Comments on: The Business Plan vs Executive Summary Debate

By: Jeff Wofford

Jeff Wofford — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:17:55 +0000

I’m an author, Entrepreneur, and Investor. The Business Plan is Dead. As an Entrepreneur, I wrote a book with this as the Title. As a person that’s raised capital in Silicon Valley, I will absolutely tell you they are not looking at a business plan as a prerequisite to fund your idea.

It’s important to get your idea to one page. After the introduction page, you need an executive level presentation that maps out your Magic, Market, Management Team, and Money needed to get to profitability. Most importantly, you need a Network to shop your plan through. 96 percent of startup capital comes from the private market, not Venture Capital.

For more, you can read my book, “The Business Plan is Dead – How to Raise Capital in the New Economy” by me, Jeff Wofford, Silicon Valley Entrepreneur. Available on Amazon.

Jeff Wofford, Author
The Business Plan is Dead

By: Marc Brown

Marc Brown — Sun, 25 May 2008 01:27:44 +0000

Thanks. Great article!

By: Desmond Pieri

Desmond Pieri — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 13:54:27 +0000

Great post. If I may add one thing, back in the days when I used to train newly-hired college grads how to write a proposal for selling a large computer system (at Burroughs, now Unisys), I’d advise that – after the 40 to 50 page proposal was done – then the real work started; now they needed to write the 3 to 4 page summary that you describe. They would always be amazed at how long writing such a short document would take.

And then when they were finished with that, I’d make them write a one-page summary. Heck the recommendation to develop the 747 was made to Boeing’s CEO on a single page because that’s the longest document he’d accept across his desk. The one-pager is great because it focuses only on the real reasons why someone should do the deal – whether buying a computer, building a jetliner, or investing in your start-up.

By: Drew Hession-Kunz

Drew Hession-Kunz — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:01:03 +0000

Very good article, and agree with the central theme.

One clarification for the reason b-schools require the long plans- it is to think these things through completely. In an academic environment, they can’t actually START the business, so the (percieved) next best way to get them thinking this through is to have them write a plan.

I am an adjunct in VC at BC, and believe this is their reasoning. Maybe we should just have them start a business- it would be more productive. I have a number of students who have done just that, and they learn a GREAT deal from the experience…

=Drew