Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

Most large companies manage three types of innovation: process innovation (making existing products incrementally better), continuous innovation (building on the strength of the company’s current business model but creating new elements) and disruptive innovation (creating products or services that did not exist before.).

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

It’s the antithesis of how founders want to build a business. Rent seekers are individuals or organizations with successful existing business models who use government regulation and lawsuits to keep out new entrants that might threaten their business models. Bill Gurley’s point.)

Washington 271

Washington Government Marketing Silicon Valley 271

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Jeff Katzenberg has a great track record – head of the studio at Paramount, chairman of Disney Studios, co-founder of DreamWorks and now chairman of NewTV. To be fair, in the 20 th century, there really wasn’t a model for how to build startups other than write plan, raise money, and execute – the bubble was this method, on steroids.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

Cofounder 219

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2014

Kauffman just launched Founders School - a new education series to help entrepreneurs develop their businesses during the startup stage by highlighting how startups are different from big companies. After weeks honing the script and days of filming, I’m honored to present the “ Startups ” section of Founders School.

Founder 327

Founder Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 327

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 30, 2012

The class teaches founders how to dramatically reduce their failure rate through the combination of business model design, customer development and agile development using the Startup Owners Manual. When you leave the class, you’ll know how to think about your startup in the now standard “language” of the business model canvas.

Startup 335

Startup Lean Incubator Business Model 335

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

SEPTEMBER 5, 2023

In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite if you don’t have any. Who are the payers?

Business Model 305

Business Model Product Development Early Stage Customer Development 305

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

Sloan transformed corporate management into a real profession, and its stellar example was the continuous and relentless execution of the GM business model (until its collapse 50 years later). If you’re following Tesla, you might be interested to know that Sloan wasn’t the founder of GM. What happened to him?

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

The startups and the teaching team crafted a challenge for the kids to tackle using the Customer Development methodology, Lean Launchpad tools and the business model canvas. Knowing they had 3 weeks before presenting to the company co-founders, the kids felt intensity like no traditional classroom could generate.

Lean 334

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 334

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

What I saw reminded me of some of the best and worst things I did as a founder. Tossing their agile development process and at times their entire business model in the air, the company would go into fire-drill mode and engineering would start working on whatever his latest insight was. A Pivot a Week. he’d declare. “We

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 15, 2020

We built up a system to produce a certain type of military power at a time when that whole business model is being disrupted and undermined — much as Blockbuster Video’s business model was undermined by Netflix and Apple. Disruptive Technology. The DOD admits they have a problem.

Technical Review 361

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Technology United States 361

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products. Luckily Alexander Osterwalder’s business model canvas presents a visual overview of the nine components of a business on one page.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

He and his co-founder were both PhD’s in applied math who believe they can make some serious inroads on next generation search. Why a business plan is different than a business model. Instead of writing a full-fledged business plan, they had focused on building and testing a business model.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

At best I think business plan competitions are a waste of time. Business Plan Versus Business Models. Where did the idea that startups write business plans come from? A simple way to think about it is that in a startup no business plan survives first contact with customers. What did you build/do?

Business Plan 312

Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 312

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2011

Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development , Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. Founders fit the definition of a creator: they see something no one else does. George Bernard Shaw.

Agile 332

Agile Customer Development Early Stage Business Model 332

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. And they also recognize that simply exploiting their existing assets, capabilities, and business models is insufficient for long-term survival.

Incubator 402

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2021

No Business Plan Survives First Contact With Customers. The Business Model. An introduction to The Business Model Canvas. How to Get Out of the Building and Test the Business Model. The Harvard Business Review Article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything” ties the pieces together here.

Lean 356

Lean Customer Development Business Model Video 356

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2011

The benchmark is not perfect, it may even be flawed, but it is head and shoulders above what we have now – which is nothing – for giving Internet startups founders specific advice on best practices. Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Market Types.

Software Review 292

Software Review Early Stage Technical Review Startup 292

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. So if you’re the founder of a startup, you may want to consider who you take money from. Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How many of their founders are still with their company?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Services (Cloud, ads, music) have a very different business model. Ballmer and Microsoft failed because the CEO was a world-class executor (a Harvard grad and world-class salesman) of an existing business model trying to manage in a world of increasing change and disruption. What’s Missing? They remain entrepreneurs.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

Services (Cloud, ads, music) have a very different business model. Ballmer and Microsoft failed because the CEO was a world-class executor (a Harvard grad and world-class salesman) of an existing business model trying to manage in a world of increasing change and disruption. What’s Missing? They remain entrepreneurs. .

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy. Startups still need capital to scale once they find good product-market fit and a repeatable-scalable business model.). Focus on capital efficient, scalable startups and founders. Lessons Learned. Build $10-30M funds.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

Neither cases nor business plans replicate the actual startup experience. Cases and plans are useful for teaching managers of process, not founders. Founders of startups (and new ventures inside existing companies) are searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. experiential.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Instead the business press dumped on the founders for “selling out.” Many founders mentioned this as a reason not to incorporate or grow their companies in Finland. Startup incubators, business angels and VCs are starting to emerge. The country needs to figure out a long term privatization strategy for Venture investing.

Finland 324

Finland Naming Russia Government 324

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

Customer Development is a technique startups use to quickly iterate and test each part of their business model. How you execute Customer Development varies, depending on your type of business. In my book, “ The Four Steps to the Epiphany ” I use enterprise software as the business model example.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 266

Steve Blank

MAY 20, 2010

It was the Internet bubble and after almost three years our startup had found a business model and we were scaling revenue and headcount fast. You’re Just the Founders. When the call was almost over my partner and I mentioned, “We want to remind you guys that we’ve been working at founders pay for almost three years.

Founder 275

Founder Cofounder Salary Naming 275

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. — all great things when you are executing and scaling a known business model. Board Control.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Steve Blank

MAY 13, 2010

But startups can shoot themselves in the foot when founders use consultants at the wrong time or in the wrong way. So I met the entrepreneur and asked him how his search for a business model was going. Here’s what I told him: A startup exists to search for a scalable and repeatable business model. Here’s why.

Founder 199

Founder Cofounder Business Model Customer Development 199

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

The first, the notion of the “ ambidextrous organization ” from O’Reilly and Tushman , posits that companies that want to do continuous innovation need to execute their core business model while innovating in parallel. Horizon 1 activities support existing business models. Horizon 1 is the company’s core business.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. In Discovery startups take all their hypotheses about the business model: product, market, customers, channel, etc. I asked for the Boston sales rep because in the U.S.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

The first will be commodity businesses that are valued for their ability to execute their current business model. The second class will be firms with a demonstrated ability to continually innovate and reinvent their business models. These innovations do not require change in a company’s existing business model.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

Talking to customers seems like a simple idea, but most founders find it’s one of the hardest things they have to do. Founders innately believe they understand a customers problem and just need to spend their time building a solution. Your Business Model and the World Have Changed. finding product/market fit).

Customer 413

Customer Business Model Restful Video 413

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 14, 2022

Alexander Osterwalder , the creator of the business model canvas and Strategyzer co-founder will join the discussion about the intersection of education, innovation and entrepreneurship. The struggle between great powers and a fluid global landscape will accelerate.

Lean 332

Lean Cofounder Community Global 332

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2023

Now at Imperial College Business School and Co-Founder of the Wicked Acceleration Labs , Cristobal and I wondered if we could combine the tenets of Lean (get out of the building, build MVPs, run experiments, move with speed and urgency) with the expanded toolset developed by researchers who work on Wicked problems and Systems’ Thinking.

Lean 294

Lean Chile Ukraine Spain 294

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 333

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 333