Steve Blank

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Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad

Steve Blank

In tech startups stock options were here almost from the beginning, first offered to the founders in 1957 at Fairchild Semiconductor , the first chip startup in Silicon Valley. The investors were giving away part of their ownership of the company — not just to the founders, but to all employees. Here’s why.

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Hubris Versus Humility: The $15 billion Difference

Steve Blank

That year the two founders decided to get serious about being a company, and hired a CEO. The founders could have easily described the product as “the first packet-switched interactive messaging network.” The founders swallowed their pride and simply introduced the Blackberry as an “interactive pager.” They did none of that.

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Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

Back in 1999, it all ended very bad. So founders might be tempted to first shoot the arrow and then draw the target around it, by choosing the ‘soft’ metrics that puts them in the best light.

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Customer Development: Past, Present, Future

Steve Blank

Extra credit if you know the back-story of slide 1 and why it’s appropriate for founders and their team. Our startup was venture funded in 1999 and we didn’t pay enough attention to this advice! The video below was my presentation to the group. sgblank Lean Startup Cirle 111909 This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback.

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Philadelphia University Commencement Speech – May 15th 2011

Steve Blank

As time went on, I was a co-founder or member of the starting team for six high-tech startups…. In 1999… with the company’s revenue north of $100 million…I handed the keys to a new CEO and left. To be honest, I would have gladly done so. With every startup came increasing responsibility.