Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

I suggested the best place to start the conversation is with the 21 st century definition of a startup: A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Startups have finite time and resources to find product/market fit before they run out of money.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

If so, the business world is full of specialists who are all too eager to help. Talented product developers. Customer content and engagement built rapid growth in the success of Intel ’s social media and Web-based marketing efforts, increasing “customer contacts” by a factor of tenfold and overall page views by 100x.

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Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) In fact, this company hasn’t shipped any new products in months.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Startups especially can benefit by using technical debt to experiment, invest in process, and increase their product development leverage. The biggest source of waste in new product development is building something that nobody wants. Leverage product development with open source and third parties.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

One way to conceive of our goal in an early-stage venture is to incrementally “fill in the blanks&# for the business model that we think will one day power our startup. For example, say that your business model calls for a 4% conversion rate – as ours did initially at IMVU.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

To help turn the conversation specifically to non-tech companies—the topic of our webcast this week —we asked Alistair to answer a few questions. LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders. Many companies like certainty.

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Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

Your product or service is likely built of many features or components, but which of those do your customers truly value? Asking your most loyal customers why they keep coming back can put your marketing biases to the test. Use these conversations to understand the needs and desires your customers are struggling to fulfil.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The Ultimate Combination of Startup Business Development Methods - ArcticStartup , November 16, 2010 I've been a huge fan of Steven Blank's Customer Development methodology for a long time. few years ago I also started following Alexander Osterwalder in his blog about his Business Model Generation -mantra.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

It requires separating the product launch from the marketing launch (see Dont Launch ) as well as other staple Lean Startup tactics: minimum viable product, split-testing, customer development and the pivot. ’&# They removed the core plan, and conversions went up. That is customer development.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. I think Drucker said it best.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Its goal is to take the original idea and search for a repeatable and scalable business model - first by finding product/market fit, then by testing all the parts of the business model (pricing, channel, acquisition/activation, partners, costs, etc.). Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

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Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And here’s where life gets really interesting, as the reality of product development and customer input collide, the facts change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant.

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Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

So conversion rate percentage, of course it can always be higher and we’re doing a lot of stuff to make that higher, but it’s in line with other applications. Jason: Yeah, one percent conversion rate is pretty normal. I have schools and businesses. Now most of the businesses are small to medium- sized businesses.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I love business plan competitions (and with my valley-centric bias, I think Berkeley and Stanford have two of the best.) Rob Adams, the director of MootCorp, is doing an amazing job at providing value to all participants, whether it’s feedback on their business model or making the right introductions.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

The one-page pitch format is also more suitable for SaaS businesses that are constantly testing new ideas. Your pitch is going to cover your strategy (what you’re going to do), your tactics (how you’re going to do it), your business model (how you will make money), and your schedule (who is doing what and when).

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

He summarized that conversation well, so rather than re-tread that material, Ill quote it here: One thing that I was surprised to learn was that IMVU started out with continuous deployment. They were deploying to production with every commit before they had an automated build server or extensive automated test coverage in place.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. P.S. Do #1.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

i understood what seth was saying because i’ve been thinking about the same thing and getting the same advice from business people, designers, engineers, etc…i don’t really know what you’re arguing against. if you have some thoughts on this you could add to the conversation and provide some advice. good post.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 16, 2013

Seems like every third startup nowadays is using the “Freemium” business model: The lowest service tier is free, and the business is designed to get those users hooked and then upgrade to a paid plan. to democratic product development (voting on which features customers would like to see next?).

Marketing 318

Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

Most of all, I encouraged them to start talking to their most passionate customers and running some big experiments based on that feedback. I thought we were having a successful conversation. I was told they werent sure, because all of their engineers were currently busy refactoring. Great post, Eric.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" Saul Klein • Nov 16, 2010 I think the important part of the under-appreciation of the distribution part is the lack of formal structure in business activities and the lack of proper communication arising from it. are just emerging for business people (customer development, business model generation,).

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer Support. GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers. turn customer feedback into action. Great for visualizing work of product development. broken vc model. Business Culture. Business Model Canvas.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53