Good Steve Blank post today wherein he continues to beat the drum for the value of business models over business plans. Today he specifically targets startup business plan competitions as having little real value for students. And he proposes that these competitions change their focus to creating and testing (“getting out of the office”, or classroom in this instance) a start-up business model.
Thought-provoking stuff. As a big proponent of worrying about the business model in a startup, I agree with Blank. Not to say business plans don’t have their place, they do. Unfortunately, in most academic entrepreneurship training there is a dramatic over-emphasis on the business plan and inadequate focus on the business model.
New Dog Old Trick 