Two entrepreneurs debate whether startups need business plans. One argues strong planners often make poor founders and that speed and iteration beat preparation. The other cites Harvard Business Review data showing most businesses start without formal plans.
How do you know somebody is a good entrepreneur? It's simple. They're very bad at writing business plans. If they can write a really well written business plan, odds are they're going to be really poor at this entrepreneurship thing. And by the way, eight years in finance as a venture capitalist, I have never seen an Excel spreadsheet that says the business won't make money.
I think I saw a stat Harvard Business review Something like 70% of businesses are started without a business plan. So yes, my man. Nailed it. Always makes money. The.
Revenue line is always up, costs are always down, and profit is a perpetual quest of cream and water. People who are good at writing the document are usually very bad in the real world at making the adaptations that they need to make. So we need to create a culture that says start, start badly, start scrappy, make mistakes, fail, start again, but whatever you do, just start.
Yeah. Love it. I mean, if there's one bit of advice I wish I could just drill into the head of startup entrepreneurs, it is never confuse planning with progress. Planning is not progress. Selling is progress. Delighting customers is progress. Heck, trying to sell and failing to sell is progress. Failing to deliver but receiving and then implementing feedback is progress. The time to plan is when you have proven systems delivering predictable results. And that's never at the start.
