article thumbnail

Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” It’s an impressive portfolio.

article thumbnail

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs

www.instigatorblog.com

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. The Board probably existed beforehand, but was made up only of the founders. Mark Macleod spells it out beautifully in his post on Advisory Boards. Why wouldn’t you?

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Three Types Of Startup Advisors You Might Not Have Thought About (But Will Help You Win)

Hunter Walker

That said, there are three types of advisors that I don’t see as commonly utilized by early stage startups — at least the ones we’re not advising. A sales and marketing tactic as much (or even more) than a customer development one, try setting up a Customer Council Advisory Board.

article thumbnail

Ardent 1: Supercomputers Get Personal

Steve Blank

The VP of Sales and I flew to Providence to convince Andy van Dam at Brown to join our company, or at a minimum lead our advisory board. With a bit of research it turned out that a professor at Brown University had invented something close to what we had in mind.

article thumbnail

Vision versus Hallucination – Founders and Pivots

Steve Blank

It was great to watch him embrace the spirit and practice of customer development. He was constantly in front of customers, listening, selling, installing and learning. I got to spend time inside his company while I was using their software to analyze early-stage ventures. Filed under: Customer Development.

Founder 316
article thumbnail

Is Your VC Founder Friendly?

Steve Blank

What startup stage do they typically invest in? Do they “get&# Customer Development ? What Startup Stage Do they Invest In? Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. Lean Startups ?

Founder 231
article thumbnail

How to listen to customers, and not just the loud people

Startup Lessons Learned

The people who are the lifeblood of an early-stage startup are earlyvangelists. Create a members-only forum where only qualified customers (perhaps, paying customers) can post. Establish a customer advisory board. Hand pick a dozen customers who "get" your vision.