[nickh]

Thanks for your insight, aspir. Much appreciated.

Despite the CEO having worked on the business plan for the last 2 years, it's actually not out of date. This is because it's been updated as time has gone on, and a direct, funded competitor just launched, which validates the idea and one of the planned revenue streams.

Since I and others have joined the startup:

* we've just barely begun looking for our first round of funding.

* the CEO's been successful in obtaining a few beta testers to generate our initial content.

* we've built 70% of the MVP.

[aspir]

Factoring all of that in, I'd still say that if there were equity for the plan, it would be small. A lot of this planning work is within the CEO's job description by default. It takes the bruden off the technical team so that they can do their best work. In my opinion, if you can convert the beta testers to paying customers (even if they are for tiny amounts of cash) your valuation is significantly higher, with or without a plan (with is always better, though).

[nickh]

That's a very good point: this planning is part of the role of the CEO.