What venture capitalists (VCs) typically look for?

As an example of what venture capitalists typically look for in business plan topic coverage, the partners at CMGI @Ventures like business plans to include the following eight categories of information:

1. The Business:
   Company's business.
   Strategy.
   Mission statement.
2. The Market:
   Historic and projected sizes in dollars.
   Market trends.
3. Product offering:
   Product description.
   Development schedule & launch date(s).
   Product differentiation.
   Revenue model.
4. Distribution:
   Key customers.
   Customer acquisition strategy.
   Sales channels.
   Partnerships.
5. Competition:
   Key competitors.
   Competitive advantages.
   Barrier to entry.
6. Management Team:
   Roles & responsibilities.
   Background of team members.
   Board composition
7. Financials:
   Historic and forecasted P&L (first two years by quarters).
   Projected cash flow (first two years by quarters).
   Current balance sheet.
   Projected head count by functional area (G&A, sales, marketing, product development).
   Capitalization schedule.
8. The deal:
   Amount to be raised.
   Anticipated valuation.
   Use of proceeds.