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Comment by jcrben | Hacker News Reader

This is all just semantic nonsense. YC has no more profound understanding of the noun "business plan" than anyone else in the business world. Don't overthink it

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To be fair, there is a pretty concrete idea of what a traditional business plan looks like. Traditional business plans are needed if you want a small business loan from a bank. If you try to get a small business loan from the bank with a YC application, you'll get laughed out of the bank. A YC app is quite different from a business plan and most people would not see it as the same thing.

In a prior life as a regulator I read formal business plans (legally required) which probably looked quite different from what you're talking about. It's a generic noun used in various business contexts.

The business plan for a startup pitching to a VC will look different than the plan an SMB submits to a bank

I assure you its very different from the vast majority of business plans out there. Here is Dropbox's YC app:

https://www.ycombinator.com/apply/dropbox

Well, that business plan looks fairly similar (albeit more detailed) to the legally required plans I used to peruse as part of my old job. I've never been a banker so I don't know what the business plans you're talking about look like

I do think the plan you linked to is more thorough than what the majority of SMBs will be writing. YC is another league of finance. Most SMBs I know are not very sophisticated

That's interesting. Do you mind sharing an example of what you worked with?

I don't think they're public - it was just a narrative business plan (under a section titled business plan) required when an insurance company submitted an application for a license to sell insurance in the state of Alaska. Each state has similar requirements (NAIC model law).

It also included a background check on the management IIRC

Can you link to an example SMB business plan? I once tried to help a neighborhood grocer with financing and I can assure you they weren't writing a sophisticated business plan.

And YC isn't a venture capitalist or angel investor either: it is a company that provides funding and advice to startups.

> This is all just semantic nonsense.

No it's not. The point is that what most start-ups submit as a "business plan" is just a load of b.s.

The questions that are asked in the YC interview draw out the information that _should_ be in a business plan.

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