Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. The Lean LaunchPad class uses the three “ Lean Startup ” principles: Alexander Osterwalders “ business model canvas ” to frame hypotheses.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 281

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2012

How do you monetize a unique business model based on users rather than selling an actual product? We have a very simple business model. We create the best experience for creating personalized books, cards and calendars then our customers pay us for these products. Giving it away at Contently. “At

Business Model 133

Business Model Technical Review Advertising B2C 133

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots. We were positing that 20 years of teaching “how to write a business plan” might be obsolete. This post is part one.

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. Teaching In the Big Apple.

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Business Model Developer Design 270

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Where Are the Customers?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

Build a product, get it into the real world, measure customers’ reactions and behaviors, learn from this, and use what you’ve learned to build something better. Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love. Build, Measure, Learn sounds pretty simple. Waterfall Development.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2010

Over the last 50 years engineers have moved from building computers out of individual transistors to building with prepackaged logic gates. It’s the combination of Business Model Design and Customer Development. Business Model Design. It instantly creates a shared visual language while defining a business.

Customer Development 329

Customer Development Business Model Developer Customer 329

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

This class is built on conducting in-person of interviews with customers/ beneficiaries and stakeholders, but due to the pandemic, teams now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. How would customer interviews work via video? See here for an extended discussion of remote customer discovery.).

Lean 385

Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We recently had Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software founder and business planning expert, present our Bplans audience with his latest advice on lean business planning. It’s all about making your business life easier, doing what works best, getting the best results by tracking what works and always improving.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

With hindsight we should have had “proof of concepts” tested in a corporate center (think ‘pop-up incubator’) where they would do extensive Customer Discovery. We should had done this before assigning the teams to a particular business unit (or had the ability to create a new business unit, or spin the team out of the company).

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Finland itself has significant engineering talent, and is also attracting entrepreneurs from Russia and the former USSR. Thanks to Kristo Ovaska and team for the fabulous logistics!) Lessons Learned.

Finland 324

Finland Naming Russia Government 324

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Our Lean LaunchPad class requires student teams to get out of the building and talk to 10-15 customers a week while they’re building the product. The class is designed for students who said they want a hands-on experience in what it takes to build a startup – not just writing a business plan or listening to lectures.

Lean 278

Lean Customer Development Business Model Email 278

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

—— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. It’s hard enough to pick which existing companies with known business models to aid. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship.

Finland 324

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 324

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. The Rise of Business Schools – Management as an Occupation. The business school was invented in the first decade of the 20th century in response to a massive economic transformation in the U.S.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 26, 2020

As an advisor to new hardware entrepreneurs, I often hear the myth that a business plan is no longer required to find an investor, if your idea is good enough. You may have heard that venture capitalists in Silicon Valley no longer read business plans. Use non-fuzzy terms to quantify customer value.

Business Plan 423

Business Plan Product Intellectual Property Elevator Pitch 423

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

After seeing the process work so well for scientists and engineers in the NSF, we hypothesized that we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently. The class had 1,145 engagements with instructors and mentors. Join the I-Corps @ NIH.

Lean 269

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 269

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

In my last post I described my approach to one of the three classes I teach at Stanford in the engineering school: Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship. The key things I want students to take from the class are: Understand that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model.

Business Model 226

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2016

In my angel investor mode, I often find myself flipping to the “management” section of a business plan, even before I read the solution description and opportunity. It starts with having a vision and an ability to get the message across in your elevator pitch, in a written business plan and one-on-one with potential investors.

Sweat Equity 152

Sweat Equity Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch Software Review 152

Hearpreneur

APRIL 9, 2023

#3- Enhanced productivity and efficiency Photo Credit: Jamie Miller Businesses stand to gain a great deal from the efficiency and productivity gains made possible by technological advancements. Data input and customer service are two examples of routine operations that could benefit from the use of automation software.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Technology Entrepreneur 106

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

Second, this class – which is built on the idea of interviewing customers/beneficiaries and stakeholders in person – now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. How on earth would customer interviews work via video? At first this seemed to be a fatal stake through the heart of the class.

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

By now the nine teams in our Stanford Lean LaunchPad Class were formed, In the four days between team formation and this class session we tasked them to: Write down their initial hypotheses for the 9 components of their company’s business model (who are the customers? Their business was a robot lawn mower. Xu Cui (Ph.D,

Business Model 236

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 236

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

To be honest I built the class out of frustration watching schools teach aspiring entrepreneurs that all they need to know is how to write a business plan or how to sit in an incubator building a product. using the business model canvas as the framework. in order to validate/invalidate their business model hypotheses.

Lean 120

Lean Incubator Business Model Channel 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Alexander Osterwalder invented the Business Model Canvas , co-founded strategyzer.com and was the lead author of Business Model Generation which sold a million copies in 30 languages. Big companies have great execution habits to manage and improve successful business models and value propositions.

Non-Compete 329

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 329

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the Business Model Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In other words, how can we adapt the Business Model Canvas when the metrics of success for an organization is not revenue?

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

I’ve spent the last week in Santiago, a guest of Professor Cristóbal García at the Catholic University of Chile as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program. Here’s the course announcement from Professor Vergara (in English): Customer Development Course in Chile – Lean Launchpad. Teaching in Chile. Valaparaiso houses.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. For a micro-ISV, selling to big businesses can be more lucrative than selling to consumers. You could just outspend.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. It might be its most important. ———-. Cold War Spin Outs.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

www.forentrepreneurs.com

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Blog About Log in Register Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition In the many thousands of articles advising entrepreneurs on what they have to focus on to build successful startups, much has been written about three key factors: team, product and market, with particular focus on the importance of product/market fit.

Acquisition 103

Acquisition Cost Customer Entrepreneur 103

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. From the point of view of scientists and engineers in a university lab, too often entrepreneurship in all its VC-driven glory – income statements, balance sheets, business plans, revenue models, 5-year forecasts, etc.

Engineer 278

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 278

Steve Blank

MAY 23, 2016

NYU Engineering Commencement Speech. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on your graduation from this esteemed engineering school. Established businesses execute business models while startups search for them. I’m honored to help you celebrate this important milestone. Five years later the U.S.

Lean 221

Lean Technical Review Vietnam Engineer 221

Up and Running

MAY 10, 2021

The engineers can produce various models in a matter of seconds. You can start by researching your competitors to gain an understanding of cost structure, revenue generation, and the business model for your app. What is your customer acquisition cost? How does it relate to your customer lifetime value?

Artificial Inteligence 150

Artificial Inteligence Developer Development Team Review United Kingdom 150

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Embark on this journey by delving into a comprehensive study of your local market dynamics, seeking to grasp the demand for plumbing services, analyzing the competition, and understanding the demographics of potential customers.

Australia 132

Australia Demand Framework Operations 132

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. And while startups and entrepreneurship courses are now being added to the curriculum, “How to write a business plan” seems to be the state of the art. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? Don’t Throw the Tomatoes.

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 6, 2021

Choose the Right Business Model. Once you’ve come up with a sound idea of what type of business is the best for your needs, it’s time to follow the best business launch steps and start planning how to fit it in your business niche. You have your idea all worked up and your business model all set up.

Social Media 173

Social Media Audience Affiliate Startup 173

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2014

0:43: Business Plans versus Business Models. 1:46: The Differences: Accounting, Engineering & Sales. 6:07: Engineering: Waterfall Development in a Large Company vs. Minimum Viable Product in a Startup. 1:28: Using the Business Model Canvas. 0:41: Don’t outsource Customer Discovery.

Founder 327

Founder Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 327

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. And while startups and entrepreneurship courses are now being added to the curriculum, “How to write a business plan” seems to be the state of the art. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215