Viaweb's First Business Plan: http://paulgraham.com/vwplan.html
I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
101–110 of 346 posts
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#102Quoted post unavailable.
How in the world is a tweet about funding methodology even close to outrageous content that tip toes into banishment? You're losing the plot, friend.
It's simply a tweet to say he gets more value from talking directly with the founders about what he wants to know. Seems pretty reasonable to me, but I could see how a certain audience would say ** context and ignore to categorize it as "controversial edgy tweets". Easy to rile those people up though without challenging the algo.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
People really struggle to recognize context. I assume most people who are getting so upset about pg’s tweet are reading it as “business plans are stupid. Balance sheets are stupid. No company should ever make one because no one should ever read it. Anyone who reads one is stupid.” It should be implied that his advice is only relevant the type of investing which pg does. pg tweeted later on that his solution is someth…
I founded a company without a business plan. Raised money without a business plan. Ran the business profitably for a long time and then sold the majority of it without a business plan. I don’t see the value in a formal business plan at all and so I would almost agree with your made up quote there. I mean obviously you need to have a plan for your business. But writing it down in some formal way seems like a waste of…
there are some sources of funding you need business plans to get, generally government ones need business plans, as to whether those sources are worth pursuing is of course up to the individual.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
In PG’s era of YC, it generally looks like 2 guys with 2 laptops in the cheapest apartment in Mountain View.
And that two guys with laptops in a cheap apartment in mountain view might be a majority of the cases they see, but how will they know unless they see it? I've seen plenty of fake-it-til-you-make-it startups that immediately go out an sign a lease for AAA office space because they think they need a cool office before anybody will take them seriously. And that is a massive red flag to a VC...one that shows up on a bal…
Financially, YC's decision made sense regardless of balance sheets or business plans: YC was investing at a $1.5M valuation (7% for $100k). By selecting a pair of smart engineers, the acquihire potential often exceeded the invested value.
Furthermore, their interviews cut to the underlying cause (scrappiness & maker mentality), which inherently eliminated certain effects (AAA office spaces) without ever seeing a balance sheet.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
People really struggle to recognize context. I assume most people who are getting so upset about pg’s tweet are reading it as “business plans are stupid. Balance sheets are stupid. No company should ever make one because no one should ever read it. Anyone who reads one is stupid.” It should be implied that his advice is only relevant the type of investing which pg does. pg tweeted later on that his solution is someth…
I founded a company without a business plan. Raised money without a business plan. Ran the business profitably for a long time and then sold the majority of it without a business plan. I don’t see the value in a formal business plan at all and so I would almost agree with your made up quote there. I mean obviously you need to have a plan for your business. But writing it down in some formal way seems like a waste of…
I'd imagine a formal business plan would actually be very useful for some lower-margin traditional businesses like e.g. a food/retail franchise.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#106I’m surprised the YC application hasn’t been more of a focus in this discussion.
The following questions are pulled from the application (perhaps an older version):
What is your company going to make?
Why did you pick this idea to work on? Do you have domain expertise in this area? How do you know people need what you're making?
What's new about what you're making? What substitutes do people resort to because it doesn't exist yet (or they don't know about it)?
Who are your competitors, and who might become competitors? Who do you fear most?
What do you understand about your business that other companies in it just don't get?
How do or will you make money? How much could you make?
How far along are you? Do you have a beta yet? If not, when will you? Are you launched? If so, how many users do you have? Do you have revenue? If so, how much? If you're launched, what is your monthly growth rate (in users or revenue or both)?
—-
These questions cover product description, value prop, market analysis, financial projections and more, all of which are the core of a “business plan”.
Sure, the application may be structured in a different way, but the sentiment that PG has never read a business plan seems very disingenuous.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
People really struggle to recognize context. I assume most people who are getting so upset about pg’s tweet are reading it as “business plans are stupid. Balance sheets are stupid. No company should ever make one because no one should ever read it. Anyone who reads one is stupid.” It should be implied that his advice is only relevant the type of investing which pg does. pg tweeted later on that his solution is someth…
I founded a company without a business plan. Raised money without a business plan. Ran the business profitably for a long time and then sold the majority of it without a business plan. I don’t see the value in a formal business plan at all and so I would almost agree with your made up quote there. I mean obviously you need to have a plan for your business. But writing it down in some formal way seems like a waste of…
Ok, you don’t need a business plan. But no balance sheet? You can’t file your taxes without a balance sheet. How can you run anything larger than a mom-and-pop business without ever seeing a balance sheet?
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#108Very similar to Sam's confession on Econtalk [1]: > I probably shouldn't admit this--I'm on the Board of a public company: I can't read a balance sheet or income statement or anything like that. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAYXUgNHHc4&t=1656s
That’s why there are multiple people on a company board, but it’s also telling how narrative-driven rather than economics-driven the startup world is. It doesn’t matter if a company is hemorrhaging money as long as it fits in a good storyline.
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#109Can’t read what he says as I was blocked years ago. I had expressed the mildest degree of cynicism one can possibly express in response to a straight up lie.
incognito mode
Not the op, I don't have any bans, and I'm not normally signed in to Twitter. But a side note on UX here...
When I land on this tweet the site takes long enough to annoy me before it loads the content (ie. everything below the "Log In / Sign Up" banner is delayed).
When I scroll down past the first few tweets the whole page disappears and is replaced with a nag screen implying I can't see more without signing up and/or downloading the app.
Pressing back once bumps me right out of the whole site (back to HN).
The behavior is non-deterministic. It worked this way the first few tries (with varying quantities of tweets loaded before the nag screen took over). Then I tried in Incognito mode and it worked, and after that going back to the site without Incognito seemed to fare better (did Twitter finally figure out I don't want to download their app?)
Seriously disheartened the majority puts up with this kind of horrible UX. As a content publisher, I don't want readers encountering friction preventing them from digesting my thoughts. As a consumer I want to see the content without hassles. The only party benefitted by their dark pattern is the platform.
Not putting users first = opportunity for someone else to do it better and eventually displace your business.
I used to respect Twitter engineers and was under the impression they cared about things like load times and user experience. Has the culture changed? Am I just getting old and grumpy?
Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
In PG’s era of YC, it generally looks like 2 guys with 2 laptops in the cheapest apartment in Mountain View.
And that two guys with laptops in a cheap apartment in mountain view might be a majority of the cases they see, but how will they know unless they see it? I've seen plenty of fake-it-til-you-make-it startups that immediately go out an sign a lease for AAA office space because they think they need a cool office before anybody will take them seriously. And that is a massive red flag to a VC...one that shows up on a bal…
I raised $4M seed round on a SAFE from two well known multi $B fund and others. I don’t think anyone asked for a balance sheet. The company was 3mo old, so there wasn’t much (no revenue, hardly any expenses) and we didn’t even have an accountant yet.
There was some basic due diligence questions that us founders had to answer but very light still.
I’d assume most seed deals on SAFEs or even priced rounds are similar.