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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
Related tool
Founder Journey BuilderRelated hub
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