Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

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. It seemed like once a week Yuri would come back from a customer meeting brimming with new insights. And that’s where the problem was. A Pivot a Week.

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2017

Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra that you can’t quite put your finger on, like Ryan Seacrest is searching for on American Idol. But the entrepreneurs that have it, including Elon Musk and Richard Branson, seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere.

Entrepreneur 165

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Bandwidth .Net 165

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2012

Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. But the entrepreneurs that have “it” seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere. Able to just “get it.”

Entrepreneur 282

Entrepreneur Advisory Board Bandwidth .Net 282

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2014

Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. But the entrepreneurs that have “it” seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere. Able to just “get it.”

Advisory Board 253

Advisory Board Founder Bandwidth .Net 253

Up and Running

JUNE 16, 2014

Often, investors will advise or sit on a number of boards. A simple online search should reveal your investors interests as well as the portfolio of companies that he/she has invested in. To demonstrate traction you might recruit a good management team, start making sales, build an advisory board or secure strategic partnerships.

Exit Strategy 91

Exit Strategy Advisory Board Business Plan Portfolio 91

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2011

Some people, and some entrepreneurs, have that something extra, like Simon Cowell is searching for on the X-Factor , that you can’t quite put your finger on. But the entrepreneurs that have “it” seem to be able to effortlessly get team members, investors, and customers to follow them anywhere. Able to just “get it.”

Advisory Board 271

Advisory Board Entrepreneur Bandwidth Social Media 271

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 14, 2019

Make sure you build your business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Angel Investor 85

Angel Investor Small Business Business Plan Intellectual Property 85

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

In this first step, the goal of a startup is to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. You’ll realize you’re ready to exit the Search step when you have customer validation: You’ve found a sales channel that matches how the customer wants to buy and the costs of using that channel are understood.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. Do they “get&# Customer Development ? 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.

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. Would love to get in touch.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

In Customer Development the goal of a minimum feature set is to pare the features of the first product release to the minimum necessary for early customers. And once you got the data you asked for, it still took weeks or months for a marketer to tease out any customer insight and trends from the data. An Epiphany.

San Francisco 228

San Francisco Database Advisory Board Silicon Valley 228

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 29, 2018

The theme for this year’s Shavuot teachings was “Earth, Wind, and Fire”, and I spoke on “Lighting Your Inner Fire”, frequently quoting Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and the very inspirational author of Man’s Search for Meaning (one of the most important books I can recommend any human being read?—?not not just Jewish people).

Cofounder 48

Cofounder Austin Technical Review Advisory Board 48

Occam's Razor

JANUARY 20, 2010

I recently did a webinar for the Search Engine Strategies conference (I am doing the opening conference keynote at SES London and SES New York ) and my Market Motive co-faculty member Greg Jarboe sent me this KPI via email: "Your webcast was a big success. Create a segment for Organic Search traffic. More traffic, not that hard.

Analytics 90

Analytics Search SEO Metrics 90

crowdSPRING Blog

FEBRUARY 28, 2019

Make sure you build your business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. How to identfy your brand's audience, and more! Real Estate.

Business Plan 64

Business Plan Small Business Administration Hiring Social Media 64

Hearpreneur

MARCH 15, 2016

I got helped with talent search, boot camp for small startups, microloan…the list goes on and on. Sometimes a great advisory board can be just as useful. But never the less, there is help to get, but you might have to search for it. It has been a great ride not only for our business, but also for me personally as well.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Michigan SBIR Revenue 48

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2009

pbWorks (formerly pbWiki) was one of the first companies that ever invited me to join their advisory board. pbWorks (formerly pbWiki) was one of the first companies that ever invited me to join their advisory board. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Audio 118

Audio San Francisco Video Continuous Deployment 118

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Unfortunately, customers hated that initial product. Unfortunately, we made two critically flawed assumptions: that customers would primarily consume first-party assets that we shipped to them on CD and that they would tend to congregate in a relatively uniform way. How likely will customers ultimately use that feature?

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Tim Keane

JANUARY 14, 2009

One big example of this is boards of advisers, a real important concept for almost every entrepreneurial business.    I am constantly impressed by the high quality of members of advisory boards on opportunities I get to see.  "  People will tell you. Rule 2: If Not Now, When? Enter your Email.

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board Wisconsin Bootstrapping Angel Investor 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Unfortunately, after months or even years of development, many companies discover that customers arent willing to buy their new wares. Then, the company spends no more than a few hundred dollars marketing the product through search engines and to the contacts in its sales database and LinkedIn.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Pascal's View

APRIL 5, 2016

I recently joined the Advisory Board to Gerhard Blechinger , the Rector of the FachHochschule Salzburg, (the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) and became a guest lecturer on Entrepreneurship at the University. Let’s not forget that Microsoft had a huge monopoly in operating systems in the 90’s.

Austria 28

Austria Global Silicon Valley Advisory Board 28

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. Some startups avoid getting customer feedback for precisely this reason: they are afraid that if early reactions are negative, theyll be "forced" to abandon their vision. One such practice is to pivot from one vision to the next.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 14, 2019

Make sure you set up your real estate business to meet the needs of a specific niche to avoid overspending and underwhelming all of your potential customers. That passion will come through in everything you do, and your customers will appreciate and embrace the authenticity of your brand. NOT SATISFIED WITH THE GROWTH OF YOUR BUSINESS?

Business Plan 79

Business Plan Limited Liability Company Small Business Sales 79

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

(However, in some industries such as life sciences, founders may be tenured professors who are not going to give up their faculty positions, so they often become the head of a startup’s scientific advisory board, but aren’t part of the founding team.). Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Talked about the, the idea of getting your customers, your prospects in the habit of buying from you or listening to you or following you habit based marketing, download, nudge, wherever you get your podcasts. (00:47): John Jantsch (13:45): So what should a board, I guess this could go either way, what should a board member expect to bring?

Startup 86

Startup Cofounder Early Stage Founder 86

The Next Web

JULY 8, 2013

My startup reached product market fit, meaning that customers love our product and we are actually producing value for them. 8 are in R&D, 1 product, 1 customer support, 1 biz dev, 1 marketing and 1 administrative. More customers means more requests: The more customers we get the more requests for features, customization and so on.

Advisory Board 128

Advisory Board API Cofounder PPC 128

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Advisory Board. Sean Murphy on the first dozen enterprise customers - Gabriel Weinberg , September 8, 2010 I recently did a Traction Book interview with Sean Murphy who runs a boutique cutomer development firm in Silicon Valley. We discussed (for ~1hr) how to approach getting the first set of enterprise customers.

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 8, 2013

In addition to being startup founders, like Richard Branson , founder of more than 400 companies and still going strong, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. Customer service. Executive Assistant (aka Secretary).

Advisory Board 247

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Equity 247

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2011

In addition to being startup founders, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. Customer Service. They know how to arbitrate immature tantrums, and lead by example. Executive Assistant (aka Secretary). Retail sales to Gen-X and Gen-Y.

Advisory Board 268

Advisory Board Angel Investor Entrepreneur Equity 268

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

In this excerpt, authors Steve Blank and Bob Dorf continue to explain the Customer Discovery Philosophy (see Part One, " Is Your Startup a Valid Vision or Just a Hallucination? "). Customer discovery turns founders’ initial hypotheses about their market and customers into facts. We call these early adopters earlyvangelists.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

Gust

DECEMBER 31, 2012

In addition to being startup founders, like Richard Branson , founder of more than 400 companies and still going strong, there are several other key roles that I see Boomers taking more often these days to drive successful startups: Advisory Board. Customer service. Executive Assistant (aka Secretary).

Advisory Board 177

Advisory Board Angel Investor Startup Equity 177

venturehacks.com

MARCH 21, 2008

For example, they introduce the company to a key customer or investor. Normal advisors are also assembled by naive entrepreneurs who think the mere presence of an advisory board will create social proof and help them raise money. But investors don’t take these mock advisory boards seriously.

Advisory Board 44

Advisory Board Cap Table Vesting Equity 44

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2009

The larger-account division wanted to move the pricing in just the other direction – making the low-end products more expensive, so their large customers would have an increased incentive to upgrade. Many custom reports had been created for this meeting, and the data warehouse team was in the meeting, too.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Metrics Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 26, 2010

Advisory Board. Customer Service. Who better to run your customer service than an experienced professional with a little gray hair, who is firm but calm, soft-spoken, and credible around your customers? So what are some ideal roles for a Boomer relative to your startup? Executive Assistant (aka Secretary).

Advisory Board 189

Advisory Board Angel Investor Equity Salary 189

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

It’s important to invest in good architecture so that your website will scale once customers arrive. If you make that investment, and then customers arrive, and the site stays up, most companies will reward the people who built the architecture and, thus, prevented the scaling problems. How upset will those customers be?

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Mike Michalowicz

JULY 13, 2015

Jared currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Columbia University Entrepreneurship Organization and is an investor and advisor to startups such as Codecademy, SmartThings, and TransferWise. TSheets – The #1 customer rated time tracking solution! TSheets - The #1 customer rated time tracking solution!

Advisory Board 60

Advisory Board Employee Cofounder Matching 60

mashable.com

AUGUST 20, 2011

Whether that’s a funny ringtone or an impromptu blast of Rebecca Black’s “Friday,&# coworking can be a great way to network, make friends and have a built-in advisory board of people from many different industries. Plus, a lot of coworking spaces offer classes and seminars on new technology and tools.

Cofounder 81

Cofounder San Francisco Social Media Startup 81

usersknow.blogspot.com

APRIL 30, 2010

I have contacted my customer service/community management team and prepped them with information about the new feature and asked them to get back to me if we start to see any significant new support requests. I have embedded a short survey or feedback link into the page and will gather qualitative data from my users that way.

Software Review 40

Software Review Agile San Francisco Advisory Board 40