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Strategy

Business Plan (Lightweight)

A modern, useful business plan — not the 60-page document banks ask for, the one operators actually need.

Last updated May 19, 2026

What it is

A short, structured business plan focused on the assumptions you'll test in the next 90 days, not a 5-year financial projection.

When to use it

When you need to commit your thinking to paper. When you need to align a co-founder, an advisor, or your future self.

The template

# Business Plan — [Your Business Name]

**Updated:** [DATE]
**Founder(s):** [NAMES]

## Summary (the elevator pitch — 3 sentences)
- What you do:
- Who for:
- Why now:

## The customer
- Specifically (role + company size + situation):
- How many of them exist:
- Where they gather:
- What they read:

## The problem
- One-paragraph description in the customer's own words:
- How they solve it today (without you):
- Why that's not enough:

## The solution
- One-paragraph description of your product or service:
- The core feature that solves the problem:
- What you deliberately don't do:

## Why you
- Founder background that makes this credible:
- Unique insight or unfair access:
- What you've already built / shipped:

## How you make money
- Pricing model:
- Gross margin target:
- LTV estimate:
- Path to $X (e.g. $10k MRR in month 12):

## Acquisition
- The one channel you're committing to for the first 30 days:
- The activity volume you'll do:
- The conversion rate you're assuming:
- How you'll know if it's working:

## Money in / money out (90 days)
- Cash on hand: $
- Monthly expenses: $
- Monthly target revenue: $
- Runway: months

## The next 90 days
- Three things you'll ship:
  1.
  2.
  3.
- Three things you'll explicitly NOT do:
  1.
  2.
  3.
- Single most important metric to move:

## Risks and what could go wrong
- The 3 things most likely to kill this:
  1.
  2.
  3.
- For each, what you'll do if it happens:

## Asks
- Who you need to talk to:
- What kind of help you need:
- What you don't need help with (people who know you will offer this — be clear):

Common mistakes

  • Including a 5-year financial projection (nobody believes them; least of all you)
  • Writing in formal corporate voice when the actual reader is yourself or one co-founder
  • Treating it as a one-time document — it should be re-read and updated quarterly