Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots. We were positing that 20 years of teaching “how to write a business plan” might be obsolete. This post is part one.

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. The Rise of Business Schools – Management as an Occupation. The business school was invented in the first decade of the 20th century in response to a massive economic transformation in the U.S.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

I’ve spent the last week in Santiago, a guest of Professor Cristóbal García at the Catholic University of Chile as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program. Teaching in Chile. Valaparaiso houses. Entrepreneurship and innovation in what I call “Chilecon Valley” is being talked about continually here.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

Steve Blank

MAY 23, 2016

NYU Engineering Commencement Speech. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on your graduation from this esteemed engineering school. Established businesses execute business models while startups search for them. By the way, the engineering definition of serendipity is, that life is too unpredictable to pre-compute.

Lean 221

Lean Technical Review Vietnam Engineer 221

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. From the point of view of scientists and engineers in a university lab, too often entrepreneurship in all its VC-driven glory – income statements, balance sheets, business plans, revenue models, 5-year forecasts, etc.

Engineer 278

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 278

YoungUpstarts

MAY 9, 2017

Lean is a methodology that can be applied to all disciplines of knowledge work to increase business efficiency, agility, and visibility. Research shows that 95% of organizations do not start as Lean organizations – they implement Lean after identifying a need for better agility, visibility, and efficiency. 9 Reduced Costs.

Lean 124

Lean Agile Technical Review Dilution 124

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. It might be its most important. ———-. Cold War Spin Outs.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ) Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. I observed that teaching case studies and/or how to write a business plan as a capstone entrepreneurship class didn’t match the hands-on chaos of a startup.

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Companies are great at improving their existing business model and value propositions, but fall short when it comes to inventing entirely new business models, value propositions, and growth engines. The latter requires speed and agility. Bad Habit #3: Insisting on untested and detailed business plans.

Non-Compete 329

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 329

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

In my last post I described my approach to one of the three classes I teach at Stanford in the engineering school: Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship. The key things I want students to take from the class are: Understand that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model.

Business Model 226

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 14, 2017

by Amanda Setili, author of “ Fearless Growth: The New Rules to Stay Competitive, Foster Innovation, and Dominate Your Markets “ Polarization is a common problem for companies trying to make smart and agile strategic decisions. In our age of disruption, you must be agile and courageous. Hint: That should be all companies.)

Agile 113

Agile Malaysia Technical Review Metrics 113

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

I earnestly believe that large corporations should emulate Lean Startups (Business model design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering.) It gets really tough when these projects are launched and have to fight for survival against current corporate business models. Lessons Learned.

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

To be honest I built the class out of frustration watching schools teach aspiring entrepreneurs that all they need to know is how to write a business plan or how to sit in an incubator building a product. entrepreneurship is experiential and requires theory and a ton of practice.

Lean 120

Lean Incubator Business Model Channel 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Yet startup companies have traditionally used this model to manage and pace not only engineering but also non-engineering activities. In the next few posts that follow, I’ll describe more specifically how this model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. Product Development Diagram 1. release of the product.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

SVPG

DECEMBER 15, 2012

The past several articles have discussed the nature of Continuous Discovery and Dual-Track Agile. In this article I'd like to discuss another dimension of working effectively in an Agile environment, which is how we manage commitments. I've written earlier about this situation (see www.svpg.com/your-business-plan-is-wrong ).

Agile 63

Agile Management Engineer Software 63

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing business plans when we should first be searching for business models. We were putting the plan before the planning.

Lean 286

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 286

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Both Stanford and Berkeley have been extremely generous in letting me test these ideas in their engineering and business schools. In fact, starting in January, Stanford will offer Engineering 245, a.k.a

Agile 250

Agile Business Model Customer Development Lean 250

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development. Product/Market fit now has its own book.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Companies are great at improving their existing business model and value propositions, but fall short when it comes to inventing entirely new business models, value propositions, and growth engines. The latter requires speed and agility. Bad Habit #3: Insisting on untested and detailed business plans.

Non-Compete 120

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The Business Plan (Concept- Alpha-Beta - FCS ) became the playbook for startups. VC’s engineered financial transactions, working with entrepreneurs to brand, hype and take public un profitable companies with grand promises of the future. The payoff: in this bubble, a startup can actively “engineer for an acquisition.”

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. She posted her notes from the talk here.)

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Business Model Developer Design 270

Steve Blank

MARCH 7, 2012

Today, the first half of the Stanford Engineering Lean LaunchPad Class gave their final presentations. The goal is for them is to observe this class, then host and teach the next round of 50 NSF Innovation Corps scientist/engineer teams in July. Here are the first five. It Feels Like 20 Years Ago Today. Team ColorWheels.

Lean 256

Lean Business Model Agile United States 256

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing business plans when we should first be searching for business models. We were putting the plan before the planning.

Lean 178

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 178

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Steve Blank: When I first starting teaching, the capstone entrepreneurship class was how to write a business plan. But years ago, we had no alternative – how to write a business plan was it. SB: I think ethics are a critical missing component of most business curriculums.

Incubator 331

Incubator Lean Programming Government 331

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2011

Our Lean LaunchPad class teaches scientists and engineers that starting a company is another research project that can be solved by an iterative process of hypotheses testing and experimentation built around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. And I am definitely enjoying it.”.

Silicon Valley 242

Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development Business Model 242

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

I’ve introduced a new class at Stanford to teach engineers, scientists and other professionals how startups really get built. There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.) This class is not about how to write a business plan.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. I observed that teaching case studies and/or how to write a business plan as a capstone entrepreneurship class didn’t match the hands-on chaos of a startup.

Oakland 266

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 266

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. Most likely, your business plan is loaded with opinions and guesses, sprinkled with a dash of vision and hope. Expo SF (May.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Jonathan Swift.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2010

For the many entrepreneurs that send me cold emails asking for me to review a business plan or answer a strategic dilemma: Im much more likely to answer if youve already tried getting an answer on the mailing list. Youll probably get a better result, anyway. Youll probably get a better result, anyway. Expo SF (May.

Lean 146

Lean San Francisco Wiki Startup 146

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 9, 2021

Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, you’ve been working hard on business plans, raising funds, building the perfect team , and doing everything else you needed to do to hit the ground running once you were ready and the world was “back to normal.” An Agile Business is Always a Good Business.

eCommerce 176

eCommerce B2C Naming Agile 176

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Jonathan Swift.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Notice that the traditional product introduction model leads to a product launch and the execution of a revenue plan. The revenue numbers and revenue model came from a startups original Business Plan. that make up a business model. Unless you were incredibly lucky most of your assumptions are wrong. Ritualized Crises.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Hearpreneur

JANUARY 21, 2017

They do a great job at building an amazing culture, and they are able to keep a small company feel in terms of speed and agility because they keep the teams small and have basically broken the company up into a whole bunch of companies. 11 – US Army Classified as a Computer Engineer. Thanks to Bryan Clayton, GreenPal ! #11

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Investment Bankers PR Social Media 48

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. Jon Feiber at MDV is going to try investing in startups emerging from Universities with great engineering schools outside of Silicon Valley that have entrepreneurship programs, but minimal venture capital infrastructure.

Silicon Valley 281

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital 281

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

I think this idea is particularly appealing to those of us from an engineering background. Certainly venture-backed startups don’t have this luxury – every business plan has a model in it. By reducing the decisions we have to make to a series of quantitative questions, we can avoid a lot of real-life messiness.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102