Why Brian Halligan Doesn't Believe In Business Plans

There was a great piece in the Wall St Journal last month called 'Should Start-Up Founders Forget About Business Plans?' It profiled start-up Hubspot which raised funds without having a formal business plan. In the video below of his address at the Puerto Rica Venture Forum, founder and CEO of Hubspot Brian Halligan argues “it’s a fool’s errand” for start-up founders to create a business plan. Brian says: 

“When I was a venture capitalist investing in companies, I never actually read a business plan, so don’t even waste your time with a business plan”.


Instead Brian advocates that you keep things real simple by formulating a 1-page executive summary and a 10-slide PowerPoint presentation. Great, simple, effective advice.