Martin Zwilling asks a good question: "Why is it that most of the business plans I see really are product plans?"

He goes on to define a product plan as a plan to create something to sell and a business plan as creating a model for how the processes of business will operate, the details of operations and revenues.

The reason people tend to create product plans instead of business plans is actually a reaction to the market force of angels and seed investors.

I heard Jason Calacanis poo poo someone's question about monetizing a dot com startup on TWiT (Leo Laporte's show). Does he really disbelieve in cash flowing a business? Is he stupid? No, he's just aware of the market. It's unimportant. You build a giant market share and hope someone with more money than math skills comes along to gobble you up. The stock market drives most acquisitions, not revenues.

Google buys YouTube, creates more wealth in stock price that week than they spent to acquire the company. How much have they made on it so far?

One can argue that some ecowhiz at Google has a long-term revenue plan. But, it's more likely that purchase was a short term hedged bet. Stocks drive these kind of decisions more than revenue models.

What about business plans built on brick and mortar, manufacturing, production, R&D, etc.? I think this mentality permeates the culture of startups. And, I think it's highly destructive in most cases. "Wouldn't it be cool..." is not a business plan.