Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Yet startup companies have traditionally used this model to manage and pace not only engineering but also non-engineering activities. The flaw in this thinking is that “first customer ship&# is simply the date when engineering thinks they “finished” the 1.0 release of the product. The products sold themselves.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

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. But part of his life that that doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry is that Bill Perry used Silicon Valley to help end the cold war.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

One of the things he mentioned was that when it came to decision-making he still tended to think and act like an engineer. Since every situation is unique, there is no perfect solution to any engineering, customer or competitor problem, and you shouldn’t agonize over trying to find one. The same is true in your company.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend. The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. We were going to be guessing.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Their engineering teams didn’t have the expertise using off-the-shelf microprocessors (back then “real” computer companies designed their own instruction sets and operating systems.) Their engineers hated us. They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

View from Seed

JULY 31, 2014

In the past 18 months at NextView, we’ve made 13 new investments (out of the 36 we’ve made since the inception of the firm back in 2010). Furthermore, one of our recent investments was in Silicon Valley, as all three of us have lived and worked there. Recent Investment Overview. Recent Investment Themes. Step-Function Ad Tech.

Seed Stage 272

Seed Stage B2C Disintermediation Technical Review 272

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Since I wasn’t an engineer, my contribution was around the team-building and fund raising. 2-way search is still in the works but I have the semantic extracted tags (thanks to Zemanta) feeding in to many search engines (activate realtime frankensearch). Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

A month or two before the QuickTime public announcement in May, the SuperMac hardware engineers (who had a great relationship with the QuickTime team at Apple) started a “ skunk works ” project. So SuperMac engineering also developed video compression software, called Cinepak. The software was idiot proof.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, science and engineering at both Stanford and U.C. Starting in the 1950’s, Stanford’s engineering department became “outward facing” and developed a culture of spinouts and active faculty support and participation in the first wave of Silicon Valley startups. Today the U.C.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Dana Settle (Greycroft) & I had led the first round of investment in the company in 2010 and we were looking for smart media investors to join us as investors in the company. Needless to say I think Ryan is one of the most talented engineering leads in LA but I’d stack him against anybody in the Valley, too.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. Would you mind sharing them? Order Here.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

To do that we will create end-user demand and drive it into the sales channel, educate the channel and customers about why our products are superior, and help Engineering understand customer needs and desires. And our Director of Technical Marketing was superb at understanding customer needs and communicating them to engineering.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 8, 2018

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of VC funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. cities (outside of Silicon Valley and the East Coast), to build your startup.

United States 113

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Silicon Valley 113

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

In April 2010 I received an email that said, “I’m an incoming Stanford student in the fall and working on a project that a number of people suggested I get in touch with you about.&#. But he left to work on what he told me he came to do - crack the innovation code of Silicon Valley and share it with the rest of the world.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Agile VC

APRIL 17, 2011

In 2010 I deconstructed the filings for GameFly and Quinstreet. GameFly filed in 2010 and remains in registration, though 2011 has seen a positive start for VC-backed IPOs with 14 in Q1 2011. Filing Date: initial S-1 filed Nov 17, 2010 , updated March 9, 2011. What They Do: Travel search engine.

Pre-Money Valuation 113

Pre-Money Valuation Liquidation Preference Dividend Common Stock 113

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Since no benchmarks existed, we enlisted our engineering department in a serious software development effort and wrote our own. We listed the editors, writers, what they had previously had written, deadlines, what the competitive products were, how our benchmarks stacked up, what “upgrades” our boards needed from engineering to win, etc.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

I’ve spent the last week in Santiago, a guest of Professor Cristóbal García at the Catholic University of Chile as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program. Entrepreneurship and innovation in what I call “Chilecon Valley” is being talked about continually here. Teaching in Chile. Valaparaiso houses.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

And I understood engineering since I interacted with them almost daily. And finally, I had a great working relationship with our engineers who designed the chips. I found that having a senior marketer responsible for business strategy surrounded by ex-engineers and domain experts makes one heck of a powerful marketing department.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2009

If you read only one previous post, read this one (or this one.) ————- The Birth of Entrepreneurship in The Hot Cold War Silicon Valley entrepreneurship was born in the middle of a secret war with the Soviet Union. Yet it was a war in which tens of thousands of Americans fought and hundreds died.

Silicon Valley 153

Silicon Valley RSS Europe Germany 153

ReadWriteStart

MAY 5, 2011

She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy , and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Discuss.

Costa Rica 115

Costa Rica Incubator Silicon Valley India 115

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Look for some “ skunk works &# project where the product developers are actively seeking alternatives to their own engineering organization. In Apple’s case Burrell Smith was designing a computer in a skunk works unbeknownst to the rest of Apple’s engineering. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. In 2010, the city had six times more high-tech startups per capita than the nation’s average.

United States 82

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Silicon Valley 82

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2023

I’ve known Professor Cristobal Garcia since 2010 when he hosted my first visit to Catholic University in Santiago of Chile and to southern Patagonia. Co mpanies also face Wicked problems. In contrast, designing AI-driven enterprise software or building dating apps are comparatively simple problems.)

Lean 294

Lean Chile Ukraine Spain 294

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Reading the articles and the comments is probably worth it, but I personally think that the NY Times is overstating the advantage of being in Silicon Valley with a couple of exceptions. Of course, thats probably even more true in Silicon Valley. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO. in Computer Science.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 9, 2011

And the third was a discussion on Silicon Valley: The Next Decade. Silicon Valley: The Next Decade. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. Discuss.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley New Jersey Entrepreneur Massachusetts 113

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 17, 2011

In Silicon Valley, we've had access to the tribal knowledge, but no one has tried to capture it, derive a methodology out of it, and package it in a way that entrepreneurs around the world can benefit from this knowledge and expertise. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes.

Costa Rica 114

Costa Rica America Silicon Valley Entrepreneur 114

Agile VC

JANUARY 4, 2012

In addition to compelling founders, we were drawn to the company by their vision for a professional community for mechanical engineers and designers. You’ve seen this with companies like StackOverflow and Github in software engineering or Behance in visual design. Im a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned East Coast VC.

Community 100

Community Estonia Syndication Syndicate 100

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Its easy to take Silicon Valley for granted. Ive written a little bit about the origins of Silicon Valley because I think its important for us to understand how we got here in order to make sure we preserve what is best about our community. You can learn more about that by reading The engineering managers lament.)

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

It is no longer Silicon Valley's exclusive domain. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. She has a master's degree in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Discuss.

Ireland 124

Ireland Silicon Valley India Entrepreneur 124

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. How did Silicon Valley start?

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

ReadWriteStart

MAY 19, 2011

She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant, she writes the blog Sramana Mitra On Strategy , and is author of the Entrepreneur Journeys book series and Vision India 2020. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. As an entrepreneur CEO, she ran three companies: DAIS, Intarka, and Uuma. Discuss.

India 115

India Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Affiliate 115

Venture Chronicles

AUGUST 2, 2013

If we did anything egregiously wrong at Get Satisfaction in the 2010-1012 time period it was to under-invest in the product with the assumption that the existing product was good enough. engineers paired would jump from frontend to backend erratically at each sprint iteration. We should have been able to do both.

Product 62

Product CTO Hire Architecture Startup 62

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 23, 2011

I asked Harshil to focus his entire product and go-to-market strategy on the college-bound age 18 market and develop his assessment module, vertical search engine for colleges and trust network to address the needs of that market and that market alone. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. Discuss.

Spain 115

Spain Entrepreneur India San Francisco 115

View from Seed

APRIL 21, 2015

We were on an immersion trip to Silicon Valley, and we said, “Let’s find a way to leverage [a previous open source project],” and we decided to build something around that. Poort (Rescale): Since we were not able to raise money early on, we just started building a product that we ourselves as engineers would want to use.

Founder 120

Founder Las Vegas Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

Scalable Startup

AUGUST 18, 2013

The So Cal engineering gap? from catching up with Silicon Valley and New York as a stronger startup region. The strongest impact on improving this situation is Silicon Valley and Seattle companies – Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and others are making enormous investments in building So Cal as a software town.

Software Developers 22

Software Developers Software Development PHP Silicon Valley 22

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 30, 2017

Silicon Valley has dominated the U.S. Despite repeated efforts, only a few cities outside the Valley (New York and Boston) have historically had the critical mix of funding, network, and talent to fuel vibrant startup centers. In 2010, the city had six times more high-tech startups per capita than the nation’s average.

United States 48

United States Las Vegas San Francisco Denver 48