We had a meeting this week with a young start-up venture to go over the term sheet we’d presented them, outlining the capital and incubation services we will be providing in exchange for equity in their company. We outlined the services that we’ll be providing to support their business – in-house legal, finance, accounting, operations, IT, tech architecture, design and capital-raise departments. We’d already vetted the Executive Summary and the financials as part of our evaluation process, and had the guts of a business plan but not a complete, ready-for-primetime version – a crucial next step.
The CEO asked, “Who will be responsible for writing the business plan?” Considering the kind of support we were offering the company, the CEO’s question wasn't really an outlandish one, although he may have been surprised to hear that the answer was “you.”
Executives and entrepreneurs who have had successful ventures or successful exits or successful liquidity events most likely had to fight through the tough times, often flying in the face of no agreement. And I guarantee you that not a single one of those successful entrepreneurs had someone else write their business plan. To be adept, agile, resourceful, fluid, and opportunistic is the key to success at the entrepreneurial game. To hit all of those qualifications, you have to know the business plan backwards and forwards, from cover to cover, in English, Hebrew and Klingon, if possible. You have to know where there's wiggle room, where the threats could come from and where the opportunities lay ahead. The only person or persons responsible for writing a company's business plan should be the very same people responsible for its execution - it is they who will be blamed for its failure, and they who will also claim victory for its success.
We don't need to take credit for a company's success. In fact, we take pride in identifying the right people who are resourceful, who have a never-say-quit mentality, who have crossed the chasm and survived (or, better yet, prevailed). That’s the team who we hope will persevere and eventually take that credit. And then, when they want to start another, we'll be right there to help get it off the ground and do it all over again.
If you are an entrepreneur or executive manager or CEO, OWN your plan, OWN your success and take responsibility for everything in between. You will have fans and supporters for the rest of your career.
-Brian