Using a template to prototype a project has always been helpful for me. Otherwise, I'm cobbling together an 'ugly' MVP or showing someone mockups. Either can work, but using a clean template early on eliminates noise. It allows your audience to think about feature/function vs. "it's kinda ugly, is it going to look like this?" I can customize and make it my own, or start from scratch later.

Here are plenty more to look at for a quick start: http://themeforest.net/category/site-templates/admin-templat...