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Even the Smartest VCs Sometimes Get it Wrong – Bill Gurley and Regulated Markets

Steve Blank

Bill’s closing line, “The reason why Silicon Valley is so successful is that it’s so fxxxng far away from Washington” received great applause. It’s the antithesis of how founders want to build a business. Unfortunately, for startups entering a regulated market following this advice this might not be the optimum path. (You

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The Shift from FOMO to FOLD in Early Stage Investing

View from Seed

VCs are always founder focused no matter the market environment. But in a FOMO world, more investors are willing to take a chance on a founder that they don’t know, but seems to match some of the heuristics of other high quality founders. Business Models and Sectors. In a FOLD world, this is going to continue.

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Corporate Acquisitions of Startups: Why Do They Fail?

Steve Blank

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. Silicon Valley – a Corporate Innovation Candy Store. Corporate business development and strategic partner executives are flocking to Silicon Valley to find these five types of innovation.

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Early-stage Regional Venture Funds–part 2 of 3 of Bigger in Bend

Steve Blank

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.). These four developments, while important to Silicon Valley, are vital to developing regional tech clusters.

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Am I a Founder? The Adventure of a Lifetime. « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

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.

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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

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. The mantra of “ first mover advantage ,” the idea that winners are the ones who are the first entrants in their market, became the conventional wisdom of investors in Silicon Valley.“

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Beyond the Lemonade Stand: How to Teach High School Students Lean Startups

Steve Blank

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.

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