1998 Business Model Customer Development Revenue 
K9 Ventures
AUGUST 13, 2010
We really were doing the i-thing before Apple came out with its first iMac in 1998. Heck, it had to work, since we built it in close consultation with the customer. In the end the revenue simply wasn’t enough to make a sustainable business and so we had to switch gears once more (in today’s parlance that would be a “Pivot”).
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 4, 2010
The irony is that in a retrospective paper ten years later (1998), [ 2 ] the authors backed off from their claims. Using this idea to differentiate themselves as the hot new Silicon Valley VCs, some of his former business school students made this phrase their rallying cry. Implicit Customer Discovery and Validation in Fast Followers.
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Steve Blank
MARCH 18, 2011
VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter. They taught you about customers, markets and profits. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
OCTOBER 23, 2012
” Here’s the summary of his track record (excerpted from the Fast Company article): Forefront — IPO’ed in 1995 by CBT — CBT stock fell 85% in 1998 and prompted class-action lawsuits. GroupOn’s engine that turned capital into revenue growth was a form of force-feeding rather than building a product).
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 1, 2010
But nine months after the first call was made in 1998, Iridium was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. When it was spun out as a a separate company, Iridium’s 1990 business plan had assumptions about potential customers, their problems and the product needed to solve that problem. No Business Plan Survives First Contact With A Customer.
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