Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition.

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. While that’s not true, it is a fact that entrepreneurs only have one word for “startup.”

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 220

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 ? Here’s an attempt to put this all in context.

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Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2010

And that narrow definition of entrepreneurship doesn’t count all of the managers inside established companies who are effectively engaged in the same process of building an internal startup (see What is a startup? for my more expansive definition). What motivates all these entrepreneurs? What do entrepreneurs look like?

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San Francisco Management Founder Lean 161

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Business Model Design meets Customer Development. the Lean Launchpad, the first hands-on class utilizing the entire business model/customer development / agile development stack.

Agile 254

Agile Business Model Customer Development Lean 254

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Ann who had been my Teaching Assistant while she had finished her PhD at Stanford felt the same frustration about teaching entrepreneurs to assemble a business plan that we knew in the real world wouldn’t survive first contact with customers. Ann and I recruited VC’s and entrepreneurs to be mentors for each team.

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Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. I have counseled innumerable entrepreneurs to change their focus to revenue, and many companies who refuse this advice get themselves into trouble by running out of iterations. What’s the ROI on acquiring new customers?

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

But theres no denying the level of support for entrepreneurs that we enjoy. They take common stock, not preferred, a fact that the entrepreneurs mentioned to me many times. And every year, it looks as if one or two entrepreneurs from the program decide to stay. And do your customer development.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

We lack a consistent and clear definition of the job. When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. All I have to say it WOW!

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Just as a business incurs some debt to take advantage of a market opportunity developers may incur technical debt to hit an important deadline.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

The law of large numbers (of customers) says you cant help but make at least some money - your valuation is determined by how well you monetize the tidal wave of growth. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Your comment about the Innovation/R&D phase that it's hard to predict has definitely proven true in my experience. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. What is customer development?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Through case studies, exercises, and discussions, Eric Ries will guide entrepreneurs of all stripes through the key areas that determine success for startups: product, engineering, QA, marketing, and business strategy. I would definitely be interested any scholarship opportunities that might be made available. Cash is tight.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, January 18, 2010 Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases non-events The following is a case study of one entrepreneurs transition from a traditional development cycle to continuous deployment. Managing weekly releases got a lot harder once I started doing customer development.

Continuous Deployment 151

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

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 245

Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development Business Model 245

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

As I evolved my thinking, I started to frame the problem this way: How can we devise a product development process that allows the business leaders to take responsibility for the outcome by making conscious trade-offs? When I first encountered agile software techniques, in the form of extreme programming , I thought I had found the answer.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2013

Out of the airport the first stop was in Denver – an impromptu meetup at Galvanize and a fireside chat with a roomful of 200 great entrepreneurs. And how the engineering process could be turned Agile. with the product built incrementally and iteratively, as students acquire more customer feedback. Military Academies.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Colorado Lean Connecticut 263

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Most of the times I have seen pitches fail, it is not because they are poorly written, or that the entrepreneur lacks passion. Now there was nothing wrong with their analysis: anyone who invents a technology as sophisticated as The Transformers is definitely going to make a lot of money. Youre not one of those are you?) Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 3, 2009

Yet, I think this definition is too important to leave out. They often get blurred by entrepreneurs! Use some customer development to find out. Definitely like to see video of the full talk. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Expo SF (May.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

The agile software movement has made numerous contributions: continuous integration, which helps accelerate feedback about defects; story cards and kanban that reduce batch size; a daily stand-up that increases tempo. Continuous deployment is another such technique, one with a unique power to change development team dynamics for the better.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

So let’s turn our attention from what may happen in the future to what is definitely happening in the present. Seed-stage investors are learning the metrics of traction, and are getting better at identifying those companies that are really achieving validated learning about customers. 12comments: Dougvs said. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. If we already knew who the customer was, how they would behave, how much they would pay, and how to reach them, this wouldn’t be a disruptive innovation. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2013

Out of the airport the first stop was in Denver – an impromptu meetup at Galvanize and a fireside chat with a roomful of 200 great entrepreneurs. And how the engineering process could be turned Agile. with the product built incrementally and iteratively, as students acquire more customer feedback. Military Academies.

Silicon Valley 155

Silicon Valley Colorado Lean Connecticut 155

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

But this cinematic view of entrepreneurs is flawed in many ways. So let’s begin with a definition of a startup that captures its essential nature, and tries to leave behind the specific associations of the most famous startups. Isn’t the word human redundant in this definition? Let’s start with the most basic.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2008

Everything else (including a lot of traditional "agile" or "lean" tactics) is waste. Basically, the definition of waste is different when you know less about your customer. By the standard of "customer value," most innovation-seeking experiments are waste. Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 121

andrewchenblog.com

MARCH 10, 2010

Coupled with A/B testing, customer development, and thinking through business problems in a scientific, hypothesis-driven way, you end up with a powerful cocktail of techniques to build a modern startup in the most iterative way possible. Eric Ries has a great article advocating for why it’s OK to Embrace Technical Debt.

Technical Review 47

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product 47

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In a previous post , I asked readers for suggested topics that the US government needs to know about startups and entrepreneurs, and got some really interesting responses. Unfortunately, this program applies to the investor who holds the capital, and not the entrepreneur who discovers how to put that capital to use.

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San Francisco Founder DC Washington 150

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. Thats why some entrepreneurs are trying another approach to product launches: marketing a product online before spending much on research and development or inventory.

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San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

And throughout my career as an entrepreneur I kept asking questions of my VC investors and friends; Where did entrepreneurship come from? Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. How did Silicon Valley start?

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Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 297

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

First, a definition: the minimum viable product is that version of a new product which allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning about customers with the least effort. In a lot of cases, this requires a lot of energy invested in talking to customers or metrics and analytics. Thank you. Thanks Eric.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Ive never seen such a mixed crowd of entrepreneurs, vendors, and policy makers all in one place. g2s The very abbreviated version of Customer Development (channeling Steve Blank ). Do course correction called a "pivot". - @ericries "Most exciting time in history be an entrepreneur." #g2s Summit in Washington DC last week.

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San Francisco DC Washington Lean 92

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the building; Agile Engineering – to rapidly build minimal viable products to test product/market fit.

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Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 424

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

We agreed that all her founding CEOs seemed to have the same set of personality traits – tenacious, passionate, relentless, resilient, agile, and comfortable operating in chaos. The problem, I believe, is that repeatability represents the extreme discomfort zone of this class of entrepreneur. I’ve been surprised at the data.

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Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 310

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 9, 2009

Thats the essence of so many of the lean startup techniques Ive evangelized: customer development , the Ideas/Code/Data feedback loop , and the adaptation of agile development to the startup experience. April 21 - Agile Vancouver is sold-out (thank you all so much!). dalelarson : "Metrics are people, too."

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San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean Agile 132

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 29, 2008

The six key attributes spell ABCDEF: Agility. When talking about their past experience, candidates with agility will know why they did what they did in a given situation. To probe for agility, you have to ask the candidate questions involving something that they know little about. Excellent post on interviewing. Expo SF (May.

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San Francisco Lean Agile Java 146

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 1, 2009

Heres the working definition Ive started using: A startup is a human institution designed to deliver a new product or service under conditions of extreme uncertainty. In a future post, Ill attempt to unpack this definition in detail. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 60