13 years. 500+ plans. 300+ businesses coached.
You talk about your business.
We build the plan that gets approved.
Answer in your own words. We pressure-test the thin spots, translate your story into the right vocabulary, and trace every number back to its source. Built for every funding path lenders, grant reviewers, landlords, and investors read.
See depth on all 8 funding paths
Built, not generated. A coached interview, not a template.
Free interview. $49 founding price when you generate. Going to $99 on September 1, 2026.
The Flow
From your story to the reviewer's desk in three steps.
- 01
Answer in your own words.
A 9-phase coached interview. Your origin story, your numbers, your customer. No jargon required.
- 02
We pressure-test the thin spots.
Vague answers get follow-up questions. Missing numbers get flagged. Every projection traces back to a real input.
- 03
Walk out with a reviewer-ready packet.
Full plan in Word, 36-month financial workbook in Excel, cover letter, one-pager. Ready to send.
You walk into the SBDC meeting, the bank, the grant review with a plan that holds up to a red pen.
What You Get
Not just a plan. A complete reviewer-ready packet.
Most tools hand you a document. PlanMason hands you the whole packet a reviewer expects to see.
- Word · DOCX
The Business Plan
A full plan written for the funding path you chose, in the vocabulary that reviewer reads.
- Excel · XLSX
36-Month Financial Workbook
Revenue, expenses, cash flow, and documented assumptions with three-scenario logic.
- Word · DOCX
Cover Letter
A polished introduction aimed at your lender, landlord, grant committee, or VR counselor.
- Word · DOCX
One-Page Summary
The quick-read version for a busy reviewer who needs the case fast.
- In every plan
Assumptions Appendix
Shows where each number came from, so the plan holds up when someone pushes back.
- Editable
DOCX + XLSX Exports
Revise it, share it, hand it to an advisor, or drop it straight into a funding packet.
Not a generated PDF. A complete plan packet you can review, revise, explain, and walk through with an advisor before you send.
Ecosystem
We build the plan. Your SBDC advisor walks it through the final read.
No plan should go to a funder without a second set of eyes. SBDC advising is free, federally-funded, in every state. Two reads land more deals than one.
SBDC = Small Business Development Center. SBA-backed, 950+ offices nationwide. What is SBDC?
What it is
A business plan builder.
Coached, not generated.
Built like a blueprint, defended like an underwriter.
PlanMason interviews founders across 9 phases, pressure-tests their answers, and builds a complete plan packet (DOCX + financial-projections XLSX) tailored to the funding audience: lender, grant reviewer, landlord, investor, or VR counselor.
Who it is for
Anyone preparing a plan for funding.
- SBA Loan
- Conventional
- Commercial Lease
- Equipment Finance
- Equity Raise
- Grant
- VR Self-Employment
- Idea-Stage
Each path has the right financial structure and narrative tone.
Reviewers can spot a generated plan in 30 seconds.
The language is generic. The numbers are invented. The “target market” is everyone. It gets set aside.
Months of prep, gone. The lender intro, burned. The founder with a real plan gets funded first.
THE GENERIC PLAN
Every AI-generated plan says the same thing
Founders paste their idea into ChatGPT. They get a polished document that says nothing specific. No real numbers. No named competitors. No evidence the founder understands their own market.
“Our target market is health-conscious consumers aged 18-65 who value quality dining experiences...”
THE PLANMASON PLAN
A plan that sounds like you sat with an advisor
Your origin story is on page one. Your financials trace to real costs. Your target customer has a name, income level, and reason to buy from you. The AI translated your words into lender vocabulary.
“Primary demographic: professionals aged 28-45, household income $65K+, spending $180-240/mo on dining within 4mi radius...”
GENERIC AI PLAN
- Fast, but thin
- Generic customer language
- Unsupported projections
- Falls apart under questions
THE PLANMASON PACKET
- Coached interview with real follow-up questions
- Your customer, named and sized
- Every number traced to its source
- Structured for your specific reviewer
- Editable DOCX and XLSX packet
Per plan. No subscription. No surprise charges.
Full lender-grade plan, 36-month financial workbook, cover letter, one-pager, DOCX and XLSX export, plus one revision. Same product at any price.
Free to interview. Pay only when you click Generate, not before.
I can't believe how smart this software was. It pushed me to see my business deeper in a new light, and we only had to make 2 tweaks before getting approved. Best $49 investment.
AI that coaches, not generates.
Depth Analysis
Every answer runs through the same questions a SCORE counselor or SBA business advisor would ask first. Thin answers get follow-up questions. “Everyone” as a target market gets challenged. The AI acts like a tough mentor, not a cheerleader.
Language Translation
You write how you talk. The AI translates into lender vocabulary: revenue streams, customer acquisition cost, contribution margin. Your story stays. The language levels up.
Financial Modeling
An interactive financial wizard builds your startup costs, monthly expenses, and revenue streams. The engine generates 36-month P&L, 3-scenario analysis, cash flow projections, and a professional Excel workbook with documented assumptions.
Market Intelligence
Enter your ZIP code. Get population data, median income, competition density, and estimated target market size injected directly into your plan. Real context, not filler.
Citation Tokens
Every dollar in your projections cites the source answer. Every assumption shows its formula in a “How These Numbers Are Built” appendix. An underwriter can defend the plan back to your wizard inputs. Lender-grade trust by construction.
I built PlanMason after reviewing 500+ business plans over 13 years of advisory work, sitting across the table from founders with real businesses who couldn't translate what they knew into what lenders read. Every question in this tool, every coaching prompt, every translation rule comes from those real sessions. This is not another AI template generator. It is the entire advisory process, encoded.
Binil Chacko
Founder, PlanMason. 13 years advising businesses through funding.
What we learned from 500+ plans.
Free guides on why plans get politely declined, and the ones that don't. No paywall, no email gate.
Open the libraryWhy Business Plans Get Politely Declined
The 8 quiet things underwriters actually see when they say “we are going to pass.” Interactive DSCR check, the FSSS rubric, and what flips the meeting into “when can you sign?”
Read the guideThe questions founders ask before they start.
What is PlanMason?
PlanMason is an AI-coached business plan builder for funding-ready plans. It interviews founders across 9 structured phases, then builds a complete plan packet (DOCX + financial-projections XLSX) tailored to the funding audience: lender, grant reviewer, landlord, investor, or VR counselor. Built by Binil Chacko after reviewing 500+ business plans and coaching 300+ businesses across 13 years of advisory work.
What kinds of funding does PlanMason support?
PlanMason has dedicated paths for SBA 7(a) and 504 loans, conventional small business loans, commercial lease applications, equipment finance, growth and expansion financing for existing businesses, equity raises, nonprofit grant applications (foundation and government), Vocational Rehabilitation self-employment plans, and idea-stage validation. Each path uses the right financial structure, narrative tone, and required exhibits for that audience.
How is PlanMason different from using ChatGPT or a template?
ChatGPT generates generic prose from a single prompt. Templates ask the founder to fill blanks. PlanMason coaches the founder through 9 phases of structured interview, pressure-tests thin spots, demands evidence for claims, and traces every projection number back to a source input. The output is the founder's actual business in lender-grade language, not a polished template.
Who built PlanMason?
Binil Chacko, a 13-year business plan advisor who has reviewed 500+ plans and coached 300+ businesses preparing for SBA loans, conventional financing, commercial leases, equipment finance, equity raises, grants, VR self-employment, and idea-stage validation. Every question, coaching prompt, and translation rule in PlanMason was built from those real advisory sessions.
How much does PlanMason cost?
The interview is free. When the founder generates the final lender packet, the price is $49 (founding price through August 31, 2026; increases to $99 on September 1, 2026). Each plan is a one-time charge. No subscription required.
How long does it take to build a business plan with PlanMason?
Most founders spend about 5 hours on the 9-phase interview, broken across multiple sittings. Plan generation runs in about 2 minutes after the interview is complete. End to end, expect a few sittings of focused work plus the generated lender-ready packet at the end.
What kind of business plan output does PlanMason produce?
A complete lender packet: a 12-section business plan in Word format, a financial-projections workbook in Excel (assumptions, 36-month proforma, Sources & Uses, debt service, DSCR analysis, scenario comparison, and global cash flow), a cover letter, plus a one-page executive summary. Output formats match what SBA underwriters and loan committee reviewers expect.
Does PlanMason work for existing businesses, not just startups?
Yes. PlanMason has dedicated paths for startups, existing businesses seeking expansion or growth financing, nonprofit grant applications, and Vocational Rehabilitation self-employment plans. Each path uses different financial structures (existing-business projections start from trailing actuals; nonprofit plans use program/admin/fundraising splits; VR plans frame projections in wage-replacement terms).
Does PlanMason guarantee funding approval?
No tool can guarantee approval. The decision belongs to your lender, landlord, grant committee, or investor. What PlanMason makes sure of is that your plan is complete, internally consistent, and traceable: the numbers tie out, the narrative matches the projections, and every assumption can be defended. That is what gets a plan taken seriously instead of set aside.
Can I use PlanMason if I am not good at writing?
Yes. You answer the interview in your own words, the way you would explain your business out loud. PlanMason asks the follow-up questions, challenges vague answers, and translates what you said into the language reviewers expect. You are not writing the plan from a blank page. You talk it through, and the packet is built from your answers.
Your plan is already in your head.
Let's get it out.
This is deep work, not a form. Plan a few sittings. Walk away with a plan that lenders, investors, or grant reviewers take seriously.
Free interview and AI coaching. $49 founding price through August 31, 2026. Going to $99 after.