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Interesting, 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.

I’m sure that he had the plan in his head, I doubt it was a fluke idea that they simply had a go at.

That’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.

My comment to Rafael and Dan would be from the ReWork book written by 37Signals themselves as they say on page 19:

Unless you are a fortune teller, long-term buisness planning is fantasy. There are just too many factors that are out of your hands: market, conditions, competitors, customers, the economy, etc. Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you can’t actually control. Why don’t we just call plans what they are: guesses. Start referring to your business plans as business guesses, your financial plans as financial guesses, and your strategic plans as strategic guesses. Now you can stop worrying about them as much, they just aren’t worth the stress

I’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.