Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

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

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.).

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

.” Here’s the summary of his track record (excerpted from the Fast Company article): Forefront — IPO’ed in 1995 by CBT — CBT stock fell 85% in 1998 and prompted class-action lawsuits. invested, IPO’ed in 2000 for $32/share — stock price now $2. from an IPO under a year ago of $10.

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

It wasn’t pure research, but rather a culture of taking sufficient risks to get to market. So the engineers taught themselves how to become marketers, sales people and CEO’s. This all changed in 1980 with the Genentech IPO. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

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.&# The amount of traditional business modeling will vary.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Fairchild Semiconductor became the progenitor of a flood of Silicon Valley chip companies and at the same time the adoption of the limited partnership as the model for Venture Firms gave VC’s their own profitable business model. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

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.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

For example, how are you going to explain that component drive architecture like.NET isn't going to work for cross platform open open source business models? However, they insisted on using a platform that totally contradicted their business model. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

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. Thats what business is designed to do.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

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.) Most importantly, they have lots of data about the unit economics of their business.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

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.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. This is the usual reason given for a marketing launch, but for most early stage startups, its a failure. Do your customers really read TechCrunch?

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, and lean manufacturing to guide the creation of technology businesses that create disruptive innovation. This presentation will empower entrepreneurs and managers to: -Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors.

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

Initially, IMVU sought to quickly build a product that would prove out the soundness of their ideas and test the validity of their business model. As Eric said, “at IMVU, ‘release’ is a marketing term&#. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Continuous Deployment 131

Continuous Deployment San Francisco Software Review Lean 131

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

What differentiates them is their disciplined approach to determining when to spend money: after the fundamental elements of the business model have been empirically validated. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 28, 2009

On the one hand, I think they have an urgent problem, and need to invest 100% of their energy into finding a business model (or another form of traction). Eric - There is definitely a business/marketing analog to exactly this situation that happens a lot too. Balance is important.

San Francisco 79

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 79

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Just as a business incurs some debt to take advantage of a market opportunity developers may incur technical debt to hit an important deadline. This was a huge win (and we were delighted to give credit where it was due), because it allowed our initial products to get to market much faster. Eric, great post.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 16, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, August 16, 2010 Case Study: SlideShare goes freemium (Normally, I do not write about companies that are doing a marketing launch. Second, their story illustrates a key Lean Startup idea: proving the business in micro-scale. That is customer development.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Analytics Continuous Deployment 167

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was still a year away from its IPO. For the first 25 years HP’s business model was static. Of course HP did ship new products and innovate, but their center of innovation was sustaining innovation , around the core of their existing business. However, no markets last forever. But first some background.)

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Updated Business tools for Startups. Whether you’re wondering what site search you should use or what is the best email marketing tool, knowledge is power. Also includes the most popular platforms, based on a year of data on business buy and sell marketplace, Flippa.com. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 21, 2010

Many startups don’t innovate at all in the product dimension, but use other kinds of innovation: repurposing an existing technology for a new use, devising a new business model that unlocks value that was previously hidden, or even simply bringing a product or service to a new location or set of customers previously underserved.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Startup Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

No business model, either. Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. Almost all of them got scooped up by pre-IPO Google this time. That year, right before the IPO, those months mattered a great deal in terms of financial outcomes. So, the idea of starting without a business model is good ?

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 8, 2009

In particular, we would cover customer development, continuous deployment, minimum viable product, and actionable metrics. I love the business model. Tough to justify (but certainly cheaper than some of our previous marketing experiments!). No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Lean 102

Lean Programming San Francisco Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 17, 2009

Identify a profitable business model faster and cheaper than your competitors. Continuously discover what customers want to buy before building or making follow-on investments in new features. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 60