Study Finds Business Plans a Waste of Time

This is a fascinating study. It basically says your business plan doesn't matter for fundraising. Why is this? Not surprisingly, venture investors invest in people not plans. So your connections matter more than your plan or your idea.
 
But this is a problem. The venture success rate is so low because traditional methods lack quantitative tools and techniques to evaluate addressable markets and validate solution ideas. Thus the pervasive "fail fast" technique.
 
It's not surprising that VCs like to say that "passion and vision" are the keys to success - they don't have quantitative tools, so they make qualitative assessments.
 
Here's the basic VC formula: I like you, so go out and develop your product. If it takes off, we will invest, if not, keep failing faster until you succeed. No wonder only 11% of all venture investments get to liquidity.