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642 West 34th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007
November 7, 2006

Board of Directors
University of Southern California
University Park Campus
Los Angeles, CA 90089

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board:

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you about an exciting investment opportunity for USC. As you know, USC has several outstanding dining facilities and restaurants available for students. However, we at Trojan Grains believe that the university is missing something. Many students regularly miss breakfast, the most important meal of the day. The most common reason is that students simply do not have enough time to sit down and eat before rushing off to class. Those who regularly allow enough time to start their day off right often have nowhere to turn for a healthy morning meal. We will fill this need with a fast and healthy breakfast alternative. In this letter, I will describe in detail why our location, our financial forecast, and our daily operations will make Trojan Grains a successful enterprise.

Location

We have selected the patio outside of Trojan Grounds and EVK for our location. We believe this site is ideal because of its proximity to many freshman dormitories as well as Leavey and Doheny Libraries. This gives us the ability to attract first-year students and keep them coming back for their entire collegiate careers. In addition, we will be a place to take a quick snack break for students studying in the libraries. Another feature that will help us become a successful business is our online ordering system, which allows students to place an order the night before pickup to save even more time in the morning.

Financial Forecast

We have secured partnerships with all three major cereal companies (Kellogg’s, Post, and General Mills), California Dairy Farmers, and a local bakery, which will reduce our costs significantly and ensure freshness and quality. We also plan to utilize USC’s work-study program for students, which is explained in detail in the following section, hopefully to give you an idea of how our business will run each day. Keeping costs low is one of our priorities, and we project costs not exceeding $400,000 per year including paying off initial investment fees. We fully expect to earn positive profits, and we have projected revenues surpassing $750,000 annually. This profit margin will be beneficial not only to us as entrepreneurs but to you as investors as well. Each side stands to gain a great deal from this venture, and we hope you will join us as we move forward.

Daily Operations

We will hire employees through the work-study program for USC.  Employees’ pay will go directly towards their tuition fees.  Pay will begin at $10 per hour and employees may work up to five and a half hours a day.  Trojan Grains will be open between the hours of 7 AM-6 PM Monday through Friday.  On Saturday and Sunday it will be open from 8 AM-12 PM.  We are currently looking at hiring 12 employees to work approximately 20 hours a week (part-time).  This will allow four employees to work the morning shift, typically the more crowded, from 6:30-12:00 (opening).  Then there will be a swing shift for two employees from 11-4:30 and an evening shift from 12:30-6 for 2 employees (closing). Tom Aldrich is the Operations Manager and will be the supervisor during most of the day.  There will be two assistant managers that Tom will personally hire at a later date.  Firing will be solely under Aldrich and his personal decision. 

We at Trojan Grains fully believe that our company can be successful with your help. We feel that our enterprise will fit right into the USC community and prove to be a great service to USC students and faculty. We truly appreciate your consideration and hope this information has made your investment decision much easier. We are looking forward to partnering with you.

Sincerely,

Edsel Hamilton
Chief Financial Officer
Trojan Grains