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Why The Government is Isn’t a Bigger Version of a Startup

Steve Blank

Indeed, Silicon Valley was born as a center for weapon systems development and its software and silicon helped end the Cold War. One of the unintended consequences was that many of the academics went off to found a wave of startups selling their technology to the military. America’s adversaries understand this.

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Use agile budgeting to manage your cash

David Teten

So here’s the solution I have recommended to some of my portfolio companies: “ agile budgeting ”, i.e., monitoring a few key variables while giving managers significant flexibility. Entrepreneur Jeff Magnusson provides a sample agile budgeting workbook. Regardless of whether you take a traditional or agile budgeting approach, Robert A.

Agile 60
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The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II.

Steve Blank

—————- 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. Just a quick history refresher.

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Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 2

Steve Blank

We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Class 2: Some of the pre-class reading included watching the Secret History of Silicon Valley and reading selected chapters of Max Boot’s book, War Made New. The Technology-to-Weapons-Cycle.

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The Government Starts an Incubator: The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps

Steve Blank

19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in commercializing their technology. We taught them the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Given that Silicon Valley had started with scientists and engineers not MBA’s, I thought this was a bet worth making. This week we saw the results.

Incubator 301
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Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2021 Lessons Learned Presentations

Steve Blank

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. Several will join the new Stanford Gordian Knot Center which is focused on the intersection of policy, operational concepts, and technology. Stay tuned.

Lean 385
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Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores.

Steve Blank

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. Convergent Technologies was one of those OEM suppliers. Their engineers hated us.