Recently, I was fortunate to interview Seth Goldman and Barry Nalebuff, founders of Honest Tea, as part of my PhD research on the campus as the frontier for entrepreneurship.

Barry and Seth’s insights are incredibly valuable in my attempt to understand how and why more high impact firms are being birthed in and around U.S. campuses.

Beyond being gracious with their time, Seth and Barry have posted their original business plan on their website for years and for years I have been assigning it for reading and discussion in my class. You can download it here.

The one warning I always issued about the plan was that it did not offer financials.  Today, I find a small piece of that puzzle, again, offered by Honest Tea founder and TeaEO Seth Goldman.

In a recent Inc. posting, Goldman tells the story of the initial capital needs and fund raising of Honest Tea. The piece offers his thoughts on Angel investing and how Honest Tea approached it.  The piece is complete with nice clear graphics and clearly provides a real world example of how one high impact firm managed its start-up fundraising.  (The effective use of graphics is one of the reasons I assign the plan to my students — warning them that an all text business plans make it harder for readers to receive their story)

From the Inc piece, The Dos and Dont’s of Raising Money From Angels

First round of angel financing ($500,000)

Second round of Angel financing ($1.2 million)

Goldman explains the costs and benefits of Angel investors based on his experience and by doing so adds more life to the business plan. (I am sharing this Inc story with my students as a complement to the plan)