Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Either way, the “hurdle” for successful, scalable startups is high, and it gets higher every day as customer acquisition challenges continue to increase. If you can’t figure this out on your own, and relate it to customers succinctly, it’s a certainty that your customers never will. Filed under: Customer Development.

Startup 332

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 332

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the Business Model Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In other words, how can we adapt the Business Model Canvas when the metrics of success for an organization is not revenue?

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. Not all start ups want to go in that direction – some will opt instead to become a small business. has a large enough market that most U.S. Further refinement of Product/Market fit could be done locally by using Value Proposition Design.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 2, 2013

We talk a lot about Customer Development, but there’s nothing like seeing it in action to understand its power. Here’s what happened when an extraordinary Digital Health team gained several critical insights about their business model. A Five-sided Market. the Customer Life Time (CLT)).

Customer 323

Customer Churn Rate Customer Development Lean 323

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off. Most often the first acquisitions in a hype cycle are for the “shiny objects” – the technology, the team and the tools. Each of our teams in this class followed the canonical Lean model: Articulate your hypotheses using the business model canvas.

Artificial Inteligence 318

Artificial Inteligence Lean Exit Strategy Startup 318

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

These resulting business models made them look incredibly profitable. They knew how to execute the current business model. ARM, a competitor, not only had a better, much lower power processor, but a better business model – they licensed their architecture to other companies that designed their own products.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Similarly, customer introductions are invaluable in the early days, but become less valuable once a company has a fully-formed go to market function.”. For technology vendors and models, see Venture capitalists eating our own dog food: Using technology and analytics to make better investments. . Customer Development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. What they’re missing though, was that after many unsuccessful acquisition strategies , Dropbox took a step back and found that many of their existing customers found the platform because of referrals. Conclusion.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

In the 1920’s companies restructured from monolithic functional organizations (sales, marketing, manufacturing, purchasing, etc.) Enter the Business Model Canvas. With the business model canvas in hand, we can now approach rethinking corporate innovation strategy and structure.

Business Model 333

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 333

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

You are ready to expand when: You know the lifetime value of your customer and the cost of acquiring a new customer. Your business model isn’t repetitive – that is, you do not have only one channel of customer acquisition. Build Products Without Considering the Market. By customer development.

Startup 113

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 113

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Their objective is to get users, orders, customers, etc.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Every large company, whether it can articulate it or not, is executing a proven business model (s).

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Pre-launch customer development data is another way, sometimes in the form of user surveys for consumer companies or interviews with potential beta customers for B2B businesses. it’s understandable that investors will want to see how your product is doing in the market. B) Post-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The Golden Age (1970 – 1995): Build a growing business with a consistently profitable track record (after at least 5 quarters,) and go public when it’s time. Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And when we do make bets, they’re small bets on incremental products or acquisitions that simply add to the bottom line.”. I suggested the best place to start the conversation is with the 21 st century definition of a startup: A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.).

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

The technology’s broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off. Most often the first acquisitions in a hype cycle are for the “shiny objects” – the technology, the team and the tools. Each of our teams in this class followed the canonical Lean model: Articulate your hypotheses using the business model canvas.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Lean Exit Strategy Startup 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed 5-person teams, came up with a business idea then got out of the building to validate their business model. What is a business model?

Intellectual Property 226

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 226

Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

All while we’re still writing a Request for a Proposal from within the US Government procurement and acquisition channels. These acquisition and procurement “silos” of excellence are virtually impenetrable by new ideas and requirements. We’re Our Own Worst Enemy. Efficiently Being Inefficient.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Korea Agile Lean 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Fairchild Semiconductor became the progenitor of a flood of Silicon Valley chip companies and at the same time the adoption of the limited partnership as the model for Venture Firms gave VC’s their own profitable business model. Lean VC’s are expert in on-line distribution, Agile and Customer Development.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

In every start-up, finding initial product-market fit is a magical moment. Before this occurs, the sales process is a craft or an art - custom-made by the founder or evangelist sales VP. The typical quota for a sales rep varies by type of business model (SaaS vs. perpetual), product gross margin (e.g.,

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) Most importantly, they have lots of data about the unit economics of their business.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders. As operators of an accelerator—and founders in our own right—Ben and I had constantly struggled with what the “right” numbers are for a business. Many companies like certainty.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

The Startup Toolkit

NOVEMBER 15, 2012

So here’s another way of thinking about the stages of a startup in visual terms using the business model canvas[2]. Important Business Question #1: does anybody care at all and will they pay us? In cases like that, you can just tick off that bit of the model and move on to other questions. Can you get 10 clients?

Startup 55

Startup Business Model Retention Acquisition 55

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 15, 2017

They are also a key to success in the Membership Economy — an emerging model in which businesses create a customer-centric strategy using tactics like subscription pricing, inclusiveness, and digital community. But first, you have to nurture your existing superusers while also developing new ones.

Community 124

Community LLC Customer Developer 124

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Why should customers buy from you? Every marketer knows these are important questions, but finding the answers can be a challenge. In this guide, you’ll learn how to differentiate your business and attract your ideal customers by creating a unique selling proposition. Without a purpose, this USP wouldn’t exist.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. He came up with the concept to simply the search for product/market fit by using an MVP Tree.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Build your own Startup Death Clock - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , November 1, 2010 A few months ago I created a fun device at WPEngine to focus everyone's attention the most important thing. few years ago I also started following Alexander Osterwalder in his blog about his Business Model Generation -mantra.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

I hear similar things for pre-revenue startups that are on schedule, on time, and on budget - even though they are busy building something that nobody wants. (In In fact, this crisis was at the heart of Steve Blank ’s original impetus to develop customer development as an alternative set of milestones to use for startups.)

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

To see proof of this, simply observe the results of the large majorities of corporate acquisitions of startups. Most businesses – large and small alike – are typically excluded by this context. But most often, the entrant of a startup into a previously calm market precipitates this kind of crisis.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Teams can prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model. A Lean Startup methodology offers entrepreneurs a framework to focus on what’s important: Business Model Discovery. We focus on evidence and trajectory across the business model.

Oakland 326

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics 326

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

On the other hand, it’s a whole universe and you’d need an interesting perspective on why you should go attack that market and face all that competition and noise and everything that’s in the market. So when you’re thinking about marketing positioning to me, that side of it is the interesting side of it.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# And this is true outside of games.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156