Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Agile – you may find the real opportunities for your company was somewhere else. However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. How quickly will you recover?

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. This post describes such a model.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. Finally, I’ll write about 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.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 215

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 14, 2019

The development of computer-aided design (CAD) previously revolutionized the design process. Even the World Economic Forum is now working with global partners for the development of construction. Yet, they felt their readiness with respect to creating an agile organization was not in line with the likely impact of these disruptions.

Global 189

Global Vertical Agile Engineer 189

ConversionXL

MAY 22, 2017

After that, the adoption of the cloud as a more scalable and cost-effective approach allowed small/medium business to build CRMs around very specific market needs and establish dominance in new vertical segments. SaaS stacks give companies the agility they need to move fast, but often they are the cause of a huge data fragmentation.

Customer 92

Customer Marketing Artificial Inteligence Clickthrough 92

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned&# venture pitch. Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?” Just as a refresher.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

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. As a result, the standard product development model is not only useless, it is dangerous.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on? Customer Development and Selling Strategy If you’ve just started your company you are in customer discovery.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

All successful media companies had at their heart a series of editors, producers, and agents tasked with discovering and developing new talent. When I reviewed a recent product development book, it immediately shot up to Amazon sales rank 300. Look at the stories of the current generation of aging superstars in any industry.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Where to Play

MARCH 14, 2018

When we founded Augury, we had a very clear vision in mind: ‘machines talk, and we should be able to understand what they are saying’ We wanted to develop a technology that listens to the sounds machines make to diagnose their problems and predict malfunctions. At times, it seemed like the possibilities were endless.

Artificial Inteligence 91

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Vertical Startup 91

View from Seed

APRIL 8, 2020

Stevens has held roles across verticals such as head of sales, marketing, product, and professional services at five startups over twenty years. Can you develop a new value prop based on the changing business conditions this person just described to you? Which is they’re flexible and agile. What is their job? Be flexible.

B2B 156

B2B Angel Investor Vertical Early Stage 156

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

So I started to read all I could find on the development of microwaves. A Stanford professor was at Harvard in World War II because the head of the Office of Scientific Research and Development thought Terman was the best radio engineer in the country. And in hindsight, we seemed a bit more agile and innovative in WWII.)

Silicon Valley 180

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 180

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA « Steve Blank (tags: startup) [.] Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA. Steve Blank, Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA: … entrepreneurs instinctualy realize that the best advocate for their careers is themselves [.] You’re Hired, You’re Fired. Reply Create.

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Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 245

Up and Running

AUGUST 6, 2015

Without positive cash flow, all companies (and small businesses in particular) likely won’t possess the agility necessary to respond to today’s quickly evolving business landscape. Businesses that lack positive cash flow—i.e., Devise new campaigns to boost sales.

Management 60

Management Technical Review Software Review .Net 60

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should be articulate and agile in describing and demoing the products.) For bigger booths a good rule of thumb is to have two to four staffers for every 100 square feet of exhibit space. Even for the smallest trade show, no one shows up without booth training. Messages, themes, demo’s. Go to trade shows like it matters.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

But what I wanted was an agile marketing team capable of operating independently without day-to-day direction. Reply steveblank , on October 10, 2009 at 10:59 am Said: Sales material developed by marketers who have never left the building is more often that not completely useless.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

ConversionXL

JANUARY 14, 2020

When you develop and ship them, you have to keep three factors in mind to get the most organic traffic out of them. Unless you’re a small, agile startup, shipping new features isn’t as simple as it sounds. If you’ve never heard the term scrum or agile before, you’re behind. Keys to adding SEO-friendly features. Accessibility.

SEO 159

SEO Framework SCRUM Search 159

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.) But the rest; sales, marketing, bus dev is actually customer development that the founder needs to understand. Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. In 1962 Wheelon left for a new job as the first director of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology where he was responsible for development of OXCART , the A-12 Spyplane, and three major satellite reconnaissance systems.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

Potential customers’ willingness to pay will help you segment your target market (by customer size, vertical, geography, etc) more effectively than simply “researching” your market in abstract. If you’re collaborating very closely with alpha customers, you may give away the product during initial development phases.

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Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 1, 2021

Founded in 2009 by JoeBen Bevert, Joby Aviation has been working under the radar at a base in Santa Cruz, California to develop an electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. But Joby’s quest includes even more than the amazing hardware it’s developing. We have vertical liftoff!

Merger 28

Merger Vertical Mobile Architecture 28

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

He has a wealth of experience in the data vertical, having served in previous roles at companies such as Intel, AllScripts, and Vision.bi. In his 17-year career, Rosenberg has developed key insights into the minds of CFOs and FP&A teams, with strengths in both customer-facing leadership and data analytics itself. CEO Perspective.

Hiring 137

Hiring Software Review Customer 137

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 28, 2013

On paper it makes sense… ~$10B market cap, deals with lots of content owners, a nascent library of Netflix developed content, and a happy/loyal consumer base. Apple could buy Disney instead (~$98B mkt cap) and own a vast library of content and the “infrastructure” to develop more (ABC/ESPN, movie studios, etc).

Hungary 168

Hungary Dividend Vertical Preferred Stock 168

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 26, 2013

The amount of competitors present in any vertical today can be overwhelming, which is why it is as important as ever to stand out and differentiate your company from others. Develop deeper customer relationships. Stand out amongst competitors. Customer retention is critical to the long-term growth of your business.

Vertical 151

Vertical Social Media Programming Matching 151

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2009

Filed under: Secret History of Silicon Valley « Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA Rocket Science 2: Drinking the Kool-Aid » 2 Responses Ben , on July 1, 2009 at 2:31 pm Said: Great post Steve. I can’t get this one out of my head. during World War II.

Silicon Valley 135

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 135

David Teten

FEBRUARY 24, 2011

We’ve revectored to an agile development methodology. Our process to process appeals is particularly bad; # appeals not yet heard forms a vertical line if we graph it. ” K When I started at USPTO, the first thing I did was Stop, Look, and Listen. I put on hold millions of dollars of IT spend that were underway.

Intellectual Property 60

Intellectual Property Detroit Technical Review Software Review 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

The original Hewlett Packard which made test and measurement products was spun-out and renamed Agilent. Agilent is a $5.8 Technology changes, culture changes, customer needs change, more agile competitors emerge, etc. DO NOT develop a computer!&# billion dollar test and measurement company. What is a company anyway?

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

In the meantime we are narrowing our focus to three verticals (bioinformatics, connected devices, security/fraud) and are choosing our clients very carefully to tell the best success stories we can. Look for more interviews with other SXSW Pitch finalists in this space between now and March.

Open Source 48

Open Source Startup Caching Database 48

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 24, 2018

Vince Molinaro: Well, it’s really came about from working with a lot of my clients globally who had been investing a lot in leadership development, but not see it translate into stronger leadership within their organizations. .” What exactly is a leadership contract? And they were kinda saying, “What’s going on?”

Leadership 60

Leadership Demand Global Community 60

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 14, 2021

Use this data to understand consumer behavior and to develop targeted messaging strategies. Brand momentum can be calculated similarly to physical momentum (mass x velocity): Brand momentum = brand mass (your company’s size, reputation, and relevance) x brand velocity (speed of growth, agility in keeping up with industry changes).

Metrics 157

Metrics Marketing Campaign Audience 157

YoungUpstarts

MAY 4, 2015

Here are the reasons why you should create a “vertical” social network for your brand: Create a more personalized social experience. This can help you spot trends more quickly and see search indicators you hadn’t considered before, allowing your brand to react with more agility and better adjust to your users’ needs.

Social Network 100

Social Network Vertical Networking San Francisco 100

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

I teach teams various Agile techniques, and occasionally get told some particular trick is cheating. Just remember ethics and values are about what you practice when the going gets tough. It’s the decisions that you make that might cost you an order, a sale or a higher stock price. Do the right thing. It pays off in the end.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 124

crowdSPRING Blog

DECEMBER 13, 2018

Branding is a process designed to develop, among other things, a unique business name and custom logo design for a company, product, or service. Some have spent millions of dollars developing branding to attract tourists and businesses. 3) Develop personas for your target customers. Develop your brand identity assets.

Marketing 162

Marketing Charlotte Naming Design 162

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.

Customer 420

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 420

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.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

The Curse of a New Building At some point in my career as I began to ponder how/why startups morph from agile, “can do&# companies to [.] [.] They develop traditions and privileges in other ways. I didn’t need to look much further than the “new building&# debacle I had a hand in.

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205