Interlude - Index of

Appendix A
Early NetApp Business Plan
This is a very early NetApp business plan, requesting seed-
round funding, written by Mike Malcolm, James Lau, and me
in the two months following our first discussions. As you can
see, we did not yet have NetApp as a company name. Back then
we used the term server, as opposed to storage system, so you’ll
see some terminology differences from the rest of the book. In
the book, I changed our early name from 1-800-SERVERS to
1-800-STORAGE to reduce confusion. Included at the end of
the business plan is a preliminary specification for the product
itself.
Be careful what lessons you take from this. Given that we
never did manage to convince any venture capitalists to fund
us until after we shipped product, perhaps budding entrepreneurs
would be best off not copying this plan. On the other
hand, a first-round investment of $1 million would have
yielded over $2 billion worth of stock eight years later, so perhaps
the real lesson is for VCs. Looking back, I can see that
some areas came out just as we predicted, and in other areas
we were completely off base. I’d say the biggest flaw is that the
plan focuses too much on markets, technology, and competitors,
but not enough on sales strategy or customers, which are
equally important. That reflects the strengths and weaknesses
of the three of us as the founding team of a company.
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