No Business Plan Survives First Contact With Customers. 2 Minutes to See Why

Posted on October 14, 2014 by steve blank

If you can’t see the video click here

Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development |

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10 Responses

  1. bobreiss, on October 14, 2014 at 6:26 am said:

    I fully agree with this You Tube on Business Plans. The emphasis on them at Business Schools is over the top. I wrote a blog on this “Write Your Business Plan in Pencil.” http://www.bootstrapping101.com/writing-business-plans-anyone-have-a-pencil/
    Bob Reiss

    Reply
  2. Will Kirby, on October 14, 2014 at 6:31 am said:

    Nice video explaining the ridiculousness of lengthy and detailed forecasts. I once participated in a start-up competition and they wanted a 5 year forecast for a pre-beta app… I struggled with the forecast because it was absolutely unknown. Even exactly where revenue would come from wasn’t set in stone.

    Reply
  3. Jennifer Mitchell, on October 14, 2014 at 8:39 am said:

    Every time I watch or read one of your things I get so inspired.  I love how you think and I know you are dead-on. Keep going — you are creating more new businesses that will sustain in the future and provide the new frontier in the business world. Good on you!

    Reply
  4. Christopher Ryan, on October 14, 2014 at 11:54 am said:

    Great message and video Steve. Many start-up founders spend too much time planning and not enough testing the market. Our motto is to start small, test, fail quickly, learn, succeed and then scale.

    Reply
  5. Thomas Loarie, on October 14, 2014 at 4:44 pm said:

    Steve learned the game of start-ups by being a player on the field. Unfortunately, many investors have never been on the field and will have a hard time grasping Steve’s wisdom.

    Reply
  6. Jenefeness Houston, MBA, on October 16, 2014 at 4:44 am said:

    David Matilde with GrowthWheel has changed my mindset on Business Plans as well. Great info to solidify this opinion!

    Reply
  7. Zufi Deo, on October 20, 2014 at 4:26 am said:

    Steve Thanks for highlighting something some of us have been saying for a while now – see MBA for Startups.

    I would take it a step further and say that concept of implementation is usually over looked and this is where a lot of the uncertainty, risk and complexity is identified and then dynamcially managed.

    To be fair to B-Schools. They are not designed for SME’s or startups. Their core focus has always been Blue Chips where execution and established performance engines are the norm. Its a bit like expecting something designed for 10,000 people companies to useful for 10 people companies who are in a different pahse in their life cycles.

    Look forward to other obvious observations 🙂

    Reply
  8. Kimberly Wiefling, on November 2, 2014 at 12:25 pm said:

    We are using the lean business model canvas as a guideline to developing team projects as part of a 7 month global leadership program in Houston. It’s a great way to organize people around a common understanding of a project – even works on internal process improvement projects.

    Reply
  9. pickles, on March 16, 2023 at 8:53 am said:

    Great message and video Steve. Many start-up founders spend too much time planning and not enough testing the market. Our motto is to start small, test, fail quickly, learn, succeed and then scale.

    Reply
  10. Tổng Kho MMO, on October 12, 2023 at 8:27 am said:

    Great message and video Steve. Many start-up founders spend too much time planning and not enough testing the market. Our motto is to start small, test, fail quickly, learn, succeed and then scale.

    Reply

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