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. And Jennifer is now my co-instructor in the Stanford Lean LaunchPad class.). The MVP Tree.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

For example: Dropbox, Reddit, and Birch Box, to name a few. Founder Dialogues : Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event that has featured Boston’s BEST founders. OnStartups: One of the largest online startup communities founded by HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah. MIT Start Lab.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

Finally the day came, we unleashed the landing page, emailed our existing customers, and started advertising online. So, if youre interested in helping avoid mistakes like that, here are the steps: Get a domain name. It doesnt have to be the worlds catchiest name, just pick something reasonably descriptive.

Demand 167

Demand San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

Listen to this episode if you want to hear about a founder who has a product and users and paying customers … and is trying to figure out how to take his company to the next level and grow faster. Edwin: Correct, I fully agree and the name MeetingKing already says that my initial focus definitely was on meetings, right?

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. Some startups fail because the founders cant have this conversation - they either blow up when they try, or they fail to change because they are afraid of conflict. Thats why its so essential to have a co-equal problem team.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

My co-hosts were Bob Walsh and Patrick Foley , hosts of the well-known Startup Success Podcast. Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How cofounders can collaborate without going crazy.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

I had the opportunity to pioneer this approach to funnel analysis at IMVU, where it became a core part of our customer development process. To promote this metrics discipline, we would present the full funnel to our board (and advisers) at the end of every development cycle. Return the name of the hypothesis chosen or assigned.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Each of these four currencies represents a way for a customer to “pay&# for services from a company. A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How cofounders can collaborate without going crazy. I see the name of Noel’s company. The name game. Noel: Am I live? Melissa: Booker.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal. In fact, we know so much that we already know what they will care enough about (namely, the product’s quality – as opposed to, say, missing features). Freemium or subscription or advertising? I understand this fear.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

You declare how much someone clicking an advertisement is worth to you, and then the search engine does its best to get you as many clicks as it can at that price. We would pretty much bid on any phrase that was "[name of competitive product] chat" and variations like that. SEM is a simple idea. I just came across this post.

SEM 164

SEM San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 164

ConversionXL

MARCH 28, 2014

The ratio of viewers/visitors watching the video are dependent on a number of factors – namely: Quality of traffic coming to the page. Neil Patel, co-founder of CrazyEgg says that even though the video below brought in an extra $21,000/ month back in 2012, it was the script that was really responsible for such incredible growth.

Video 122

Video Software Review Cofounder Metrics 122

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

It’s more reference material. Thus, these pages. I’ll add more as time goes on.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In later posts I’m going to get into more detail on specific topics like hiring, raising money, what types of ideas have the potential to get big, finding your founders, and the like.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

And while you may believe it’ll never happen to you, this is also the path that leads to moral ambiguity, cheating, and trampling others in the name of success. I once worked with a vendor who asked me to help him develop advertisements for his home-cleaning business.

Customer 190

Customer Cofounder Developer Email 190

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Do some Customer Development instead. Founders push for it. Who doesnt want to see their name in print? In some ways, founders are even worse. My experience is that many founders actually have a deep anxiety that maybe they are not succeeding. Help you raise money. But dont be too sure.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Whats is the best way to find a co-founder for your startup? However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. Create a strong brand, solid social community, sell advertising. However, i need a technical person (web developer) who can bring my vision to life.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

DECEMBER 20, 2010

As a good student of startup theory, especially modern theories of customer development, this time I was methodical and purposeful. A year after leaving Smart Bear, having talked with dozens of startup founders about their marketing woes, I realized 100% of them needed the marketing-measurement engine I built at Smart Bear.

Startup 239

Startup Campaign Turkey Customer Development 239

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

Pay attention to whether people are comfortable “naming names&# in the meeting. Furthermore, I think most of what you are suggesting is applicable in companies/ industries that are not software development. I work in advertising and this system would work to analyze failures.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 24, 2009

But that is not the only source of positioning: brand advertisers have been using packaging and TV ads to do this for years. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It then proceeds to list a whole host of cool new features the Warhammer team has added since I last logged in.

Metrics 88

Metrics San Francisco Lean Viral 88

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

But we were cutting corners in the development methodology as well as in the code, in the name of increased speed. Excepting for cosmically co-incidental success stories, the fuzzy requirement stuff never congeals as a holistic engineering exercise. a is name, b is address, and c is tax percentage.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

By only releasing vanity metrics , companies co-opt the press into helping them mislead others. Or take a recent TechCrunch article about a startup I wont name: “X billion messages sent since June 2009.&# And it is much more insulated from external effects, like an advertising or PR blitz, than your typical vanity metric.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Metrics Lean PR 154

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Design your graphics, pre-show promotion, literature and show directory advertising around your focused message and theme. Is the company hosting/co-sponsoring some event? Customer Discovery Sitting inside of your company you’ve made a whole bunch of assumptions about who your customers are and why they will buy.

Silicon Valley 199

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 199

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

.” Hackernews list of “Tools of the Trade” for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Add a class name to buttons, forms, quotes, etc. Founder Equity Issues. Codeacademy.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

What we had done to ruin it was make our customers feel like they were not welcome anymore. We kept denying that we had done anything wrong, that the features still worked as advertised, and justifying our decisions instead of apologizing. It's nice to "see" that human beings are actually behind a name.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 12, 2009

To wit: achieving product/market fit , getting customer validation , making something people want , things that matter , and of course the many excellent books on the topic, of which Ill mention just two of the best, Crossing the Chasm and The Innovators Dilemma. Is a market a set of paying customers?

San Francisco 89

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Ruby Lean 89