How to write a startup business plan investors will read

A startup business plan is a written explanation of how the company will create and capture value, and what it needs to get there. Investors use it to check whether the story in the pitch holds together. Founders use it to test their own thinking and set milestones.

For an early-stage startup the plan does not need to be long. It needs to be clear about what you know, what you assume and how you will find out whether your assumptions are right.

Sequoia Capital's guidance on writing a business plan lists ten sections, which work well as a structure for most startups:

• Company purpose: define the company in a single declarative sentence.
• Problem: describe the customer's pain and how it is handled today.
• Solution: explain your insight and why your approach works.
• Why now: what has changed that makes this the right moment.
• Market potential: who the customer is and how big the market can be.
• Competition and alternatives: who else solves the problem, including what customers do today, and how you plan to win.
• Business model: how you make money and reach customers.
• Team: the founders and key people, and why they fit.
• Financials: the numbers you have and the plan ahead.
• Vision: what you will have built in five years if everything goes well.

The executive summary should let a busy reader understand the whole business in one or two pages. Write it last, after the other sections are clear.

Cover, in order: what the company does and for whom, the problem and solution, the evidence so far, the market, the team, and what you are raising and what it will achieve. Use plain language and specific facts rather than adjectives.

Build the financial model from explicit, testable assumptions, not from a target number at the end. Every revenue line should trace back to drivers you can explain: how many customers, at what price, acquired through which channel, at what cost.

• Show monthly detail for the period the round will fund, and annual figures after that.
• Separate assumptions into one place so readers can see and change them.
• Include hiring, salaries and other operating costs, and the cash runway they imply.
• If you plan to use Israel Innovation Authority grants, model the repayment: royalties of 3% to 5% of annual revenues plus SOFR-based interest, until the grant is repaid.
• Show what the money you are raising pays for, and which milestone it reaches.

Show the market size from the bottom up: start from the customers you can actually reach, multiply by what they would pay, and explain each number. This is more convincing than quoting a large industry figure and claiming a small share of it.

Name your first customer segment precisely, for example a type of clinic, company size or region, and estimate how many such customers exist and how you will reach them. Then explain how the company can expand to further segments or markets. Cite the source of every external figure you use, and keep the date of the data, so readers can check it.

A pitch deck is a short visual story designed to earn a meeting or support a live presentation. A business plan is a written document that explains the same story in more depth and with the supporting numbers.

Many early investors start with the deck and ask for the financial model and more detail later. Keep the two consistent: the numbers, the market and the ask should match. See /en/guides/startup-pitch-deck.

A plan for venture investors and a plan for a bank answer different questions. Venture investors want to see how large the company can become and what could make it a big outcome. A bank wants to see how a loan will be repaid, from cash flow and collateral.

If you need both, write two versions from the same model rather than one document that tries to do both.

These mistakes make investors stop reading:

• A market size built top-down from a huge number, with no realistic path to your share.
• Revenue projections with no explanation of how customers are acquired.
• Ignoring competitors, or claiming there are none.
• Costs that leave out salaries, regulation, sales or support.
• A plan that does not match the deck or the financial model.
• Long text that hides the key facts.

WeCcelerate is a Venture Builder in Israel since 2018, active in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and recognized by the Israel Innovation Authority. We work with founders on the business model, the plan, the financial model and the pitch, as one consistent story. MedTech founders can also join our track with Leumit Health Services, which offers clinical expertise, regulatory guidance, data access and pilot opportunities.