I have never read a business plan or a balance sheet.
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Even after all these years, Twitter still surprises me. *This* is the tweet that makes people accuse me of lying and announce that they're unfollowing me? People are that attached to business plans and balance sheets? How completely mystifying.
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The reason I don't care about business plans is that I can learn more from 5 minutes of interrogating the founders than from 10 pages of fluff they've written.
The reason I don't care about balance sheets is the same reason I don't care who's leading 100 yards into a marathon.
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This explains how YC decides who to fund: paulgraham.com/ace.html
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I'm not sure. I wrote something for Viaweb that I called a business plan, but never having seen one, I didn't and still don't know if it contains what business plans are supposed to contain.
paulgraham.com/vwplan.html
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As a start up should we make balance sheet & buisness plan or not ?
I find these practices absurd and not adding value.
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July 10th, 2009. I think people don’t listen enough to a good quality conversations. You were pretty clear then. Surprised they are surprised now. If needed I can upload whole discussion. Way more useful than most on YouTube
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Wow, great catch.
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Viaweb was in Boston in the 90s. Accounting meant a guy with a green visor.
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YC always uses the same valuation. For investments post-YC, I take whatever valuation cap the startup is asking other investors for (which will usually have been suggested by their YC group partners).
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I have never read a pitch deck either.
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Because the readers need random rather than sequential access.
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Books.
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But, given your latest essay - paulgraham.com/words.html - would you recommend creation of one/both for founders?
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Oh yes, I'm sure it would be a good exercise for founders.
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