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
Not a template. Not a generator. A coached interview.
Free interview. $49 founding price when you generate. Going to $99 on August 1, 2026.
The Flow
From your story to the lender'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 lender-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.
Ecosystem
We build the plan. Your SBDC advisor walks it through the final read.
SBDC advising is free, federally-funded, 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.
Lenders can spot a ChatGPT 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...”
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 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 this different from ChatGPT or a template?
ChatGPT generates generic prose from one 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.
How much does it cost?
The interview is free. When the founder generates the final lender packet, the price is $49 (founding price through July 31, 2026; increases to $99 on August 1, 2026). Each plan is a one-time charge. No subscription required.
How long does it take?
About 5 hours of focused interview, spread across however many sittings you need. The interview is the work. Generation is the reward: 2 minutes after you finish, the packet is ready to send.
What does the output look like?
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, global cash flow), plus a one-page executive summary. Output formats match what SBA underwriters and loan committee reviewers expect.
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 1, 2026. Going to $99 after.