Steve Blank

APRIL 15, 2011

Many of the students had heard phrases that fall under Customer Relationships before; “customer acquisition, SEO/SEM, public relations, Social Network, Advertising, Loyalty programs, cross-sell and up-sell” etc., Veritas , the team building a low cost, residential wind turbine. Worse yet, each of these clicks cost about a $1.00.

Customer 247

Customer Cloud EC2 Channel 247

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Some are r esegmenting an existing market– directed at a niche that an incumbent isn’t satisfying (like Dell and Compaq when they were startups) or providing a low cost alternative to an existing supplier (like Southwest Airlines when it first started.) I can make similar comments about watching people use your product.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Describing your product as “new and “never been done before” instead of “we’re just like those others guys, but better” could cost your company billions. Instead the company used most its cash on marketing and advertising in trying to define a new product category and accelerate adoption. Research in Motion (RIM).

Hockey Stick 271

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 271

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Your best bet is probably taking an existing market and serving a portion of it better than the competition, through lower cost or a different set of features. Don’t spend time and money on getting the word out about your product beyond what you need to do discovery and validation. End of theory.&# Keep teaching!

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

We will accomplish this through demand-creation activities (advertising, PR, tradeshows, seminars, web sites, etc.), It will cost you your job.” competitive analyses, channel and customer collateral (white papers, data sheets, product reviews), customer surveys, and market requirements documents. That kind of accountable.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing. Who recommends a sale?

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Every additional sales channel costs resources and increases scope. The choice of semiconductor has profound implications on system requirements like how much memory is needed, how much power is required—and ultimately, the end system cost. Map these out now as part of the tree and reduce the odds of a headache down the road.

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Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Without a budget, costs can quickly spiral out of control (last minute impulse purchases to jazz up your booth, for example) and defeat your best laid plans. A rule of thumb is that your space costs represent about a quarter of your total show budget. IBM doesn’t have to shout to get noticed, but you do.

Silicon Valley 178

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Combined with product costs, an engineering budget, and schedules, this results in a spreadsheet that faintly resembles the first financial plan in the company’s business plan. With that information in hand, Engineering estimates delivery dates and development costs. Marketing is at its peak. Ortho kills.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

steve Jay Levitt , on September 11, 2009 at 5:39 pm Said: There’s a fun corollary to this: If you’re creating a new market, you WANT competitors, because they’ll share the cost of educating your target market. Prodigy spent $50 million on advertising and in-store displays. Like that, but better&#.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Their willingness to pay for value versus lowest cost? Revenue strategy asks questions like, “Should we offer cost-based or value-based pricing. Don’t do cost-based pricing… go for value-based pricing. Don’t do cost-based pricing… go for value-based pricing, especially where your device lowers the treatment costs of the patient.

Revenue 230

Revenue Lean Channel Distribution 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Since this was the marketing department, I was going to be planning to spend some advertising and public relations dollars. Now I had happy and surprised customers walking around with paid advertising for my company. Waiting for images to move around the screen were not only driving them crazy, but costing them money.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 185

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

We can put both little- and big-endian in the chip, and it won’t cost us more than 1,000 gates.” I ran back to the company and said customers had told us, “We have to do both little and big endian.” The reaction from the chip circuit design guys was, “OK, we could do that. The reaction from our software guys was a little less kind. “Are

Customer Development 278

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 278

Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2016

Though I would pay the cost of having learned them for the rest of my life. Someone is advertising electronics jobs on the radio? What kind of place were we in that advertised for engineers on the radio? These would be the identical skills I would need to succeed in Silicon Valley. Did we just hear this right?

San Jose 173

San Jose Silicon Valley Michigan Miami 173

Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2016

Though I would pay the cost of having learned them for the rest of my life. Someone is advertising electronics jobs on the radio? What kind of place were we in that advertised for engineers on the radio? These would be the identical skills I would need to succeed in Silicon Valley. Did we just hear this right?

San Jose 120

San Jose Silicon Valley Michigan Miami 120