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I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

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Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#191

Post by samwillis »

My understanding is Y Combinator was always about people, on both sides, it’s also far more than just PG. if you haven’t read it, read this that Paul wrote about Jessica Livingston, it’s a brilliant insight into how they invest and how important the people around PG are at informing their investment decisions:

http://paulgraham.com/jessica.html

The point is he doesn’t make investment decisions based on a traditional business plan or balance sheets. That’s all he is really saying in his tweet, for a popper insight read that post.

For someone known for his essays trying to convey meany from a 10 word tweet is never going to happen.

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#192

Post by geek_at »

jasfi wrote: post #161
guynamedloren wrote: post #106

I’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 does…

Pro-tip for social media: be controversial.

And don't forget that even if Paul doesn't read it. It's going to be read (probably) until it even reaches him

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#193

Post by nouveaux »

jcrben wrote: post #189
nouveaux wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, there is a pretty concrete idea of what a traditional business plan looks like. Traditional business plans are needed if you want a small business loan from a bank. If you try to get a small business loan from the bank with a YC application, you'll get laughed out of the bank. A YC app is quite different from a business plan and most people would not see it as the same thing.

In a prior life as a regulator I read formal business plans (legally required) which probably looked quite different from what you're talking about. It's a generic noun used in various business contexts. The business plan for a startup pitching to a VC will look different than the plan an SMB submits to a bank

I assure you its very different from the vast majority of business plans out there. Here is Dropbox's YC app:

https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#194

Post by throw100g »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #166
cam0 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly very smart, but I haven't heard or read anything from him that would classify as genius.

For what it is worth, The most common technical definition genius is an iq of 140, or 1/400.

I think that is an important fact to know considering the confusion in this thread. There are people commenting that pg surely can't be a genius because this or that he engages in isn't ethical (to them).

But that's the thing, the IQ says absolutely nothing about ones ethical responsibility or the amount of empathy one has.

It is purely measuring "logical thinking ability". Things like "continue this sequence", "recognize a pattern", etc.

I also often see this dangerous assumption that ones political opponents or everyone with a different opinion than the one which seems most rational to ones own must be "stupid". In reality, the problem is that we focus on something as (arguably) unimportant as the IQ, which measures only something very narrow.

Another misconception about IQ is that those who are more poor or have less favourable job positions must have a lower IQ. To give just one counter example to that, very often, people who have some sort of handicap (ASD, ADHD, etc.) are also "gifted", have a high IQ, are good when it comes to logical thinking. But their handicaps still make their lives more difficult in general, so they face more adversity than someone who is "normal".

Sorry that i wrote a wall of text, was just thinking out loud.

In my personal opinion, the IQ is already a little dangerous, because it assigns a "value" to a human life, but that is an entirely different discussion.

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#195

Post by onion2k »

exdsq wrote: post #188
nouveaux wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A plan is very different compared to a business plan. The type of forecasting required in a business plan is good for something predictable, like a McDonald's franchise. Can you imagine trying to forecast the first 10 years for the first version of Google's search engine? It would be ludicrous.

I bet they had one, Apple did https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/5125

They may well have done, and plenty of other startups will have done too, and their experience of how wrong it would have been is likely to be the sort of evidence that pg has used to inform his position.

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#196

Post by jcrben »

nouveaux wrote: post #193
jcrben wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a prior life as a regulator I read formal business plans (legally required) which probably looked quite different from what you're talking about. It's a generic noun used in various business contexts. The business plan for a startup pitching to a VC will look different than the plan an SMB submits to a bank

I assure you its very different from the vast majority of business plans out there. Here is Dropbox's YC app: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox

Well, that business plan looks fairly similar (albeit more detailed) to the legally required plans I used to peruse as part of my old job. I've never been a banker so I don't know what the business plans you're talking about look like

I do think the plan you linked to is more thorough than what the majority of SMBs will be writing. YC is another league of finance. Most SMBs I know are not very sophisticated

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#197

Post by nouveaux »

jcrben wrote: post #196
nouveaux wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assure you its very different from the vast majority of business plans out there. Here is Dropbox's YC app: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox

Well, that business plan looks fairly similar (albeit more detailed) to the legally required plans I used to peruse as part of my old job. I've never been a banker so I don't know what the business plans you're talking about look like I do think the plan you linked to is more thorough than what the majority of SMBs will be writing. YC is another league of finance. Most SMBs I know are not very sophisticated

That's interesting. Do you mind sharing an example of what you worked with?

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#198

Post by LeonB »

dfabulich wrote: post #158
LeonB wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not something I’m going to dig into, sorry. People have every right to block others, without giving any explanation and I support that side of it completely. It stood out from my pov because there’s very very few times I’ve noticed I’m blocked and I don’t generally mean to cause any offence. The most I would’ve been intending to cause was a little introspection.

Then why did you bring this up?

As a cautionary tale to others, in case they don’t want to be blocked by him, it might make them pause and consider before putting into writing any extremely mild criticism, on Twitter.

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#199

Post by jcrben »

nouveaux wrote: post #197
jcrben wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, that business plan looks fairly similar (albeit more detailed) to the legally required plans I used to peruse as part of my old job. I've never been a banker so I don't know what the business plans you're talking about look like I do think the plan you linked to is more thorough than what the majority of SMBs will be writing. YC is another league of finance. Most SMBs I know are not very sophisticated

That's interesting. Do you mind sharing an example of what you worked with?

I don't think they're public - it was just a narrative business plan (under a section titled business plan) required when an insurance company submitted an application for a license to sell insurance in the state of Alaska. Each state has similar requirements (NAIC model law).

It also included a background check on the management IIRC

Can you link to an example SMB business plan? I once tried to help a neighborhood grocer with financing and I can assure you they weren't writing a sophisticated business plan.

Re: I have never read a business plan or balance sheet

#200

Post by ignoramous »

monksdream wrote: post #145
nicodjimenez wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the man's essays and he is clearly a genius, but he's getting carried away a bit on Twitter.

His essays are usually a big pile of “focus on the important things and add value or whatever”-type platitudes. It’s funny that each one has been proofread and revised based on comments from the Who-is-Who in SV, a typical Emperor and His New Clothes situation. To be fair though, 99% of wisdom books from successful people are like this.

Calling it platitudes is harsh. The Airbnb founders have repeatedly said that their company was going no where but for Paul Graham's mentorship and the series of advice he gave them, amidst an economy in dire recession.

And btw, before YC, the whos-who of SV were a closed-knit, exclusive group. You underestimate the very radical nature of YC when they started in 2004.

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