See, there's one thing I don't really understand about the "fund good teams, ignore the business plan" strategy: can you ever consider a team to be "good" if they can't present you with at least a plausible business plan? Yes, the business plan will likely change, and being adaptable enough is important, but can a team be "good" without demonstrating the most basic ability to plan ahead?
I think he does not mean don't build a business plan. The process of building a business plan is a great exercise for any startup. It helps them figure out a lot of holes in their plan or lack thereof.
In a startup things are constantly changing so having a good team means they will do anything to overcome any obstacle. It is a quality that far exceeds any business plan.
I'll second that writing the business plan is extremely helpful for the business itself. Like almost anything else, when we applied high standards to what we wrote, we uncovered a lot of unchecked assumptions, and good ideas, and manner of argument for your business. In the process of writing the plan, we also created it. We managed to nail down many of the engineering milestones we'll want to hit before our next round, went through a half dozen design iterations, including the introduction of two technologies that may be significant breakthroughs, created a multi-physics computer model of our engine and drivetrain, located automotive design and CAD contractors who've been providing us great schematics and visual concepts, and have clarified the entire development, procurement and hiring schedule.
