Hi Jon, I’m sorry but I disagree with you.

Here are 5 reasons why I suggest startups don’t write business plans:

1. They usually take too long time to write.
2. Hardly no one reads them.
3. When things change, they are time consuming to update.
4. They are shock full of assumptions disguised as facts.
5. They usually lack how you will test your most risky hypothesis.

Instead of the traditional business plan, I suggest that startup teams prepare the much more interactive and visual business model canvas (or a variation thereof)and apply lean startup to test their most risky assumption as early as possible. That way they minimize the risk of paralysis by analysis. In the time it takes you to write a business plan you could have already tested your most risky assumption.