HP
December 3rd, 2008
Some words of encouragement for entrepreneurs: the founders of HP didn’t have a very clear picture of what they were going to do when they started their company back in 1937.
According to an excerpt from the original business plan, they seemed to have a better idea about what they didn’t want to do than what they did want to do. Great depression and ambiguity be damned; they wanted to start a company. Sounds familiar.
Thus began the company credited with establishing Silicon Valley.
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It’s worth pointing out that HP started with only $538 – still less than $10k even in today’s dollars.
Is it fair to say that if you’re not making a pitch to a VC firm you don’t need a business plan in the same way you might otherwise?
Many (most?) companies start without business plans. Then again, many (most?) companies fail. I’d be interested to find out if business plans are correlated with success.
The greatest value of writing a business plan might be that it forces you to take a critical look at the proposed business.