Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

Verticals Are Different I began to realize that entrepreneurs (and their professors) act like every vertical market and industry has the same set of rules. So the first heuristic is: do not assume the startup rules are the same for all vertical markets. Just for discussion, the markets I chose were: Web 2.0,

Vertical 149

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 149

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Customer Development is all about gathering a list of what features customers want by talking to them, surveying them, or running “focus groups.” Customer Development is about Testing the Founder’s Hypothesis Any idiot can get outside the building and ask customers what they want, compile a feature list and hand it to engineering.

Customer Development 278

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 278

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. If the product does work, and say we’ve developed a drug that cures a type of cancer, your only problem is how big is the licensing deal going to be – not about whether there will be customers. In these markets it’s all about invention risk.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

Reply John Muldoon , on July 9, 2009 at 1:52 pm Said: This was really fabulous to watch. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. How do I get in the room next time? Order Here.

Customer Development 124

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 124

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Other advisors provided marketing with industry-specific advice in our initial vertical markets (computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, finite element analysis, and petroleum engineering). Context here.) He would go on to be a co-founder of two mechanical engineering software companies.)

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. See part one for the first time it happened. This time it was serious.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. Martin , on April 10, 2009 at 9:27 am Said: A post that would delight F.A. link] Reply craig sparer , on April 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: So true. In a startup it doesn’t matter if you’re 100% right 100% of the time.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

My first job in Silicon Valley: I was hired as a lab technician at ESL to support the training department. It makes you appreciate that the Silicon Valley technology-centric culture-bubble has little to do with the majority of Americans.) You’re Hired, You’re Fired. Driving across the U.S. I was stunned.

Agile 245

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 245

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Martin , on November 9, 2009 at 6:41 am Said: Hmm… Not to get too meta here… But if the point of this post is to teach us how to distinguish motion from action (even partly), I didn’t get much help. Ernest Hemingway One of an entrepreneur’s greatest strengths is their relentless pursuit of a goal.

Silicon Valley 324

Silicon Valley Software Review RSS Technical Review 324

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. Reply YA , on June 14, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Interesting. The Adventure of a Lifetime. Thanks Steve!

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

The assets were a series of products already developed and on the market or in the development pipeline. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. After talking to its resellers and customers I realized that SuperMac was the only company that could be described as “fifth in a group of three.” Order Here.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Reply steveblank , on October 8, 2009 at 1:42 pm Said: Matt, The issue isn’t how you “frame it.&# At Ardent I learned many of them with a sharp smack on the side of the head from a brilliant but abusive boss. The client replies, “I don’t give a f what you think–you’re 24 years old.&#

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development California 271

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Reply jordancooper , on November 12, 2009 at 8:08 am Said: Steve, sorry to do this in your comment forum, but I don’t see an email or contact. There was no proselytizing about any particular methodology, yet the results are compelling.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. If you think the Cold War turned out the right side up (i.e.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. Peter described the first company in which “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” and we were enthralled.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. (No 2009 – Back to The Future The bad news is that since the bubble most VC firms haven’t made a profit. So what’s left?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Was my response to stop development of the games? Only in Silicon Valley could we have got funded with this idea, and not surprisingly, it was our technology that had the VC’s confused. Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. It’s what my textbook on Customer Development describes. I was an idiot. Berkeley and at Stanford.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

Reply Twitter Trackbacks for Ardent 3: Supercomputer Porn « Steve Blank [steveblank.com] on Topsy.com , on October 12, 2009 at 1:08 pm Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 147

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Hitting “burnout” changed the trajectory of both ends of my career in Silicon Valley. Zilog Zilog was my first Silicon Valley company where you could utter the customer’s name in public. Recovery That weekend I left the Valley and drove along the coast from San Francisco to Monterey. The bill had come due.

Silicon Valley 175

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 175

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on? Customer Development and Selling Strategy If you’ve just started your company you are in customer discovery.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) Unintended Lessons » 6 Responses Twitter Trackbacks for Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank [steveblank.com] on Topsy.com , on September 24, 2009 at 7:19 am Said: [.]

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. I liked the fact that you linked to the wikipedia page for a payphone — nice touch Reply Chris Ryland , on October 5, 2009 at 12:06 pm Said: Where did Ben Wegbreit fit in the Convergent picture?

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. Reply gvb , on November 26, 2009 at 10:20 am Said: “Hopefully we won’t run into any wildlife bigger than us (other than our assortment of rattlesnakes, rabbits …).&#

Silicon Valley 137

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 137

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Convergent Technologies When I was in my 20’s I worked at Convergent Technologies , a company that was proud to be known as the “Marine Corps of Silicon Valley.” Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Am I a Founder?

Entrepreneur 276

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 276

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Our “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” story played great in Silicon Valley, they ate it up in Hollywood, and the business press tripped over themselves to talk to us. Our VP of Business Development had no problems getting meetings and fund raising was easy.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I began to gain an appreciation of how world-class venture capitalists develop pattern recognition for these common types of problems. “Oh I was between my 7th and 8th and final startup; licking my wounds from Rocket Science, the company I had cratered as my first and last attempt as a startup CEO.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Ben Reply Dmitriy Kruglyak , on March 20, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Steve, I look forward to a similar backstory on E.piphany marketing! Reply Dave Goulden , on March 20, 2009 at 11:03 pm Said: Thanks for sharing these great stories. Can’t wait to hear what you did next at SuperMac.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 185

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And here’s where life gets really interesting, as the reality of product development and customer input collide, the facts change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant. or perhaps, discontent.

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. So SuperMac engineering also developed video compression software, called Cinepak. Reply steveblank , on May 11, 2009 at 4:07 pm Said: No. It’s here to stay.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Greetings from Crete, Greece Reply Jerry Ji , on April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am Said: Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months. Reply How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks , on April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Your board nods sagely at your target customer list.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Reply Michael Alan Miller » Crash , on August 24, 2009 at 8:47 am Said: [.] | Posted by Chill on 24 Aug 2009 at 11:47 am | Shattered. [.] If you’re a startup raising money or just want to see your name online, there’s not a better blog on the web. Or is it just someones end of innocence ? Reply Michael F.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 184

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Since no benchmarks existed, we enlisted our engineering department in a serious software development effort and wrote our own. » 8 Responses Strategy versus Relentless Tactical Execution « Yet Another VC Blog , on April 2, 2009 at 6:19 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

At a university business plan competition, for the first time they can swim in the sea of expertise that we/I take for granted in the middle of Silicon Valley. I love business plan competitions (and with my valley-centric bias, I think Berkeley and Stanford have two of the best.) I hate business plan competitions.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

Would love to read that whole thing at one go… Reply Alvin , on March 21, 2009 at 7:02 pm Said: Great stuff! Reply steveblank , on March 23, 2009 at 12:11 am Said: Alvin, you can buy the book online at [link] They ship to the Philippines. I read all your posts today and can’t wait for the next one.

Silicon Valley 134

Silicon Valley Customer RSS Philippines 134