Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. I don’t recommend anyone become an entrepreneur. Starting a business is too risky. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 143

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

What we found is that during the class almost all of them pivoted - making substantive changes to one or more of their business model canvas components. In the real world a big pivot in life sciences far down the road of development is a very bad sign due to huge sunk costs. identify financing vehicles before you need them.

SBIR 316

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 316

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. I don’t recommend anyone become an entrepreneur. Starting a business is too risky. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. However in practice most companies treated the Three Horizons like they are simply incremental execution of the same business model.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. Entrepreneurs in Beijing were knowledgeable about Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship and the state of software and tools available for two reasons. Almost every entrepreneur I met was using VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall. There’s a noticeable lack of tenacity in young, new entrepreneurs.

China 324

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 324

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 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

Reading lists are dime a dozen, but reading lists that focus on rapid-growth startup businesses? Below, you will find a list of books recommended by serial entrepreneur David S. If you’re planning to start and build a scalable, high-growth business, get ready to fill your bookshelves. Not so much. B y Eric Ries.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

business models. Entrepreneurs in Beijing were knowledgeable about Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship and the state of software and tools available for two reasons. Almost every entrepreneur I met was using VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall. There’s a noticeable lack of tenacity in young, new entrepreneurs.

China 216

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 216

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 ?

Search 322

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 322

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

However, the key difference between a successful and unsuccessful startup rests on the shoulders of the entrepreneur themselves. What do Successful Entrepreneurs do that Others Don’t? Entrepreneurs who succeed may have crazy ideas, but they do not stop there. They Make Smart, Calculated Business Decisions.

Startup 156

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 156

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. There’s lots of lore, emotion, and misconceptions of what VC’s do or don’t do for entrepreneurs. In this time, building a successful business meant building a company that had paying customers quarter after quarter.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. Teams can prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model. data that investors, accelerators and incubators can use to inform selection.

Sacramento 308

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 308

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? I have developed a founder curriculum on my blog. Relationships with Venture Partners, Entrepreneurs in Residence , and other non-salaried personnel who can help your companies. Customer Development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. We had validated our new assumptions by a set of orders, and we had pivoted on our business model.

Silicon Valley 232

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 232

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The Golden Age for Entrepreneurs and VC’s. The two decades from 1979 when pension funds fueled the expansion of venture capital to 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst were the Golden Age for entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. They’ve created virtual IPO’s for founders and employees via late-stage private financing.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We have two great teaching assistants , plus we’ve rounded up a team of 25 mentors (VC’s and entrepreneurs) to help coach the teams. Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.).

Wiki 312

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 312

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.

Balance Sheet 300

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 300

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 234

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 234

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing?

Silicon Valley 292

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 292

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. The word entrepreneur covers a lot of ground.

Hockey Stick 284

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 284

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing?

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 263

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

. ———– The National Institutes of Health recognizes that Life Science/Health Care commercialization has two components: the science/technology, and the business model. The Lean Launchpad® for Life Sciences (the I-Corps @ NIH ) uses the Lean Startup Model to discover and validate the business model.

San Diego 262

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 262

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. Website Analysis.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

In 1960’s and ‘70’s few MBA’s would give up a lucrative career in management, finance or Wall Street to join a bunch of technical lunatics. Large companies execute known business models. Yet the companies were anomalies in the big picture in the U.S. there were almost no MBA’s. You can read about the class here.).

Engineer 307

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 307

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2010

By getting out of the building on a team project, the class helped students viscerally understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed teams, came up with a business idea then talked to customers, vendors and sales channel partners to validate their business model.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley Business Model Customer Development Engineer 127

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. I have counseled innumerable entrepreneurs to change their focus to revenue, and many companies who refuse this advice get themselves into trouble by running out of iterations. And yet revenue alone is not a sufficient goal.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

For example, most entrepreneurs know that the most successful entrepreneurs - from Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos - kept tight control over their companies. Having seen these dilemmas derail countless startups, I wish every entrepreneur and prospective founder would read this book." - Eric. But such a best-case approach is hazardous.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

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. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. The process, which Blank detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," uses customer feedback to refine and improve a product before scaling a business.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

Witness, for example, this terrific Fast Company article on Bill Nguyen , serial entrepreneur who’s seventh startup “Color” famously raised $41m for a new mobile app before it even launched. It’s not about the financing path, it’s about what you’ve decided to build. And it’s now bankrupt.)

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

A business geek with no money and no income isn’t going to inspire confidence in a software geek. If a software geek really wants to try building something for no pay, they’re going to work for themself instead of following another cashless entrepreneur. I’ve had many conversations with entrepreneurs.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The 11 Harsh Realities Of Being An Entrepreneur - OnStartups , November 1, 2010 There's always talk about the end game in the form of an acquisition, funding announcement, or eventual flame out. love to find great products and services made by entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world. This doesn’t make sense.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

But this cinematic view of entrepreneurs is flawed in many ways. To open up a new business that is an exact clone of an existing business, all the way down to the business model, pricing, target customer, and specific product may, under many circumstances, be an attractive economic investment.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, etc. You literally have to take your vision of the opportunity and against all rational odds assemble financing, and a team to help you execute. And that’s just to get started.

Founder 302

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 302

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

One of my beliefs is that such a theory should be addressed to entrepreneurs and the people who hold them accountable. It’s this latter criteria that I think tends to get overlooked in most writing about entrepreneurs. Who holds entrepreneurs accountable? I also frequently see the reverse. You’d be better off just selling ads.”

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. Our “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” story played great in Silicon Valley, they ate it up in Hollywood, and the business press tripped over themselves to talk to us. Not being able to hear negative customer input is an extremely bad idea.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122