1995 Business Model Marketing Venture Capital 
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 5, 2018
Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 24, 2017
A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Uber , Zenefits , Tanium , Lending Club CEOs of companies with billion dollar market caps have been in the news – and not in a good way. — all great things when you are executing and scaling a known business model. And while new markets were created (i.e.
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Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 14, 2009
Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?
Steve Blank
JULY 15, 2010
If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you.
Steve Blank
MARCH 18, 2011
The Golden Age (1970 – 1995): Build a growing business with a consistently profitable track record (after at least 5 quarters,) and go public when it’s time. 1970 – 1995: The Golden Age. They taught you about customers, markets and profits. The world of building profitable startups ended in 1995.
Steve Blank
AUGUST 5, 2010
Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.
Steve Blank
FEBRUARY 8, 2011
Microsoft did not open a Washington office until 1995. Their definition of success is to feed the family and make a profit, not to take over an industry or build a $100 million business. As they can’t provide the scale to attract venture capital, they fund their businesses via friends/family or small business loans.
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