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Comment by marto1 | Hacker News Reader

Please make your substantive points without personal attacks, regardless of who the person is.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Hah, alright.

Why would it be false ? It may be exaggerated (should read "I never use business plan or balance sheet to assess a startup") but not complete bullshit. Startups are not the same as traditional companies and the due diligence process reflects that. pg's arguments are reasonable in this context: business plans have info that is best discussed with the founders and balance sheets have little data that will be relevant in the future. Like it or not, startups business model is "exponential growth or die".

How in the world is a tweet about funding methodology even close to outrageous content that tip toes into banishment? You're losing the plot, friend.

It's simply a tweet to say he gets more value from talking directly with the founders about what he wants to know. Seems pretty reasonable to me, but I could see how a certain audience would say ** context and ignore to categorize it as "controversial edgy tweets". Easy to rile those people up though without challenging the algo.

In this case it isn't on the ban axis, but it's pretty obvious that Twitter likes edgy statements that are often in the "Ironic lie to make a point" (positive view) or "ironic lie shrouded in fog to let my avoid repercussions" (negative)

The whole point is that he didn't say it as you worded it, it's always about making a dramatic statement.

When you get into the "riling people up" part - like saying "Thanks I'll definitely listen to him now" in response to criticism of someones bona fides - it's very satisfying, but bad for the soul IMO. It subtly distorts how you view empathy because you're always arguing with a hyperreal snapshot of the other person (and them to you)

At that stage, if your business plan or balance sheet is solid, you don't need funding, or you aren't a tech/growth startup.

So basically it's all fluff as he mentioned it in a later tweet.

A business plan is literally the first thing you need to do when you have an idea for a business. The original idea needs to be developed so that you an others are able to see if it makes sense or is complete nonsense. That's a business plan. Whether the business is about tech or about something else doesn't make it any different in that regard.

why do you think its bullshit? for startup companies that are looking for seed investments who writes business plans?

The YC application is effectively a business plan.

I can assure you it is not anything like an actual business plan.

Oh is it?

Give it to an MBA to evaluate and they will come right back complaining about it. Guaranteed. And asking for a formal business plan with a detailed financial planning.

So, yes, in practice for someone who are familiar with startups it is a business plan. For everybody else it's just a generic description.

I think it's pretty unlikely he never done either, let's be real.

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