Transform
Your Untested or Under-performing “Plan A”
Into a Profitable Business Model
Into a Profitable Business Model
If the founders of Google, PayPal, or Starbucks had stuck to their original business plans, we’d likely never have heard of them. Instead, they made radical changes to their initial models, became household names, and delivered huge returns for investors. How did they get from their Plan A to a business model that worked?
Why did they succeed when most new ventures crash and burn?
John Mullins and Randy Komisar argue that the startup process, largely driven by poorly conceived business plans based on untested assumptions, is seriously flawed. But there is a better way to launch new ideas—without wasting years of your time and loads of investors’ money.
In Getting to Plan B, Mullins and Komisar present a field-tested process for rigorously stress-testing your initial business idea, and using the evidence you uncover to make swift corrections that tip the business equation in your favor. Focusing on five elements that determine any business model’s economic viability— its revenue, gross margin, operating, working capital, and investment models—the authors’ approach significantly reduces your risk of failure by:
- Comparing your idea with existing models to steal what works, avoid what doesn’t, and add improvements
- Identifying “leaps of faith”: the as-yet-untested questions you are banking your business on
- Conducting fast, inexpensive, data-driven experiments to support or refute those questions
- Using this data to make smart strategic changes and course correct before it’s too late