Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

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BeyondVC

JANUARY 16, 2017

When we started boldstart in 2010, a core thesis of ours was to invest in next-gen SaaS which we called SaaS 2.0 We also see older school SaaS companies being rebuilt with more flexible back-end technologies like microservices and reimagined with a more responsive and beautiful UI. Go niche?—?pick

Technical Review 60

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The greatest risk in startups —and hence the greatest cause of failure—is not the technology risk of developing a product but in the risk of developing customers and markets. Likewise, business program must educate marketers to deliver more actionable results (read: less fluffy) that can really drive all the technology work.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

You’re not joining a big company. Startups are the adventure of a lifetime. But make sure it fits who you are. a comment » Yet another brilliant post from Steve Blank, this time about what it takes to found, co-found, or work in a startup at various stages of [.]

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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. Large companies were acquiring technology startups just to get in the game at the same absurd prices.

Silicon Valley 217

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Gregg Fraley, Author of Jack's Notebook

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I’ve made the acquaintance of a thought leader with her finger on the pulse of where the nation sits in terms of technological readiness to innovate. Some five years into an early stage technology company, I found myself, an experienced technology manager, as a CEO in search of competent manufacturing. In 2010 it was 4%.(1)

Technical Review 102

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Reply Pros and cons of Push and Pull product positioning and differentiation « Yet Another (ex-)VC Blog , on February 21, 2010 at 11:14 am Said: [.] Reply Customer Development – Not Just for Web Startups » Biotech by the Bay , on May 1, 2010 at 11:34 am Said: [.]

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times Ardent would be my third technology company as a VP of Marketing (Convergent Technologies and MIPS Computers were the other two.) It was my ex boss from Convergent Technologies, “Steve we’ve all just resigned from Convergent and we’re starting a new company.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 128

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Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. Technology? For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Where do the ideas come from?

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

EE Reply My take on Customer Development and the Lean Startup | Recess Mobile Blog , on January 9, 2010 at 5:30 am Said: [.] Reply Ashu Sharma , on April 27, 2010 at 11:44 pm Said: Steve, Great post! This is the pivot, a crucial tactical maneuver for the lean startup [.]

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Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Reply Marco , on October 7, 2010 at 1:38 pm Said: Hi Steve, thanks for the awesome post, but, what was question #4? Reply Building a Company with Customer Data – Why Metrics Are Not Enough « Steve Blank , on December 17, 2009 at 6:01 am Said: [.] Keep teaching! Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here.

Customer Development 219

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

Silicon Valley 137

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

I didn’t recognize the behavior at the time, but anyone who loves technology and gadgets has at one time or another has bought a technology toy – USB memory sticks, iPod Shuffles, umbrellas with LED lights, alarm clocks that talked, Flip Video Cameras, etc. Reply Jim Wolcott , on April 28, 2010 at 7:30 pm Said: Steve!

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

on July 9, 2010 at 12:50 pm Said: [.] Fire might be a strong word. Reply Play Wack-a-Mole – gently, now – With Your ‘Bad’ Customers | CityOf.com – More Local… FASTER. ,

Customer 195

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

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Silicon Valley 179

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 5, 2010

IQ Engines is an image labeling and photo recognition platform that relies partly on technology to identify photos and party on a crowdsourced team of people who review the photos and tag them with the idea of the system learning and automatically becoming better through the process. I for one will be routing for them, though.

San Francisco 254

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

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Silicon Valley 125

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ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

Then Prashant Singh from Bangalore, India, discussed Statisco Economic Analytics , a risk management technology for managing company balance sheets, interfacing with their ERP systems. I suggested going for larger companies and also to pick some verticals where the value proposition really shines through. Statisco Economic Analytics.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

At some point in my career as I began to formulate thoughts about mission and intent, I started to think about the broader role of marketing in a growing technology company. steve Joshua , on January 5, 2010 at 3:19 pm Said: Fantastic entry, thanks very much Steve. on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. It became [.]

Silicon Valley 259

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Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

We had thought really hard about “ market type ” and decided to reposition the company from a technology provider to a solutions provider. Now we needed to put the tactical programs in place to make this repositioning strategy happen.

Silicon Valley 124

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VC Cafe

NOVEMBER 25, 2019

In last week’s The Economist, the gist of the lead story is that entertainment – an industry that has been associated with flailing newspaper subscriptions and, relatedly, a sector struggling given the rise of technology – is in fact, the “new oil” for the contemporary epoch. trillion by 2022 ( Statista ).

Vertical 113

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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.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

In building ESL Perry made a conscious choice to emulate Hewlett Packard (then considered the “gold standard” of a great technology company.) Filed under: ESL , Secret History of Silicon Valley , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Bill Perry , ESL , Signals Intelligence , Cold War « Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential?

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ReadWriteStart

JUNE 23, 2011

Acelerar Technologies Daniel expects SharePoint's cloud based solution provider eco-system to develop over the next few years. Anupam Rajey from Lucknow, India, presented Acelerar Technologies , an outsourced accounting services BPO project from India. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. Discuss.

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ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 27, 2011

What appears clear to me today is how fundamentally the Internet is changing business processes, and the advent of nifty social media tools and technologies that plug into core business processes like lead nurturing are a powerful force. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. I thought that was brilliant. MapWide.com.

Entrepreneur 116

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Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

MBA or Domain Expert Years later when I was running marketing departments I came up with a heuristic that replicated my own hire: in a technology company it’s usually better to train a domain expert to become a marketer than to train an MBA to become a domain expert. Thanks Steve!

Silicon Valley 120

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Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

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Silicon Valley 134

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Partnership Opportunities At any show you are attending there has to be tons of opportunity for business to business relationships you hadn’t thought about. These two posts were amazing. Anyways, here’s one question I have.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

We had been attempting to compete by their rules with the same types of technology messages. Up until now all the graphics board companies supplied “technology”, and it was up to the customers to figure out which of these arcane specs was best for their business. VP of Marketing, we now understood who our customers were.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

Other universities doing classified ELINT and Electronic Warfare work attended including University of Michigan, Georgia Institute of Technology and Cornell. Stanford Industrial Park was the first technology office park set up to house local and out of state microwave and electronics startups.

Silicon Valley 142

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Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Best, Miguel Cavalcanti, from Brazil Reply Colin Rae , on September 22, 2010 at 2:20 pm Said: Steve, in many of your posts I’ve noticed you say certain things can not be delegated/outsourced (e.g Reply Miguel Cavalcanti , on May 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm Said: Hello Steve, great pst, tks for sharing your knowledge.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

—————- The next piece of the Secret History of Silicon Valley puzzle came together when Tom Byers , Tina Selig and Mark Leslie invited me to teach entrepreneurship in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program ( STVP ) in Stanford’s School of Engineering. My office is in the Terman Engineering Building.

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YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Internet commerce technology has unleashed the capabilities of ordinary Americans to take matters into their own hands and craft—often literally—their own livelihoods. They connect buyers and sellers in creative new verticals, helping merchants and non-profits interact with customers or donors. by Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay.

Silicon Valley 217

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Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

Toptal , founded in 2010, aims to relieve the difficulties of hiring freelancers. After looking at poor online labor marketplaces and expensive consulting firms, I decided there was a need for a high quality labor services driven by technology. And we’ll be expanding into more business verticals soon.

Technical Review 40

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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x). The chart below illustrates this, with the black vertical line representing the average VC return. But are we also enjoying a period of unparalleled growth and opportunity led by high-growth technology companies?

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