Rob Adams is on the faculty of the MBA program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also the Director of Texas Venture Labs. He’s a former software executive, entrepreneur and institutional fund manager. He has served on many corporate boards, and has founded or financed more than 40 companies which have launched more than 100 products and raised more than a billion dollars of capital. Dr. Adams is currently active with a number of technology and life sciences companies as a board member or advisor.
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I’m an experienced entrepreneur, active investor, author, strategy consultant, and on the faculty of the 
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Look forward to reading it! Your last book was one of my most crucial investments while in the MBA program and I use the lessons that I learned from it almost daily.
I came across a blog post by Jason Cohen which on first glance seemed to challenge the notion of a business plan But on a closer inspection, I am not sure that is the case.
I am curious to hear your take on the second post. Is there a difference between writing a business plan to appeal to an investor(s) AND creating a plan that is focused on execution?
http://goo.gl/JPGf -> This post makes it sound like all business plans are evil:
http://goo.gl/Qghz -> The second post though advocated writing a business plan but just not calling it a business plan.
This is the age old, circular question around business plans – should they be written or not? My favorite quote is from the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will get you there.”
Yes, you need a business plan if you’re serious about your business. You need to lay out your market, your customer, what the market pain is, why people will buy from you, what your competitors are doing, who buys the product, who uses the product, who sells the product, …. the list goes on and on. The plan doesn’t have to be elaborate, but you have to go on record as to how you’re going to grow. Some companies work by the seat of their pants and can make it work. Most entrepreneurs I know and work with take themselves more seriously than that and plan out their business before they start down the start-up road.
In the spirit of market validation, I thought you may be interested in this article from The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/retirementspecial/04WORK.html?WT.mc_id=BU-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M139-ROS-0310-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click&ei=5087&en=3cbf01cab2c38b02&ex=1283317200&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1267978114-FU1ayoiSlDlRnKLXlfK/NA). The article explores a growing trend in retirees starting their own businesses. What’s interesting is that the article reinforces the fact that an idea alone doesn’t drive success. What was particularly interesting to me is that this points to a potential growing trend that may be an interesting one to follow: as baby boomers begin to formally retire from their “day jobs” resulting in more and more startups from those in this age range trying to use their skills, expertise and newly found time to pursue a passion and/or feel a market need. I think the article and the book outlined above underscore the point that new businesses take time and that a “great idea” doesn’t always end up equaling success. And, what’s MOST critical is that the entrepreneur truly validate the market before spending too much time and money in the venture. For those closer to the new business pitch process, are you seeing a growing trend of 50-somethings looking to take an interest or hobby and turn it into a business?
Christa Semko (TEMBA 2010)
The article above and Christa’s note only reinforces the learning. Its not enough to have an idea and start a businesses. You need to understand, validate the market, set the timing and mostly importantly execution excellence. Its always not necessary to be first in the market,,, you can be second, third, fourth and still be the leader as long as your ground is covered in the above basics.
Hey Doc!
I actually won your book via a Twitter contest with @IncMagazine. I look forward to reading it. And I will write a review on my blog too!