So long as you're writing the business plan with the purpose of helping you think through your new venture, rather than with the purpose of being able to drop i

So long as you're writing the business plan with the purpose of helping you think through your new venture, rather than with the purpose of being able to drop it off John Doerr's lap and have him be, like, "Sweet plan, dude, here's three million dollars to go make it happen," it's a good idea. But be careful about writing the perfect business plan without working on your product simultaneously; business plans go through many revisions and iterations, just as do most software development projects. Having said that, I'm one of those guys who really did find the process of writing a business plan to be personally helpful, whether or not a potential investor likes the result. So here's my .02. I'd start with John Nesheim's books, both "High Tech Startup" and "Unfair Advantage." I'd also check out his blog and his reading list. Somewhere in there he has a template that many successful tech companies have found useful for their own business plans. He also has a sample business plan, written by students, that you can take a look at. Again, a rough 10 or 15 page business plan can't hurt at this stage, but you should be focused on making your product awesome, so that people will want it. Get that handled, and then worry about writing a really tight executive summary and you'll be good to go. Good luck.