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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

#221

Post by twayt »

auggierose wrote: post #169

I don't know what is controversial about that statement if you put it into pg's context. Anyone complaining about it surely could do something more productive with their time.

It reveals PG's MO. Which is to say edgy things at the expense of accuracy to attract attention.

The reaction is not directed towards business plans or whether PG has even read one or not (hint: no one cares). It is about his consistently proven proclivity to say edgy, inaccurate things, often which add 0 value. Then get upset that people are pointing this out on twitter. It's pretty annoying that he acts this way on twitter considering his previous essays have been ogod.

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

#222

Post by aww_dang »

Neverending wrote: post #71

He later goes on to claim he's "never read a pitch deck". https://twitter.com/paulg/status/1492696791434731529?s=20&t=... What an eye roll.

There's an obsession with pitch decks and whitepapers in some communities that borders on form over function.

Imagine showcasing a complete Dapp with a tutorial, basically ready for launch excluding some UX changes, and then getting questions about, "What's your roadmap?" or, "Where's your whitepaper?"

I appreciate his perspective here. Words must mean action. Talk is cheap.

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

#223

Post by baxtr »

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…

That business plans are a bad thing is becoming a meme.

It's great to get some (many in PGs case) likes on twitter and that's about it. A business plan is great to have because it forces you to think through all the important pieces of the business. Many great companies had one, e.g. Apple (as mentioned by someone else in this thread). Amazon has detailed Word documents for anything they dive into.

Of course, planning should not becoming your core activity... There's a limit after which business planning is just an academic exercise.

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

#224

Post by phekunde »

onion2k wrote: post #133
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…

These questions cover product description, value prop, market analysis, financial projections and more, all of which are the core of a “business plan”. There is a key difference though - none of the YC questions are about the planning bit of a business plan. None of them are about what you're going to do in the near term future. It's all about what you've done so far and where you believe you could be when you exit.…

> None of them are about what you're going to do in the near term future.

Okay, let us look again at some of the questions posted by OP:

1. How do you know people need what you're making?

2. Who might become competitors?

3. How do or will you make money? How much could you make?

These all look future tense to me.

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

#225

Post by fredgrott »

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…

you miss what PG was stating, Audience and User is the balance sheet and the business plan nothing else matters.

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

#226

Post by todorus »

NoLinkToMe wrote: post #213

This really is just arguing semantics on the internet, one of the least interesting activities, usually. I can almost guarantee that Paul Graham has read material produced by companies, which contain information on a business' plans and current status, including financial. If you don't want to call that reading a business plan, that's fine. But it's really besides the point. Further, he's denied that other people hav…

"This really is just arguing semantics on the internet, one of the least interesting activities, usually."

"Come on. Just restate your point: I don't focus investment decisions on traditional balance sheets at all, but rather on conversations with founders."

It's pretty interesting once you get into it, isn't it? Welcome to the club!

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

#227

Post by viraptor »

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…

PG knows how to write good content. This tweet was just-vague-enough that people can both claim he did and that he didn't and many other things and argue and explain the view, etc. He got engagement - maybe that's all it was about. Or maybe I'm wrong and it was a random tweet.

But what I'm sure about is that if he wanted this to be an idea that's well communicated and important, it wouldn't be ambiguous like this.

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

#228

Post by NoLinkToMe »

todorus wrote: post #226
NoLinkToMe wrote: post #213

This really is just arguing semantics on the internet, one of the least interesting activities, usually. I can almost guarantee that Paul Graham has read material produced by companies, which contain information on a business' plans and current status, including financial. If you don't want to call that reading a business plan, that's fine. But it's really besides the point. Further, he's denied that other people hav…

"This really is just arguing semantics on the internet, one of the least interesting activities, usually." "Come on. Just restate your point: I don't focus investment decisions on traditional balance sheets at all, but rather on conversations with founders." It's pretty interesting once you get into it, isn't it? Welcome to the club!

Unfortunately I've been a member of this club for 20 years :(

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

#229

Post by csee »

majani wrote: post #174
jasfi wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pro-tip for social media: be controversial.

And assertive. No ifs, buts or maybes

That's tied in with the need to be succinct. Expressing uncertainty often adds verbosity and cognitive load onto the reader. Often it also adds redundancy, given that uncertainty should be taken for granted in certain contexts. Note that in these last two sentences, the word "often" added verbosity, which is an example of what I am talking about.

If someone is just expressing their opinion, I don't like to read a bunch of hedging. I get that you are uncertain and this is just your opinion, stop telling me that over and over and over.

I wish there was a new shorthand/syntax/convention/notation for expressing uncertainty. All statements are delivered succinctly, with some notation for saying I am only 70% certain, perhaps by putting 0.7 as small superscript text.

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

#230

Post by onion2k »

phekunde wrote: post #224
onion2k wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These questions cover product description, value prop, market analysis, financial projections and more, all of which are the core of a “business plan”. There is a key difference though - none of the YC questions are about the planning bit of a business plan. None of them are about what you're going to do in the near term future. It's all about what you've done so far and where you believe you could be when you exit.…

> None of them are about what you're going to do in the near term future. Okay, let us look again at some of the questions posted by OP: 1. How do you know people need what you're making? 2. Who might become competitors? 3. How do or will you make money? How much could you make? These all look future tense to me.

They're not though. They're all questions about your market. They're asking you to demonstrate domain knowledge.

If you put something forwards-looking like "Google are really big so they might become a competitor!" it wouldn't look great. It's technically true, but it's not interesting. It doesn't demonstrate that you know your market. If you put "Lithuanian Startup X has launched a product in this market 60 days ago, which reached position 3 on Product Hunt, and had a successful Show HN post" then you start to look like you actually follow what's happening. You know your market, and can show you research it. No vague guesses about the future, just demonstrable knowledge about the present.

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