I had the good fortune of being invited to participate on a panel discussion on “Starting your New Company” at Boston University’s Technology Entrepreneurship Night last week. The program was well organized and the attendees comprised of graduate students from the MBA, engineering and hard science’s programs along with a smattering of alumni. The panel had a good mix of seasoned entrepreneurs, professional advisors, and relative newcomers to the same. As with many start-up events, unfortunately the topic of discussion and the questions of interest from those attending quickly veered from the issue of starting your own company to that of valuation and exit. It took some expert maneuvering from our moderator to get us back on the discussion of founding companies. Do not get me wrong, I think an exit strategy and valuation of a start-up are important and have their place in the list of things founders should consider when making choices about founding their start-ups. However, more often then not I see a rather skewed amount of time and effort at a very early stage devoted to the discussion of how much is my company worth and what’s market for my company (though still in the business plan or early implementation phase). I think it’s fair to point out at this time that if you were to approach me with either of the two above questions, my honest answer would have to be... "I don’t know". What I do know is that most founders start worrying about these questions well before they have taken the time and effort to build any value in their start-up. Instead of worrying about valuation, the day after you have finished drafting the first version of the your business plan, a better use of time would be to: a) build a team that will help you put the plan into practice; b) take care of the legal aspects of forming the company and executing the agreements and arrangements between the founding team-members and the company; and then c) start the process of implementing the business plan. No doubt - easier said then done.