Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

—————- The next piece of the Secret History of Silicon Valley puzzle came together when Tom Byers , Tina Selig and Mark Leslie invited me to teach entrepreneurship in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program ( STVP ) in Stanford’s School of Engineering.

Silicon Valley 180

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 180

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. It’s the antithesis of the Lean Startup.

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Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

The Proud Owners of a Startup. Today, as the proud owner of a startup, you’re probably much better at managing your money. It might take the experience of growing and exiting two or even three startups before you know how to do that. . Let’s take a deeper look at why your startup probably doesn’t need funding.

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Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

I’ve spent my life in innovation, eight startups in 21 years, and the last 15 years in academia teaching it. I’ve seen the Valley grow from Sunnyvale to Santa Clara to today where it stretches from San Jose to South of Market in San Francisco. We’re standing 15 air miles away from the epicenter of technology innovation.

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Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

Over the last half a century, Silicon Valley has grown into the leading technology and innovation cluster for the United States and the world. Wave after wave of hardware, software, biotech and cleantech products have emerged from what has become “ground zero” of entrepreneurial and startup culture. Starting now.

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Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital Software Review 335

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2015

My guests on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Eric Ries , entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Lean Startup. The focus of our first segment with Eric was, “What is the Lean Startup” and how did it start? Origins of the Lean Startup.

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Lean Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Channel 120

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. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup. Lets see why.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

And he recognized it was making his startup feel and act like a big ponderous company. Most decisions in a startup must be made in the face of uncertainty. One of the things he mentioned was that when it came to decision-making he still tended to think and act like an engineer. The same is true in your company.

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Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. The Innovation Corps Startup Team. We taught them the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. This week we saw the results. It was an extraordinary effort.

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Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 301

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2022

One of the things I learned from my years in Silicon Valley is that you must always focus on three steps ahead, as well as on what exists today. By definition, new startups have to do this to even have a shot at funding from venture capitalists and survival, but I find that existing companies often rest on their laurels far too long.

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Silicon Valley Artificial Inteligence Global Agile 367

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, November 6, 2008 Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile I thought Id share an interesting post from someone with a decidedly anti-agile point of view. Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile : "Google is an exceptionally disciplined company, from a software-engineering perspective.

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Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according to a classic Crunchbase article. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Super angels have greater scope to match talent with a startup.

Angel Investor 342

Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Portfolio 342

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. Importantly we also discussed: should startups raise small amounts of money or large? how should you organize teams in a startup? 4:15 Eric’s startup history.

Lean 301

Lean Silicon Valley Social Media PR 301

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

A partnership was announced a while back with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem. This facilitates technology growth and innovation for startups in Silicon Alley, as well as positioning IBM for future growth. Maintain the agility to quickly pivot or quit. Not everything will work.

Partner 328

Partner Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Cloud 328

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

Starting in the 1950’s, Stanford’s engineering department became “outward facing” and developed a culture of spinouts and active faculty support and participation in the first wave of Silicon Valley startups. Given its inward focus, Berkeley has always been the neglected sibling in Silicon Valley entrepreneurship.

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Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

A partnership was announced with the City of New York, to connect and grow NYC's startup ecosystem. This facilitates technology growth and innovation for startups in Silicon Alley, as well as positioning IBM for growth down the road. Maintain the agility to quickly pivot or quit. Not everything will work.

Partner 310

Partner Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 310

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 19, 2020

Venture capitalists (VCs) have long been seen as the top of the pyramid for startup funding sources, but in fact angel investors now fund over twice as many companies, according the Crunchbase. The cost of entry for tech startups continues to go down. Many have disappeared, and others have forgotten how to be agile and innovative.

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Angel Investor Venture Capital Silicon Valley Startup 314

Up and Running

OCTOBER 4, 2017

When we established Ready4S back in 2012, the tech startup scene looked completely different than it does today. But if you’re considering setting up a tech startup right now, you should know that it still presents a huge challenge. In fact, 75 percent of venture-backed startups fail. . Develop a viable proposition.

Startup 115

Startup Poland Estonia Silicon Valley 115

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2020

It was whatever you can do to get away from the classic DOD stovepipe way of doing business to a much more agile software approach. Josh Marcuse and the Defense Innovation Board were instrumental in helping us see what those agile principles were and how we could get moving and go fast. That is the future for the Department of Defense.

Artificial Inteligence 246

Artificial Inteligence Technology Agile Architecture 246

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

The Energy Storage division is acting like a startup, and Prescott Logan its General Manager, has lived up to the charter. He’s as good as any startup CEO in Silicon Valley. They’ve gained as good of an insight into customer needs and product feature set than any startup I’ve seen. You couldn’t be more wrong.

Silicon Valley 222

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ), Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was 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.

Lean 385

Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

The idea of this course started on a trip to Stanford University during March 2010, where we realized that many of the great innovations in Silicon Valley are born from Computer Science students, so we said “We should give our computer science students an opportunity to develop a company”.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

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 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 25, 2011

It’s been just over a year since the inaugural Startup Lessons Learned conference , and it’s time to do it again. The Lean Startup movement has made tremendous progress in the past year. Kent Beck himself helped us explain that “quality work” means something different when we’re facing the extreme uncertainty of a startup.

San Francisco 146

San Francisco Silicon Valley Lean Agile 146

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Building a new startup hub Last week, I had a unique opportunity to spend some time in Boulder at the behest of TechStars. It was a great experience to see a relatively new startup hub in action - and thriving. Its easy to take Silicon Valley for granted.

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San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

The Next Web

JANUARY 24, 2014

As a startup hub, Amsterdam grabs the same amount of attention as the girl with braces at the high school dance. So is the Dutch tech startup story sold short? Think of Stanford and Sandhill road in Silicon Valley, Route 128 in Boston or IIT in Bangalore India. Robert Verwaayen is a Dutch venture capitalist.

Netherlands 143

Netherlands Technical Review Stock Silicon Valley 143

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Agile VC

JULY 11, 2012

AGILEVC My idle thoughts on tech startups. Merrill, Pickard, Anderson & Eyre [Silicon Valley] –> Itself an outgrowth of the venture investing arm of the original Bank of America (based in SF), Merrill Pickard backed many startups that ultimately went public. How to Evaluate Firms for a Seed VC. Author howerl.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Carried Interest Cofounder Boston 240

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

My blog also allowed me to indulge my interest in a few other subjects: The Secret History of Silicon Valley , thoughts on a career as an entrepreneur, observations about family and startups, etc. Startup Culture. Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA……………… 5. Am I a Founder?

Silicon Valley 202

Silicon Valley Customer Development IP Developer 202

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

After these slides, these VC’s recognized that this company had dramatically reduced risk and built a startup that was agile, resilient and customer-centric. The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. But part of his life that that doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry is that Bill Perry used Silicon Valley to help end the cold war.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

JANUARY 15, 2024

The speed, depth and breadth of these disruptive changes happen faster than the responsiveness and agility of our current acquisition systems and defense-industrial base. In addition, defense primes should more often aggressively partner with startups. And other combatant commands should follow what INDOPACOM is doing.

China 182

China Artificial Inteligence Afghanistan Iraq 182

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

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Useful blogs and links for startups Click Here ————– 2.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

. — Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. The startup process has become demystified – information is everywhere. Board Control. And while new markets were created (i.e.

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Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245