Agile, Customer Development, Demo and Startup

Why Real Learning is Outside the Building, Not Demo Day

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2021 Lessons Learned Presentations

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “Here’s how smart I am, and isn’t this a great product, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the story of a team’s 10-week journey and hard-won learning and discovery. . – while simultaneously building a series of minimal viable products.

Lean

Lean Security Asia SBIR

Learning Through Reflection

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, – the business model – is what turns a product into a business. Demo Days Versus Lesson Learned Presentations. Demo of final MVP. Pivot stories.

Lean

Lean Incubator Business Model Channel

Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of the building to talk to customers to do Customer Discovery when they can’t get out of the building? How do should startups do it?

Customer

Customer Business Model Restful Video

The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By the end of the 20th century entrepreneurship education fell into two categories: 1) starting small businesses and 2) starting high-growth, high-risk scalable startups. The case method and business plans are the antithesis of how entrepreneurs create startups. Neither cases nor business plans replicate the actual startup experience.

Lean

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2020 Lesson Learned Presentations

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the teams’ stories of a 10-week journey of hard-won learning and discovery. This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks.

Oakland

Oakland Asia Lean Video

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo. General Comments for both Awareness and Lead Generation Demo’s I don’t care how small the booth or trade show is, do a canned demo every 20 to 30 minutes regardless of whether anyone is at your booth or not. Demo’s are the heart of the booth.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development

Raising Money Using Customer Development

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

Customer Development

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development. And the winners get to go Stage 2.

Lean

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development. And the winners get to go Stage 2.

Lean

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 15, 2008 The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time Split-testing is a core lean startup discipline, and its one of those rare topics that comes up just as often in a technical context as in a business-oriented one when Im talking to startups. First of all, why split-test?

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment

300 Teams in Two Years

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2013

The NSF I-Corps uses everything we know about building Lean Startups and Evidence-based Entrepreneurship to connect innovation to entrepreneurship.

Lean

Lean Washington Incubator Agile

Lessons Learned: A hierarchy of pitches

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

Ill exclude those non- lean startups who basically exist for the purpose of raising bigger and bigger sums of money. Most important slide: live demo Prototype product Key questions: what will it take to ship a working product? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

The Lean LaunchPad – Teaching Entrepreneurship as a Management Science

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. In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.)

Wiki

Wiki Lean Management Business Model

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2019

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells a story of a journey of hard-won learning and discovery. Followed by an 8-minute slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. Team: Panacea.

Oakland

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan

When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

Jon and the team came in with all the assurance of a startup that thought they knew what they were doing. Rising to the occasion Jon and the team got out of the building and went to the Sonoma County Fair and Wine and other food festivals, and spoke to 50 customers. What Do You Mean You Only Spoke to 1 Customer? Lessons Learned.

North America

North America Lean Customer Development Distribution

Reinventing the Board Meeting – Part 2 of 2 – Virtual Valley Ventures

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. It’s time to ask why startup board governance has failed to keep pace with innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. It’s time for a change. Here’s how.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital

Eureka! A New Era for Scientists and Engineers

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

This approach would shape Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). government agency that supports research in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering - is changing the startup landscape for scientists and engineers. billion U.S.

Engineer

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property

The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

The Lean Startup is the way most innovators build startups and innovate inside of existing companies. The Business Model Canvas has been a great invention for everyone from startups to large companies. So yes, war fighters are one customer segment, but others need to be involved before the war fighter can ever see the product.

Business Model

Business Model Revenue Channel Community

Kiwi lean startup + Australia next

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

Their supposed lack of ambition was belied by the many cool demos and startups I got to meet. Overall, I came away from the experience optimistic about the potential of New Zealand to cultivate a significant startup hub. If anyone is interested, the Wellington Lean Startup Meetup is a good place to start.

Australia

Australia Lean New Zealand San Francisco

Eureka! National Science Foundation's I-Corps Trains a New Generation of Scientists in Business

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 1, 2011

This approach would shape Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Lean

How companies strangle innovation – and how you can get it right

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

Pete Newell and I were working with a company that was getting its butt kicked from near-peer competitors as well as from a wave of well-funded insurgent startups. This was a very large and established tech company; its engineering organization developed the core day-to-day capabilities of the organization. Lessons Learned.

Incubator

Incubator Curation Engineer Government

It’s Time to Play Moneyball: The Investment Readiness Level

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. A Lean Startup methodology offers entrepreneurs a framework to focus on what’s important: Business Model Discovery.

Oakland

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics

Good enough never is (or is it?)

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

The team was demoing their AJAX-powered map solution, the first of its kind, to senior management at Google. Yet startups rely on collective learning in order to find their way. I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal. The latter is actually more dangerous.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2017 – Lessons Learned Presentations

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2017

It combines the same Lean Startup Methodology used by the National Science Foundation to commercialize science, with the rapid problem sourcing and curation methodology developed on the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq by Colonel Pete Newell and the US Army’s Rapid Equipping Force. 21 st Century Frogman.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Southern California Lean San Diego

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2019

The class was unique in that it was 1) team-based, 2) experiential, 3) lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering). When we started this class, the concept of Lean (business models, customer development, agile, pivots, mvp’s) was new to everyone.

Lean

Lean Business Model Balance Sheet Video

Startup Resources

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). VC & Startup Resources. Seed Startups. VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Hundreds of startups featured since 2005, will yours be next? About VC Cafe.

Software Review

Software Review Technical Review Startup

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

Steve Blank

JANUARY 15, 2017

I-Corps uses Lean Startup methods to teach scientists how to turn their discoveries into entrepreneurial, job-producing businesses. I-Corps uses everything we know about building Lean Startups and Evidence-based Entrepreneurship to connect innovation to entrepreneurship.

Lean

Lean Technical Review Government Programming

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

Steve Blank

JANUARY 15, 2017

I-Corps uses Lean Startup methods to teach scientists how to turn their discoveries into entrepreneurial, job-producing businesses. I-Corps uses everything we know about building Lean Startups and Evidence-based Entrepreneurship to connect innovation to entrepreneurship.

Lean

Lean Technical Review Government Programming

StartUpRoar

Why Real Learning is Outside the Building, Not Demo Day

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2021 Lessons Learned Presentations

Trending Sources

Learning Through Reflection

Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus

The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2020 Lesson Learned Presentations

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2

Raising Money Using Customer Development

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean

Lessons Learned: The one line split-test, or how to A/B all the time

300 Teams in Two Years

Lessons Learned: A hierarchy of pitches

The Lean LaunchPad – Teaching Entrepreneurship as a Management Science

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2019

When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check

Reinventing the Board Meeting – Part 2 of 2 – Virtual Valley Ventures

Eureka! A New Era for Scientists and Engineers

The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations

Kiwi lean startup + Australia next

Eureka! National Science Foundation's I-Corps Trains a New Generation of Scientists in Business

How companies strangle innovation – and how you can get it right

It’s Time to Play Moneyball: The Investment Readiness Level

Good enough never is (or is it?)

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2017 – Lessons Learned Presentations

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

Startup Resources

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

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