We weren’t making a plan; I’ve never written a business plan. I’ve never written a business plan with any of my start-ups. With Meetup, I sketched, maybe wrote a few FAQs about how it would operate. We built it, went live, and people started using it. Then VCs called. Investors would rather invest in the real thing—with an obvious evolution path—than words.
Rafael
on 08 Dec 10Interesting, but from a point of view that someone who has no idea how start-up works, I will writing a business plan! Only feelings about things are complicated to share with business partners. Write a business plan is fun and can synchronize the expectations, mainly when you have more than a partner.
Neil
on 08 Dec 10I’m sure that he had the plan in his head, I doubt it was a fluke idea that they simply had a go at.
Dan
on 08 Dec 10That’s great, but what about revenue? It’s great if VC’s invest in your website, but it isn’t a business unless it generates cashflows. One of the things I greatly respect about 37S is that you guys don’t follow the 90’s logic of VC money = victory. I’m a bit surprised you would find this quote helpful.
Armando
on 11 Dec 10My comment to Rafael and Dan would be from the ReWork book written by 37Signals themselves as they say on page 19:
Dan
on 13 Dec 10I’m not debating the merits of devising a business plan. As with anything, nothing is black-and-white. Some people can create a rock-solid business plan, make a few adaptations as more knowledge is developed and be immensely successful, and others will create ones that are epic failures.
What I take issue with is this quote: “We built it, went live, and people started using it. Then VCs called. Investors would rather invest in the real thing—with an obvious evolution path—than words.”
This implies that because they attracted VC’s, they won. I don’t understand this prevailing logic that gaining investors is an end goal. Why is the guy featured in this article sensationalized as a stud?
That is why I love the “Bootstrapped, Profitable, and Proud” series. We need more true entrepreneurs who see making money, as opposed to taking on investments, the reason for starting a business.
Perhaps had Meetup developed a plan for revenue first, they would not have needed to take on investors and would hold more equity in their own company. I’m not saying they would have, but it’s worth thinking about.
This discussion is closed.