In the Age of Business Models, Do Founders Still Need Business Plans to Build Startups?

Single Founder
The Startup
3 min readDec 13, 2019

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A business plan was a minimum requirement to be taken seriously as a business, especially when it came to investors. Nowadays, more and more early-stage investors will not even look at a business plan; instead, they will ask founders for a business model canvases.

Business model canvas is an overly simplified model of what your business might look like, designed to identify key opportunities and challenges quickly.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas

A business model includes many key aspects of what a business must focus on, including:

  • Cost Structure
  • Revenue Streams
  • Value Proposition
  • Customer Segments (Target Customers)
  • Customer Relationships
  • [Distribution] Channels
  • Key Activities
  • Key Resources
  • Key Partners

From a first look, it seems it includes all the key aspects of a business. Why do people still waste their time on business plans then?

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Single Founder
The Startup

🖥 High-Tech Startup Founder 🛫 Serial Entrepreneur 💯 Startup Mentor sharing my insights on building startups