Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2020

The LexSet Co-Founders (left to right) CEO Francis Bitonti , President Leslie Oliver Karpas , and COO Azam Khan won $250,000 in Verizon’s Built on 5G Challenge The Forrest Four-Cast: March 3, 2020 LexSet serves AI engineers, especially those with limited resources, with a better way to annotate photos.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Los Angeles Cofounder Silicon Valley 63

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Is there a profitable business model? The Traditional VC Pitch Entrepreneurs who pursue the traditional product development model don’t have customer data to answer these questions. Can it scale?”

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. As a founder, ask yourself – does your business actually warrant VC funding?

Early Stage 112

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 112

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

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. Hype before shipping any product is an obvious flaw, but what about hyping products that have shipped but have zero business model?

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

In a startup the role of Customer Development is to: test the founders hypothesis about the customer problem test if the product concept and minimum feature set solve that problem This is a big idea and worth repeating. One question: which “endianness&# did the founders at this startup expect the chip would have?

Customer Development 278

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 278

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Creating a vertically oriented regional ecosystem is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any country or industry. However, in meeting some of the sports startups one of the things that struck me is that most of the founders who said they wanted to grow big hadn’t given much thought about how they would go about building size and scale.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

If you’ve tried to slog your way through my book on Customer Development you know that I’m insistent that the founders need to be the ones getting outside the building (physically or virtually) to validate all the initial hypotheses of the business model and product. Find out Memorex’s position in Silicon Valley.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 11, 2011

One theme seems to come up over and again, especially from geographies outside Silicon Valley: lack of a reliable pipeline of deals. On the topic of business models, Spencer proposed building traffic and then selling the company, which I pushed back on. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant.

Silicon Valley 105

Silicon Valley Columbus Ohio Incubator 105

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

At a university business plan competition, for the first time they can swim in the sea of expertise that we/I take for granted in the middle of Silicon Valley. I love business plan competitions (and with my valley-centric bias, I think Berkeley and Stanford have two of the best.) I now think that was a mistake.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

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 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

But a thesis centered around network effects isn’t static – and isn’t limited to any particular sector, business model, or platform. And we also look at companies that are creating the best product for a specific vertical – including bio/healthcare and other emerging tech. We invest across North America.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley North America San Francisco LP 127

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Luckily (or maybe because we were in Silicon Valley where there was a domain expert for everything) there was a very smart consultant in the retail computer space, Seymour Merrin, who preached about the importance of packaging. Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.)

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching new business models in venture capital. RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2011

Marcos Polanco, founder of Clearshore and himself a serial entrepreneur, “never found time to read the blog, no matter how much I loved it. For 2011, I’m glad to announce that you can now hear my blog posts via a podcast that you can subscribe to, download or have emailed to you a few days after each blog post goes live.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley California Vertical Customer Development 195

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Home Books for Startups Guide Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Tools Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Email Subscription Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed RSS - Posts RSS - Comments Categories Air Force (12) Ardent (10) Audubon (1) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (39) Business Model versus Business Plan (..)

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. Reply An Interview with Mark Fletcher, Founder of Bloglines and ONEList — TechDrawl , on July 10, 2009 at 3:56 pm Said: [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

Ed Yu , CEO and co-founder of StrongSalt The Forrest Four-Cast: February 3, 2020 Is it possible for companies to protect their customers with data privacy that complies with regulations and is easy for developers to use? StrongSalt Co-Founder and CEO Ed Yu says yes it is. “Encryption sucks and we fix that.”?—? Don’t be stressed?—?tomorrow

San Jose 75

San Jose Cofounder API Silicon Valley 75

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Getting Out of the Building Wasn’t Entertainment – Discovery and Validation Now that I was the master of the “facts” about customer needs in these specialized vertical markets , and with my team of vertical marketers , I thought I had achieved absolution and redemption. But there was one fatal flaw. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 172

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 172

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

If you can’t find enough paying customers in the Customer Validation step, the model returns you to Customer Discovery to rediscover what you failed to hear or understand the first time through the loop. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

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. At HP the founders were still at the company and still running the business.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I was manifesting this huge monolithic application in my head that would revolutionize the job search, I had even written some code at this point, and didn’t have any idea if actual businesses were willing to pay a dime for it. When a co-founder walks out of a company — as was the case for me — you’ve already been dealt a heavy blow.

Software Review 79

Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2017

I knew there was a Friday night poker game in Silicon Valley where all the software pioneers were getting to know each other and helping shape the industry. The leadership centers of the microcomputer world shifted from Albuquerque to the San Fernando Valley (LA), the Bay Area, and Seattle. Deals were getting done there.

Atlanta 48

Atlanta Albuquerque Incubator Austin 48

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

But it’s possible that as the secret sauce of new media swings farther from disruptive technology and business models to a focus on curated and quality content, it’s the older entrepreneurs who are in the pole position. Sarah Lacy is the founder and editor-in-chief of PandoDaily. “This one is just so much fun.”

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

Needless to say, this isn’t a business model that works in the pandemic world. For example, if you think you have a great idea for a business, a standard Silicon Valley startup technique is to create a faux website and run some Facebook or Google ads to see whether or not the concept appeals to the market.

Startup 36

Startup Silicon Valley Business Model Mobile 36

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. A little piece of advice for future founders: find something that turns revenue quick, profitable and cash flow positive quick and forget about fantasy businesses that take a decade to turn profitable like twitter!

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62