Steve Blank

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Why the Future of Tesla May Depend on Knowing What Happened to Billy Durant

Steve Blank

While Durant was a great entrepreneur, the integration of the companies and suppliers was difficult, a recession had just hit, and GM was overextended with $20 million in debt ($250 million in 2018 dollars) from all the acquisitions and was about to run out of cash. Durant’s bankers and board fired him from the company he had founded.

Cofounder 268
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New Rules for the New Internet Bubble

Steve Blank

Tech IPOs were a receding memory, and mergers and acquisitions became the only path to liquidity for startups. Startup exits in the next three years will include IPO’s as well as acquisitions. The payoff: in this bubble, a startup can actively “engineer for an acquisition.” The New Exits. Here’s how: Order of Battle.

Internet 334
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A Path to the Minimum Viable Product

Steve Blank

Economic paid acquisition: Contribution margins from customers are recycled into advertising, marketing, and other PR activities that successfully drive additional customers. Note well, though: this engine is “economic” because it must fuel itself.

Product 436
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Rocket Science 5: Who Needs Domain Experts

Steve Blank

Quick acquisition by a Sega or EA I suppose. Rocket Science was just another one of those companies (with better PR). Most of the problem was there was no real game play in the games being developed but it also turned out that there really was no hardware to support them even if they where good. Order Here.

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Hacking a Corporate Culture: Stories, Heroes and Rituals in Startups and Companies

Steve Blank

Innovation in an existing company is not just the sum of great technology, key acquisitions, or smart people. For example, when companies say, “We value our employees” but have reserved parking spots, a private cafeteria and over-the-top offices for the executives that tells you more than any PR spin.

Startup 120