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. would look in each of the verticals. For example, How does sales differ from one market to another?

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

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

Where to Play

MARCH 14, 2018

The post Success story: how startup Augury determined its market opportunities appeared first on Where to Play. The tale of an Industrial IoT startup discovering a new strategic business tool. As we looked closer at the market, many verticals were underserved by the existing solutions that were expensive and complicated to use.

Artificial Inteligence 91

Artificial Inteligence Marketing Vertical Startup 91

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 14, 2019

Startups armed with powerful tech are changing what is possible in and around the modern construction site. These are but some of the global startups who are gunning to transform an industry that is, quite frankly, in desperate need of a shake-up. by Ramzi Jreidini , CEO of Handiss.

Global 189

Global Vertical Agile Engineer 189

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. He helps early-stage startups with sales, marketing, and general “go to market” topics. Demonstrate the things that big companies love about buying from startups.

B2B 156

B2B Angel Investor Vertical Early Stage 156

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. Just like with startups, this is a hybrid question. So I generally feel right at home in these conversations. 12comments: Dougvs said.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 25, 2019

The Forrest Four-Cast: February 25, 2019 Fifty diverse startups will aim to impress a panel of judges and a live audience with their skills, creativity and innovation at SXSW Pitch Presented by Cyndx. What do you like most about the startup experience? CEO Higinio O. Maycotte answered some questions about his Austin-based company.

Open Source 48

Open Source Startup Caching Database 48

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA « Steve Blank (tags: startup) [.] Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA. Reply SVJ , on June 30, 2009 at 3:21 am Said: Hi Steve: I have become a recent regular reader of your blog. Thoroughly enjoy each one of your posts. Reply What did I learn today? Reply Create.

Agile 245

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 245

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Startups and Sales If you read this post you can come away with the impression that every startup with a direct salesforce needs a consultative sales team. what Market Type is your startup? Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

And in hindsight, we seemed a bit more agile and innovative in WWII.) Yet decades later the military lacked the agility to write a spec in two years, let alone get 10′s of thousands of new systems deployed on aircraft as Terman had done. How was this possible?

Silicon Valley 180

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 180

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. These two posts were amazing.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

If these sound like reasonable answers to you, and you are in a startup/small company, update your resume. Most startups put together a corporate mission statement because the CEO remembered seeing one at their last job, or the investors said they needed one. What I was actually hearing was a failure of management.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Agile VC

FEBRUARY 5, 2014

But B2B startups need to take a different tack. Arguably revenue is the best signal of product-market fit for B2B startups. So if you’re in the early innings of building a B2B startup, embrace early revenue rather than putting monetization off until the distant future.

Revenue 234

Revenue Product B2B Marketing 234

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Many thanks, you’ve changed my startup a hundred times already. Maybe the core of what you talk about in getting companies to success lies in the answer to these 2 questions. Oh, I absolutely love your “I was having coffee with person the other day&# stories. Keep ‘em coming.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

ConversionXL

JANUARY 14, 2020

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. If successful, feature-driven SEO opportunities can help a company expand vertically, by targeting more verticals, or horizontally, by offering new services.

SEO 159

SEO Framework SCRUM Search 159

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

And in the tradition of great startups, on the way out Perry took 6 of his best managers with him. Forty years before Agile Development methodologies became popular, ESL had analysts from its &# customer&# sitting side-by-side with ESL engineers designing new equipment together. These would be the heart of ESL’s business.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

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.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

DataRails , the financial analysis and reporting software startup, has announced the hiring of David Rosenberg as the company’s new VP of customer success. He has a wealth of experience in the data vertical, having served in previous roles at companies such as Intel, AllScripts, and Vision.bi. Investor Sees Opportunity.

Hiring 137

Hiring Software Review Customer 137

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

If you are a founder of a startup ethics begin with you. Posted on April 2, 2009 by steveblank A comment left on the previous post made me realize that it was time to discuss a subject I was going to save for latter – ethics. And in a big company most of it is illegal and can have enormous consequences. A final note. Do the right thing.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 124

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. In the next few posts that follow, I’ll describe how thinking of a solution to this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – that offers a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 215

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 215

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

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 a solution – the Customer Development Model.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

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. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 135

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 135

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. The remaining company kept the Hewlett Packard name and focussed on computers.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 17, 2018

Curved lines are visibly flexible and can communicate agility and reactivity. Horizontal vs Vertical vs Diagonal Lines. Unlike vertical or diagonal lines, they look as though gravity has already acted upon them and there is nowhere for them to fall. Vertical lines run perpendicular to the horizon.

Design 85

Design Vertical Software Review Wichita 85

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

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

Signs of Success One of the things you do right in a startup, is you move from one cheap and cramped building to another as you grow, with desks, cubicles and engineers piled cheek to jowl. We’re no longer a small struggling startup. You can stop working like a startup and start working like a big company.”

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of the 21 st century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. all markets can be described by what job the user wants to get done.

Customer 420

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 420

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 24, 2018

And while companies might still organize themselves as a hierarchy, how we get work done now is less vertical and much more horizontal. Do your part, but work with colleagues across the organization to execute the strategy, to be agile, to drive innovation, all those things that companies are really working hard to drive and be successful.

Leadership 60

Leadership Demand Global Community 60

crowdSPRING Blog

JULY 17, 2018

Curved lines are visibly flexible and can communicate agility and reactivity. Horizontal vs Vertical vs Diagonal Lines. Unlike vertical or diagonal lines, they look as though gravity has already acted upon them and there is nowhere for them to fall. Vertical lines run perpendicular to the horizon.

Design 48

Design Vertical Software Review Wichita 48

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.”

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Managing these situations is hard for any company, but potentially lethal for a startup. There are just so many ways for a startup to fail. In other words, a principled way to combine agility with stability. Managing these situations is hard for any company, but potentially lethal for a startup.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 4, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, January 4, 2009 Sharding for startups The most important aspect of a scalable web architecture is data partitioning. For example, Friendster was famously vertically partitioned at one time in its growth curve. But startups rarely have either luxury. Key-based partitioning.

San Francisco 151

San Francisco Architecture Startup Database 151

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

This wave of 1950′s/’60′s startups (Watkins-Johnson, Varian, Huggins Labs, MEC, Stewart Engineering, etc.) military by other new startups; Sylvania Electronics Defense Laboratory, Granger Associates, Philco, Dalmo Victor, ESL and Argosystems.

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Steve Blank

MAY 13, 2009

Reply Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA « Steve Blank , on June 29, 2009 at 7:02 am Said: [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Reply Gravity Will Be Turned Off « Avid Editor’s Insights , on May 17, 2009 at 1:31 am Said: [.] entire story can be found at Steve Blank.

Silicon Valley 209

Silicon Valley RSS California Mississippi 209

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. It’s why all of you operated so well in the unpredictable environment that all startups face.”

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

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

MARCH 28, 2009

Now his son is reading your blog about creating a startup. Reply Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA « Steve Blank , on June 29, 2009 at 7:02 am Said: [.] He did maintenance on B52′s in Ubon/Korat, Thailand (met my mother) moved to Michigan, Wurtsmith AFB (had me) and then moved to Seymour Johnson AFB in NC.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Michigan 195