: ideal customer profile (specific job titles + company specs), 3 acquisition channels ranked by CAC + scalability, sales motion (self-serve / inside sales / enterprise), pricing entry point, expansion path within accounts, 90-day GTM milestones.

[Paste 5-10 customer interview transcripts]. Synthesize for business plan: jobs to be done patterns, pain quantification (in time/$/frustration), workarounds they use today, willingness to pay signal, deal-breaker objections, segments emerging. Real customer evidence > opinion.

Build 3-year financial projections bottom-up for [business model]. Drivers: customers acquired per channel × conversion × ARPU. Costs: COGS, S&M (with CAC), R&D (with team plan), G&A. Output: monthly P&L year 1, quarterly years 2-3. Highlight: gross margin, EBITDA, burn, runway. Sensitivity table for top 3 assumptions.

Unit economics for [business]. Output: CAC (by channel), LTV (gross margin × payback × retention curve), LTV/CAC ratio, payback period, contribution margin per customer, breakeven volume, leverage points (where can ratios improve). Be honest about current state vs target state.

Calculate funding ask for [business]. Inputs: current burn, growth plan, milestones to hit, runway buffer. Output: $X for [duration] runway, milestone ladder ($X gets us to milestone Y), valuation range justified by milestones, dilution math, follow-on plan. "Why this amount" answerable.

Build 3 burn scenarios for [business]: aggressive (full hire plan), moderate (selective), conservative (minimum viable team). Per scenario: monthly burn, runway with current funding, milestone reachable, revenue assumed. Show tradeoff: speed vs option value. Investors want this analysis.

Hiring plan for [business] over [duration]. Output: team today, hires by month (role, level, comp), why this sequence (revenue-unblocking vs cost-saving), key dependencies (this hire required before that), org chart at end of period, dilution from equity grants.

Write founder bio sections for business plan. Per founder: relevant experience tied to opportunity, specific accomplishments (numbers + outcomes), skill complement to other founders, why us specifically for this market (insider knowledge, network, scars). 1 paragraph each. Avoid resume-dump.

Operations plan for [business]. Output: critical processes (sales pipeline, product delivery, customer success, finance), tools/systems used, where automation reduces headcount need, KPIs tracked + cadence, vendor + partner dependencies, risk areas + mitigation. Operations boring = good. Boring operations = scalable.

[Paste full business plan]. Write a 1-page executive summary. Include: problem (1 sentence), solution (1 sentence), market size (1 line), business model (1 line), traction (3 specific numbers), team (1 sentence), ask (specific). Investors read summary; some read no further. Make it count.

[Paste business plan]. Convert into 10-slide pitch deck outline. Slides: problem, solution, market, business model, traction, competition, GTM, financials, team, ask. Per slide: 1 takeaway sentence, 3 supporting points max. Plan = 30 pages of detail; deck = 10 slides of distillation.

Risk + mitigation section for [business]. Output: 5 biggest risks (market, execution, competition, regulatory, team), severity × likelihood per, mitigation strategy per, what we're monitoring as early warning. Honest. "No risks" = no credibility.

Anticipated investor questions for [business plan]. Output: 15 hard questions investors will ask, ideal answer per (under 60 seconds), evidence to back each answer, where I might struggle. Include: "why now," "why you," "biggest risk," "what if competitor X does Y," "how do you defend moat."