Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2019

Once upon a time every great organization was a scrappy startup willing to take risks – new ideas, new methods, new customers, targets, and mission. What had previously been a strength – their great management processes – now holds back their ability to respond to new challenges. Companies Run on Process.

Government 315

Government Technical Review Acquisition Metrics 315

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I presented to 1,000’s of entrepreneurs, talked to 17 startups, gave 12 lectures, had 9 interviews, chatted with 8 VC’s, sat on 4 panels, talked policy with 2 government ministers, 2 members of parliament, 1 head of a public pension fund and was in 1 TV-documentary. This extends to sharing among startups.

Finland 324

Finland Naming Russia Government 324

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 25, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions – crowdspring.co/1nHT6tS. Salaries Startup Founders Pay Themselves | Business Insider – crowdspring.co/1nHU2OK.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2013

Now that you’ve gotten to know your potential channel and customers, regardless of how much money you’re going to make, will you enjoy working with these customers for the next 3 or 4 years? It was a lifelong lesson that taught me to never start a business where you hate your customers. It never goes well.

Cofounder 325

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Liquidity Event Lean 325

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Build a product, get it into the real world, measure customers’ reactions and behaviors, learn from this, and use what you’ve learned to build something better. Then came the Build-Measure-learn focus of the Lean Startup.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

What’s become apparent in the last few technology hype cycles is that for startups and their investors there is a short multi-year window of opportunity (at the Peak of Inflated Expectations) to sell a startup at an inflated price. Get of the building and test those hypotheses using customer development.

Artificial Inteligence 318

Artificial Inteligence Lean Exit Strategy Startup 318

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. and the subsequent acquisition sprees of companies like Google, Yahoo!, Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small?

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

Doing so meant they would have to take risks for IP acquisition and customer/market risks outside their experience or comfort zone. I earnestly believe that large corporations should emulate Lean Startups (Business model design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering.)

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Editor’s note: At a recent team meeting at NextView, we looked at the high number of startups we invested in which were pre-product at the time. For more tactical support on raising a seed or pre-seed round, as well as resources and stories about gaining startup traction, subscribe to receive our weekly email.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year. Entrepreneurship is everywhere, but everywhere isn’t a level playing field.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. They taught you about customers, markets and profits.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10 weeks. While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ), Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was unique.

Lean 385

Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2014

Kauffman launched Founders School - a new education series to help entrepreneurs develop their businesses during the startup stage by highlighting how startups are different from big companies. In January 2014 Part 1 of the “ Startups ” section of Founders School went online. 0:24: What is Customer Development?

Intellectual Property 328

Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development Acquisition 328

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

If you’re a technical startup founder, one of the painful lessons is that it’s not enough just to build a great product. You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). Her first startup, Pencil You In, grew from a personal need to schedule hair appointments.

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

There are many reasons why startups fail, and the difference between failure and startup success isn’t always product or service related. In general, successful startups do three major things: They understand who their customers are, what they want and clearly define the product or service Unique Selling Point(USP).

Startup 114

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 114

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. If you are following Customer Development , the answer is easy.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ) Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. What’s Next for These Teams?

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Master of 500 Hats: Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp 2008, London) This presentation should be required reading for anyone creating a startup with an online service component. Here, the key metrics are Acquisition and Referral, combined into the now-famous viral coefficient. Choose one. One last thought.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development.

Lean 177

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition 177

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development.

Lean 177

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition 177

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

In the last few years we’ve recognized that a startup is not a smaller version of a large company. We’re now learning that companies are not larger versions of startups. But paradoxically, in spite of all their seemingly endless resources, innovation inside of an existing company is much harder than inside a startup.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

But then, because there might be entrenched competitors and your concept is radically new, you still need to invest in the customer development process to learn how to get design wins from companies who may be happy with their existing vendors. Personally, I think that customer acquisition, brand, reputation, etc.,

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

What’s become apparent in the last few technology hype cycles is that for startups and their investors there is a short multi-year window of opportunity (at the Peak of Inflated Expectations) to sell a startup at an inflated price. Get of the building and test those hypotheses using customer development.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Lean Exit Strategy Startup 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 14, 2014

Since the Pivot is one of the core concepts of the Lean Startup I was puzzled. A pivot is a fundamental insight of the Lean Startup. A pivot may mean you changed your customer segment, your channel, revenue model/pricing, resources, activities, costs, partners, customer acquisition – lots of other things than just the product.

Business Model 330

Business Model Lean Customer Development Channel 330

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

I like to talk about the fact that choosing your segment determines how you will reach your customer, what you will to say to them, and what the sales process will look like (since it depends on the buyer’s process). Reply Dave Goulden , on March 26, 2009 at 11:04 pm Said: I love the redefinition of the market.

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

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. But the big payoff came when their discussions with medical device customers revealed an entirely new way to think about pricing —potentially tripling their revenue. the Customer Life Time (CLT)).

Customer 323

Customer Churn Rate Customer Development Lean 323

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. One of our portfolio investments, a B2B SaaS company, was a pre-product startup at the time of the seed round. B) Post-Product Companies.

Seed Stage 149

Seed Stage B2B Seed Capital Revenue 149

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

Most companies incrementally improved their products with process innovation (better materials, cheaper, product line extensions) and/or through acquisitions. They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers. We now know how to do this.

Channel 286

Channel Customer Development Distribution Restful 286

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

Disruptive innovations are coming from startups – Telsa for automobiles, Uber for taxis, Airbnb for hotel rentals, Netflix for video rentals and Facebook for media. Which brings us to the fourth reason it’s harder for large corporations to offer disruptive breakthroughs: startups. Startups are unencumbered by the status quo.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

And they should be; the feeding frenzy in the innovation economy is in some cases because startups are eating the lunch of more established companies. We never seek any rights to give Amex preferential treatment at the time of a potential acquisition. When I meet with executives from large corporations, they’re often worried.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? Paths to Liquidity: a quick history of the four waves of startup investing. Lean Startups/Back to Basics (2000-2010): No IPO’s, limited VC cash, lack of confidence and funding fuels “lean startup” era with limited M&A and even less IPO activity.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Customer Development. A well-developed model is Andreessen Horowitz’s Executive Briefing Center. Even the most connected VC has limited ability to influence the M&A roadmap of the large acquirers, not to mention a VC is obviously conflicted in promoting the acquisition of their own companies.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, August 2, 2008 Paul Graham on fundraising I have found no better primer on the current realities of starting a new technology company in a startup hub like Silicon Valley than Paul Grahams essays. The Hackers Guide to Investors [link] Whatever help investors give a startup tends to be underestimated.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. 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.). Startup Lifecycle Today.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The physical heart of the Beijing startups is in Zhongguancun in the Haidian District, located in the northwest side of Beijing. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Most startup-lore is focused on lightning fast growth or striking out, but what about slow-growth businesses? along with the contributions of dozens if not hundreds of founders, entrepreneurs and investors, to build out the canon for the startup. In other words, it only wants the right kind of customers. How do we make payroll?

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48