Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

The benefits of customer and agile development and minimum features set are continuous customer feedback, rapid iteration and little wasted code. But over time if developers aren’t careful, code written to find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling. Ironically it becomes the antithesis of agile. And the magnitude of the problem increases exponentially with the success of the company.

Part-Time VPE 318

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 318

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

Over the last two months the U.S. government has been running one of the most audacious experiments in entrepreneurship since World War II. They launched an incubator for the top scientists and engineers in the U.S. This week we saw the results. 63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. 19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in commercializing their technology.

Incubator 301

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 301

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

For the past three months, we’ve run an experiment in teaching entrepreneurship. In January, we introduced a new graduate course at Stanford called the " target="_blank">Lean LaunchPad. It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots.

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

JANUARY 27, 2011

Utah may be known for many things, but who would have thought that Utah, and particularly Brigham Young University (BYU), would be participating in the transformation of entrepreneurship? I spent last weekend in Utah at BYU as a guest of Professor Nathan Furr , (a former Ph.D. student of our MS&E department at Stanford ,) where they are set on being a leader in developing the management science of entrepreneurship.

Business Model 275

Business Model Utah Intellectual Property Agile 275

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part four. Part one is here , two is here and three is here. Syllabus is here. Week 4 of the class. Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Value Proposition (their company’s product or service.) This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyer

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.&#. Attributed to Ernest Shackleton. In 1912 Ernest Shackleton placed this ad to recruit a crew for the ship Endurance and his expedition to the South Pole. This would be one of the most heroic journeys of exploration ever undertaken.

Silicon Valley 222

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

Steve Blank

APRIL 21, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment with a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. With two weeks and two more updates to go, this post is part six. Parts one through five are here , Syllabus is here. While we’ve been pushing hard on the teams, this week the teaching team was about to get its socks blown off. All the teams were showing us what agile looked like, but this week several would remind us what focused and relentless really meant.

Channel 215

Channel Artificial Inteligence San Francisco Business Model 215

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2011

Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. We take it so for granted we never even to bother to talk about it. It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture. ——-. We’re all in this together – The Chips are Down. in 1962 Walker’s Wagon Wheel Bar/Restaurant in Mountain View became the lunch hangout for employees at Fairchild Semiconductor.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley Finland IP Cofounder 335

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2011

I am honored to be with you as we gather to celebrate your graduation from Philadelphia University. While I teach at Stanford and Berkeley, to be honest… this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. I realize that my 15 minutes up here is all that’s between you and the rest or your life, so if I can keep you awake, I’m going to share 4 short stories from my life.

Philadelphia 335

Philadelphia Miami Thailand Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Carpe Diem. We’re now in the second Internet bubble. The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. The rules for making money are different in a bubble than in normal times. What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them?

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2011

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Steve Jobs.

Customer Development 330

Customer Development Cofounder Later Stage Software 330

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

My friend, Ben Horowitz , and I debate the tech bubble in The Economist. This post originally appeared as part 1 of 3. ———————————————————————————– We won’t get fooled again. We don’t get fooled again.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2011

I wrote about entrepreneurs as artists in a previous post. The FounderLy team interviewed me and got me to give a better explanation of what I was trying to say in this 2 minute video clip. If you can’t see the video click here. Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Family/Career.

Entrepreneur 313

Entrepreneur Business Model Customer Development Business Plan 313

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2011

Om Malik runs Gigaom , probably the most interesting and accurate site on the blogosphere. Om was kind enough to have me in for an interview. We covered a wide range of topics. This talk on Risk and Culture in Silicon Valley is a small 1 minute snippet of a longer interview on his blog. Filed under: Family/Career , Teaching , Technology , Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 312

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Technology 312

Steve Blank

JUNE 17, 2011

My friend Ben Horowitz and I debate the tech bubble in The Economist. This post is the “rebuttal&# statement to Ben’s opening comments. An edited version of this post originally appeared as part 2 of 3. Part 1 is here. ———————————————————————————–. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold them. Know when to walk away.

Investment Bankers 310

Investment Bankers Stock Valuation Venture Capital 310

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2011

I spent a few days in March in Ann Arbor Michigan as a guest of Professor Thomas Zurbuchen , Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs, and Doug Neal , Director of Center for Entrepreneurship in the Engineering School at the University of Michigan. I gave a keynote on entrepreneurship to MPowered , the student Entrepreneurship Organization, spoke on a panel on Entrepreneurship and the Aerospace Industry, and gave another keynote at the Ann Arbor New Tech Meetup and A2Geeks , the regional star

Michigan 307

Michigan Silicon Valley Venture Capital Incubator 307

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. It might be its most important. ———-. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. Since it was my first job, I just took for granted that scientists and engineers started and ran companies.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

JANUARY 31, 2011

Out of the mouths babes. Maybe because it’s a company town and everyone in Silicon Valley has a family connection to entrepreneurship. Or maybe I just encountered the most entrepreneurial 12 year olds every assembled under one roof. Or maybe we’re now teaching entrepreneurial thinking in middle schools. Either way I had an astounding evening as one of the judges at the Girls Middle School 7th grade Entrepreneurial night. 12 Year Olds Writing Business Plans.

Silicon Valley 304

Silicon Valley Startup Community Business Plan 304

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Read part 1 of this post for background. By the early 1920’s General Motors realized that Ford, which was now selling the Model T for $290, had an unbeatable monopoly on low-cost automobile manufacturing. Other manufacturers had experimented with selling cars based on an image and brand. (The most notable was an ad by the Jordan Car company.) But General Motors was about to take consumer marketing of cars to an entirely new level.

Jordan 300

Jordan Engineer Advertising Design 300

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2011

When the student is ready, the master appears. Buddhist Proverb. Lots of entrepreneurs believe they want a mentor. In fact, they’re actually asking for a teacher or a coach. A mentor relationship is a two-way street. To make it work, you have to bring something to the party. A Question from the Audience. Recently when I was at a conference taking questions from the audience, I got a question that I had never heard before.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Audience Hiring Business Model 295

Steve Blank

AUGUST 22, 2011

Over the last few weeks I’ve gotten involved in hiring for two startups, a public agency and a non profit. Part of each conversation was getting asked to help them put together a “job spec.”. I had them leave with a pie chart. ——– There must be something in the air. In the last week I had four separate groups through the ranch all wanting to talk either about hiring a senior exec or a senior exec looking for a new job.

Hiring 290

Hiring Non-Compete Search Customer Development 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

There are none so blind as those who will not see. Jonathan Swift. What’s Wrong With Today’s Board Meetings. As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. It’s time. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

MAY 27, 2011

Om Malik runs Gigaom , probably the most interesting and technically accurate sites on the blogosphere. He had me in for an interview. We covered a wide range of topics. 0:22 – the Entrepreneurial explosion. 1:45 – Are we in a Bubble? 3:20 - The Last Bubble. 6:30 – Rules for the New Bubble. 8:05 – Metrics for Success. 10:10 – Total Available Market in the Billions. 11:45 – Is this a Really a Bubble – the greater fool theory. 13:00 – VC’s – The Pact Wit

Silicon Valley 287

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Lean Social Network 287

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo. When The Boardroom is Bits. A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. It’s time to ask why startup board governance has failed to keep pace with innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s.

Silicon Valley 281

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital 281

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. It wasn’t pure research, but rather a culture of taking sufficient risks to get products to market through learning, discovery, iteration and execution. This approach would shape Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money).

Engineer 278

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 278

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2011

When I was in my 20’s, I was taught the relationship between marketing and sales over a bonfire. — Over thirty years ago, before the arrival of the personal computer, there were desktop computers called office workstations. Designed around the first generation of microprocessors, these computers ran business applications like word processing, spreadsheets, and accounting.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Channel Cofounder Demand 267

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2011

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King, Jr. The barriers for starting a company have come down. Today the total available markets for new applications are hundreds of millions if not billion of users, while new classes of investors are popping up all over (angels, superangels, archangels, and even seraphim and cherubim have been spotted.).

Entrepreneur 267

Entrepreneur Web Demand Customer Development 267

Steve Blank

JANUARY 10, 2011

In a startup “Good news needs to travel fast, but bad news needs to travel faster.”. There’s something about the combination of human nature (rationalization and self deception) and large hierarchical organizations (corporations, military, government, etc.) that actively conspire to hide failure and errors. Institutional cover-up’s are so ingrained that we take them for granted.

Forecast 264

Forecast Agile Revenue Founder 264

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

There are none so blind as those who will not see. Jonathan Swift. What’s Wrong With Today’s Board Meetings. As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. It’s time. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

JANUARY 13, 2011

In November 2010 as part of my interview about entrepreneurs and Customer Development , the Shoshin Project also asked me about my thoughts on investing in innovation. They wanted some words of wisdom for their investment bank and hedge fund customers. This falls into the “Asking someone who was handy versus knowledgeable&# category. (I was a entrepreneur who retired at the right time, not a VC or hedge fund manager.

Venture Capital 255

Venture Capital Valuation Customer Development Video 255

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2011

While on vacation I had a phone interview with Kevin Ohannessian of Fast Company who wanted a few “funding stories.” Here are two of them. Apologies for the rambling stream of consciousness. The original interview in Fast Company can be seen here. Throw in the Photo and You Have a Deal. When we were trying to raise money for E.piphany, my last startup, I was negotiating with a venture capital firm called Infinity Capital.

Post-Money Valuation 250

Post-Money Valuation Venture Capital Valuation IPO 250

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2011

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. Ernest Hemingway. Silicon Valley is built on simple myths – one of the most pervasive is that all winning startups are founded straight out of school by 20 year olds from Stanford or Harvard. The reality is these are the exceptions not the rule. Too Old at 30? I was having coffee with an ex-student at the ranch, watching our bobcat hunt in the front lawn.

Silicon Valley 250

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Business Model Startup 250

Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part five. Parts one through four are here , Syllabus is here. . Week 5 of the class. Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Customers (who are the users, payers, buyers, etc.) This week they were testing one of the most confusing sections of a company’s business model – Customer Relationships - the activities used to “Get, Keep and Grow” customer

Customer 247

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 247

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. George Bernard Shaw. We’re in the middle of our National Science Foundation Innovation Corps class – taking the most promising research projects in American university laboratories and teaching these scientists the basics of entrepreneurship. Our goal is to accelerate the commercialization of their inventions.

Silicon Valley 242

Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development Business Model 242

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

Our new Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here. By now the nine teams in our Stanford Lean LaunchPad Class were formed, In the four days between team formation and this class session we tasked them to: Write down their initial hypotheses for the 9 components of their company’s business model (who are the customers?

Business Model 236

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 236

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 22, 2011

The Lean LaunchPad class for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps is a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here. The 21 NSF teams had been out of the classroom for just 15 hours as they filed back in with their business model canvas presentations. Their assignment appeared (to them) to be deceptively simple: Write down their initial hypotheses for the 9 components of their company’s business model (who are the customers?

Business Model 234

Business Model Intellectual Property Lean Wiki 234

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2011

The team at True Ventures was kind enough to invite me to speak at their Founders Camp. They pull in the founders of all their startups for 24 hours of activities, speakers, and discussions. I was blown away by the raw talent of these teams. They had someone translating my words into a diagram as I spoke. (Click on it for the full effect.). Filed under: Venture Capital.

Founder 231

Founder Venture Capital Startup 231