Steve Blank

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Is a $100 Million Enough?

Steve Blank

Capitalism has been good to me. After serving in the military during Vietnam, I came home and had a career in eight startups. I got to retire when I was 45. Over the last quarter century, in my third career, I helped create the methods entrepreneurs use to build new startups, while teaching 1,000’s of students how to start new ventures. It’s been rewarding to see tech entrepreneurship become an integral part of the economy and tech companies become some of the most valued companies in the world.

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Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up

Steve Blank

We just wrapped up the third year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class –part of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe Felter , Mike Brown and I teach the class to: Give our students an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities for the United States in its enduring strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, Russia and other rivals.

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The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

Steve Blank

This post is the latest in the “ Secret History Series.” They’ll make much more sense if you watch the video or read some of the earlier posts for context. See the Secret History bibliography for sources and supplemental reading. No Knowledge of Computers Silicon Valley emerged from work in World War II led by Stanford professor Fred Terman developing microwave and electronics for Electronic Warfare systems.

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Profound Beliefs

Steve Blank

This post previously appeared in EIX. In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opinions loosely held.” You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development.

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Playing With Fire – ChatGPT

Steve Blank

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. John F. Kennedy Humans have mastered lots of things that have transformed our lives, created our civilizations, and might ultimately kill us all. This year we’ve invented one more. Artificial Intelligence has been the technology right around the corner for at least 50 years.

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The Three Pillars of World-class Corporate Innovation

Steve Blank

My good friend Alexander Osterwalder , the inventor of the business model canvas (one of foundations of the Lean Methodology) has written a playbook (along with his associate partner Tendayi Viki ,) From Innovation Theater to Growth Engine to explain how to build and implement repeatable innovation processes inside a company. . Here’s their introduction to the key concepts inside the playbook.

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National Industrial Policy – Private Capital and The America’s Frontier Fund Steps Up

Steve Blank

This article previously appeared in The National Interest. Last month the U.S. passed the CHIPS and Science Act , one of the first pieces of national industrial policy – government planning and intervention in a specific industry — in the last 50 years, in this case for semiconductors. After the celebratory champagne has been drunk and the confetti floats to the ground it’s helpful to put the CHIPS Act in context and understand the work that government and private capital have left to do.

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