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re: #1, "Common Vision": You don't need to write a plan to have a clear/common vision. A conversation and a short written paragraph or two does the trick. I a

re: #1, "Common Vision": You don't need to write a plan to have a clear/common vision. A conversation and a short written paragraph or two does the trick. I agree that written documents can provide some clarity. re: #2, "Ensures token thought to key elements of a business": If you need artificial structures to ensure that you think about something important, you're in trouble. Sure, whip up a spreadsheet with some prices and churn numbers to get a sense of the scale you'll need for a SaaS offering. Sure, poke around at ad rates in your vertical if you're going ad-supported. But the key is thinking about it and learning about some of the realities-- not a formal document. re: #4 "a management/coordination tool" - Huh? In a 4 person business, people are going to refer to the business plan to know what they should be doing? Naw, they should be referring to customer feedback, 1-page feature summaries, visual prototypes, notecard stories, and app/biz analytics.... The point of their gripe is that things change. Dramatically. You'll look back at the assumptions that are core to your business plan and laugh about how stupid you were (I know I would if I'd written one). Some of the exercise is valuable-- to stretch muscles you're going to need (thinking about monetization, distribution, etc)... But at the end of the day, it's usually akin to a virgin trying to write a sex manual-- no amount of research/planning is going to make it a good/accurate plan.

swombat 18y ago
But at the end of the day, it's usually akin to a virgin trying to write a sex manual-- no amount of research/planning is going to make it a good/accurate plan. It doesn't need to be accurate. Even a virgin can benefit from thinking about what he's going to be doing once it all starts happening. I'll also add that running a business is a lot less instinct-driven than sex (well, for most people... I know some exceptions!). rere: #1 - it's quite possible that a short paragraph is not enough to set out all the key elements of a multi-year venture. In my experience, in fact, that's pretty much always the case. rere: #2 - Not everyone has been running businesses since they were born. Artifical structures help in running a business just as they help in many other things. rere: #4 - you don't need to refer them back to the plan all the time, but it helps split up all the stuff that needs to get done so that it's easier to assign ownership for chunks of it. Of course in a start-up everyone does a bit of everything, but that doesn't mean everyone should step on each other's feet constantly.
mechanical_fish 18y ago
If you need artificial structures to ensure that you think about something important, you're in trouble. Perhaps. But the majority of new companies are in trouble. Most of them just don't know it yet. ;)

swombat 18y ago

But at the end of the day, it's usually akin to a virgin trying to write a sex manual-- no amount of research/planning is going to make it a good/accurate plan. It doesn't need to be accurate. Even a virgin can benefit from thinking about what he's going to be doing once it all starts happening. I'll also add that running a business is a lot less instinct-driven than sex (well, for most people... I know some exceptions!). rere: #1 - it's quite possible that a short paragraph is not enough to set out all the key elements of a multi-year venture. In my experience, in fact, that's pretty much always the case. rere: #2 - Not everyone has been running businesses since they were born. Artifical structures help in running a business just as they help in many other things. rere: #4 - you don't need to refer them back to the plan all the time, but it helps split up all the stuff that needs to get done so that it's easier to assign ownership for chunks of it. Of course in a start-up everyone does a bit of everything, but that doesn't mean everyone should step on each other's feet constantly.

mechanical_fish 18y ago

If you need artificial structures to ensure that you think about something important, you're in trouble. Perhaps. But the majority of new companies are in trouble. Most of them just don't know it yet. ;)