Week 3 Discussion — How Much Plan Before You Start? — Traditional alternative (no AI)

Instructors: publish this instead of the adaptive version if you prefer, and unpublish or delete the adaptive one.

Hook

Every new venture faces the same two questions before it opens: how much should you plan, and how much risk should you carry while you wait for customers? This week you learned that a lean startup plan tests an idea on one page while a traditional plan convinces a lender, and that the coffee cart's funding plan pays for a cash cushion with a loan that costs interest. Neither fact tells a founder what to choose.

Your discussion question — choose Option A or Option B; they carry the same weight and the same rubric, and you say which you picked.

Option A: An illustrative first-time founder wants to open a smoothie stand near a busy bus stop. One mentor says to write the full traditional plan, with its market analysis, funding request, and financial projections, before spending any money. Another mentor says to write a one-page lean startup plan, sell smoothies from a rented table for two weekends, and write the full plan only if customers show up. Which advice would you follow, and why? Name the stakeholders each choice helps and the ones it asks to give something up, and say what the strongest case for the other advice is.

Option B: The illustrative coffee cart's plan keeps an 8,000-dollar cash cushion and funds part of its start-up needs with a 10,000-dollar equipment loan that costs 1,000 dollars of interest in the first year. One adviser says to keep the full cushion, because the first weeks are uncertain. Another says to open with a smaller cushion so the loan, and its interest, can be smaller. Which would you choose for the cart, and why? Name the stakeholders each choice helps and the ones it asks to give something up, and say what the strongest case for the other choice is.

There is no single right answer. Two people can agree on every fact in the case and still choose differently, because the choice rests on how they weigh speed, safety, cost, and the trust of the people involved. This is a judgment about an illustrative case, not advice about your own money. Pick the option you actually care about, and make your case.

Expectations

Activity format: one initial post followed by two substantive peer replies. Plan on about 45 minutes across the two deadlines; your instructor sets both due dates in Canvas.

Your initial post — by the first due date (early in the module week):

• Say which option you chose.
• For Option A, choose the full traditional plan first or the lean startup plan and a two-weekend test, and name the stakeholders each choice helps and the ones it asks to give something up; for Option B, choose the full 8,000-dollar cushion or a smaller one, and name the stakeholders each choice helps and the ones it asks to give something up.
• Use at least two of this week's terms (traditional plan, lean startup plan, funding plan, cash cushion, interest) correctly.
• State the strongest case for a view you do not hold, in one or two sentences.
• Length: roughly 150–250 words if written. You may instead record your post as audio or video (about two minutes) and attach a transcript; both forms are scored by the same rubric.

Your replies — by the second due date (the end of the module week):

• Reply substantively to at least two classmates.
• A substantive reply does more than agree: name a stakeholder the poster left out, show where a post reads the funding request as a promise of profit rather than a list of needs and sources, or make the strongest fair case for the advice or cushion the poster rejected. "Good post!" on its own does not count.

What a strong post looks like:

I chose Option B and would keep the full 8,000-dollar cushion for the cart. The owner and the person at the counter are protected if the first weeks are slow, and the lender is more likely to be repaid on time. The owner gives up some money to interest, since the 10,000-dollar loan costs 1,000 dollars in the first year whether or not the cart earns a profit. The strongest case for a smaller cushion is that a smaller loan means less interest owed from day one. That is a judgment about safety versus cost, not a disagreement about the plan's numbers.

Notice how it names specific groups, says who gains and who gives something up, and states a fair case for the other side without calling it wrong. That is the bar.

Participation rubric

This discussion is worth 10 points. The three criteria below look at your initial post and your peer replies.

Post early if you can — the best threads happen when people have time to reply before the second due date.

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