Foundations of a Winning Business Plan

The winner of the 2005 Business Plan Contest at Harvard Business School used personal experience for inspiration. Now she’s taking her idea for a better bra to the venture community.

The winning entry in this year’s Business Plan Contest at Harvard Business School was unique in several aspects. First, there had never been a plan for a bra business in the nine years of the contest’s existence. Another unique aspect was that the entry, for a company called Uplift, was not created by a team but by an individual, Karen Grajwer, an MBA student in the class of 2005.

Grajwer envisions Uplift as a venture that will use both retail and Internet channels to offer expert fitting assistance as well as sophisticated, fashionable bra styles for fuller-sized women. The bra market is a $4.7 billion a year market, and her research shows that at least 15 percent of women wear a size D cup or above, so Uplift’s potential market could be an $800 million per year market. Currently, lingerie stores in the United States only offer one or two different styles for this segment of shoppers, and the styles available in the United States are not properly engineered for the larger cup size. Plus-size women also contend with a boring palatte of colors—white, beige, and black.

Grajwer presented her plan before an enthusiastic audience of students, faculty, and venture capitalists on May 5, and as the winner in the contest’s traditional track earned $10,000 in cash plus $10,000 in in-kind accounting and legal services. "I am moving forward with my plan and am currently speaking to VCs and angels about funding," she says.

by Sarah Jane Johnston

Full Story: http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/pubitem.jhtml?id=4813&t=entrepreneurship