Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2021

Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. Many of them get hung up on understanding how to select the right minimal viable product. Your mission is your baby.

Product 436

Product Viral Channel San Francisco 436

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love. Waterfall Development. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? You think startups are hard? The short answer is no.

Incubator 414

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 414

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

“My engineers say our website is old school, and we need to be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, my VP of Sales says we’re wasting our marketing dollars not targeting the right people and my board keeps giving me their opinions of how we should describe our product and company. Who’s the user of product? with a strategy.

Marketing 315

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 315

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Value Proposition (their company’s product or service.) This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.)

Customer 239

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 239

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

The “it” is a physical or web product they’ve often been locked-down, pounding away at, for many weeks. Why, then, are so many founders so reluctant to invest even 500 or 1,000 hours upfront to be sure that, when they’re done, the business they’re building will face genuine, substantial demand or enthusiasm. What’s the point?

Startup 333

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 333

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

The product is an amazing technical tour de force. But the product/market fit of this first iteration is a swing and a miss. launched a product in 1990 called PhotoCD. The moment I saw the product I knew every one of my professional graphics customers (ad agencies, freelancers, photo studios, etc.)

Search 286

Search Marketing Forecast Burn Rate 286

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

It’s often said that you shouldn’t talk about price during customer development interviews. Price is as important as any other feature to determine product/market “fit.” ” How many times have you seen someone struggle with an inferior product because they cannot afford the better one? .”

Bootstrapping 294

Bootstrapping Technical Review B2C Sales Cycle 294

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

To build products that people want and will really use, founders first need to validate the problem/need, then understand whether their solution solves that problem (i.e. finding product/market fit). The key principles of customer development are: There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside.

Customer 418

Customer Business Model Restful Video 418

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

The country exited the Civil War as a nation of small businesses and ended the century with large national corporations (railroads, steel, oil, food, insurance, etc.). These explosions in company size and scale created a demand for professional managers. Its purpose was to educate management on best practices to run existing companies.

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this 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. This new framework can act as the front-end of Customer Development.

Lean 334

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 334

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Judging by the ink we had gotten, we were the hottest company in the game business, with stories in Fortune, Forbes, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and the cover of Wired magazine. Yet we hadn’t shipped a single product. All this activity occurring before we actually shipped a product.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. 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.

Customer Development 252

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 252

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

The biggest mistake for most of these startups was not understanding that optimizing their business model for the 24 million people in the Australian market would not prepare them for the size and scale they needed to get to big. Further refinement of Product/Market fit could be done locally by using Value Proposition Design.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. It took the idea of Customer Development and made it accessible to a whole new audience. The book is still in production, so I haven't seen the whole thing yet.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. For the last few years, there really hasn’t been a demand to innovate on top of the ecosystem that’s been built. Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. business models. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 326

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 326

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2020

Christensen, writing for a corporate audience, explained that there were two classes of products – sustaining and disruptive. His message was that existing companies are great at sustaining technologies and products but were ignoring the threat of disruption. And offered a set of heuristics for launching disruptive businesses.

Lean 430

Lean Business Model Government Agile 430

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2014

1:28: Using the Business Model Canvas. 1:49: Use Customer Development to Test Your Hypotheses. 4:24: No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers. Module 2, Getting Out of the Building: Customer Development. 0:24: What is Customer Development? 2:44: What is a Pivot?

Intellectual Property 330

Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development Acquisition 330

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. For the last few years, there really hasn’t been a demand to innovate on top of the ecosystem that’s been built. Small startups act the same way, simply cloning each other’s products. business models. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 218

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 218

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Others emphasize how to build a product.

Wiki 315

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 315

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 12, 2012

They can do this by expanding the buyer’s network of peers who can provide trustworthy information and advice based on their own experience with the product or service. A new firm, Zuberance, makes it easy and enjoyable for a company’s loyal customers to advocate for it on their social media platform of choice.

Social Media 164

Social Media Media Marketing Software Review 164

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Every large company, whether it can articulate it or not, is executing a proven business model (s).

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. Choose one.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com , highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book. ———– Whether your venture is a new pizza parlor or the hottest new software product, beware: These nine flawed assumptions are toxic.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

As soon as they had designed the product, they found a contract manufacturer to build the product in China. Our consultant is going and then he’s going to give us a report of how willing these stores are to carry our product.” What if a buyer asks, can you make a custom version of your product? Hiring PR Agencies.

PR 318

PR China Lean Channel 318

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2014

Students need to get out of the building and talk to 10-15 customers a week. The next week they came back in class and presented this : Each week we’d teach them about one more part of what makes up a business model. All teams struggle with finding product/market fit. Now they were figuring out how to create demand.

Lean 277

Lean Silicon Valley Customer Development Incubator 277

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

SneakerLabs’ first product was a Java-based chat server and client. Since I had good connections with the University, we got a lot of feedback on how the product could be improved to meet their needs. We listened to their feedback and started adding features to the product accordingly. The product worked. Not so fast.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

Class lectures were over last week, but most teams kept up the mad rush to talk to even more customers and further refine their products. Teams spent an average of 50 to 100 hours a week on their companies, interviewed 50+ customers and surveyed hundreds (in some cases thousands) more. Others emphasize how to build a product.

Lean 284

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 284

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

When you take money from investors their business model becomes yours. Sigh… What I should have been hearing is the search for the business model, specifically the progress on product/market fit, but I hear the fund raising story first at least 90% of the time. How do we attract, keep and grow customers?

Venture Capital 334

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 334

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

If there was any doubt among the teams about the value of what they’re learning, Blinken put it to rest with a compelling overview of how so many of today’s complex global problems – from stopping Ebola to monitoring cease-fires and improving food security – demand innovative, tech-based solutions. In these final weeks, they have to dig deep.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

If there was any doubt among the teams about the value of what they’re learning, Blinken put it to rest with a compelling overview of how so many of today’s complex global problems – from stopping Ebola to monitoring cease-fires and improving food security – demand innovative, tech-based solutions. In these final weeks, they have to dig deep.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A Business Model. Ok, but what is a business model ? A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

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.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, December 14, 2009 Business ecology and the four customer currencies Lately, I’ve been rethinking the concept of “business model&# for startups, in favor of something I call “business ecology.&# Now consider a traditional media business.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 303

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 303

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. And the product that “talked to me&# , the loudest and most seductively, was the one that went home with me.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed 5-person teams, came up with a business idea then got out of the building to validate their business model. What is a business model?

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 252