Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We recently had Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software founder and business planning expert, present our Bplans audience with his latest advice on lean business planning. Start your lean business plan today: Download our Free Lean Plan Template one-page-pitch-download.pdf. That’s a lean business plan.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

And how thinking of a solution to this commonly used model’s failures led to a new model – the Customer Development Model – that offers a new way to approach startup activities outside the building. Startups don’t fail because they lack a product; they fail because they lack customers and a profitable business model.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy takes the Lean Startup methodology and applies it to problems sourced from the State Department. Each team continues to capture its work on a Mission Model Canvas – a modified version of the Business Model Canvas that’s at the heart of the Lean Startup methodology. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy takes the Lean Startup methodology and applies it to problems sourced from the State Department. Each team continues to capture its work on a Mission Model Canvas – a modified version of the Business Model Canvas that’s at the heart of the Lean Startup methodology. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

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. We’re hitting record revenue months, weeks, and margins. That includes us.

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Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 112

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. It’s a natural part of learning about your customers and business model.)

Customer 201

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 201

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. There was now a public market for companies with no revenue, no profit and big claims.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2016

We just finished our Lean LaunchPad class at UC Berkeley’s engineering school where many of the teams embedded machine learning technology into their products. While these acquisitions have teams of great researchers, they rarely contribute actual revenue generating products (because most never reached that stage when they were acquired.)

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Lean Exit Strategy Startup 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. VC’s invested in things that ran on electrons: hardware, software and silicon. Here’s why.

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Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 260

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

Start With a Business Model, Not a Business Plan | WSJ – [link]. The problem with a Lean Startup: the Minimum Viable Product | Paul Kortman – [link]. The danger of waiting to long to find a business model? In Silicon Valley, Technology Talent Gap Threatens G.O.P. – [link].

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Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2013

My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. The hands-on Lean LaunchPad program offers the most intense support of all. The first 8-week Lean LaunchPad Colombia program. program.

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Colombia Lean Silicon Valley Coder 322

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2013

My co-author and business Partner Bob Dorf spends much of his time traveling the world teaching countries and companies how to run the Lean LaunchPad program. The hands-on Lean LaunchPad program offers the most intense support of all. The first 8-week Lean LaunchPad Colombia program. program.

Colombia 278

Colombia Lean Silicon Valley Coder 278

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. This approach would shape Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). And Stanford’s Lean LaunchPad class could do just that.

Engineer 280

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 280

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A Business Model. Ok, but what is a business model ? A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

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Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. Carpe Diem.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

Entrepreneurship continues to be a sexy topic for governments, with every country worth its salt trying to create its own tech hub, mimicking Silicon Valley. Eric Ries , author of The Lean Start-up , puts it best: ‘ The grim reality is that most start-ups fail. The appeal of promoting entrepreneurship is obvious.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

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. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Worry about the sales results.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Before I dive too deeply into the Lean Planning methodology, it makes sense to talk about its history and where it comes from. It starts with “Plan-As-You-Go” instead of detailed, formal business plans.

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Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 1, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. This approach would shape Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). And Stanford's Lean LaunchPad class could do just that. This is a big deal.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Lean 118

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship. Read part one on the Evolution of Corporate R&D , part two on Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley , and part three The 6 Decisions to Make Before Setting up an Innovation Outpost. Silicon Valley, Boston).

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Incubator Acquisition Business Model 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Innovation – Business Model? Business and Revenue Model – How do we organize to make money? Waterfall, Agile, Lean? Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Others you need to know when you execute the plan. Where do the ideas come from? Technology? Customers – Who are the Users?

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

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?”

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

There’s a Death Valley of startups trying to do business with schools and teachers. Well, here we are with $5 million in annual revenues and we’re a consumer company that starts with teachers first, and we don’t charge them a dime. I’ve seen it before. Don’t do that.”. …”. Guido : Yeah.

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Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 160

Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

There’s a Death Valley of startups trying to do business with schools and teachers. Well, here we are with $5 million in annual revenues and we’re a consumer company that starts with teachers first, and we don’t charge them a dime. I’ve seen it before. Don’t do that.”. …”. Guido : Yeah.

Brazil 120

Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 25, 2015

I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. Several pockets of innovation in his agency have begun to look to startups and have tried to adopt lean methods. —– What Have We Lost? Yet today at dinner his frustration just spilled out.

Lean 120

Lean Entrepreneur Business Model Silicon Valley 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

We Changed Our Mind In 1966, 10 years after Hewlett’s memo, Hewlett Packard’s revenue and headcount had grown ten fold; $200 million and 11,000 employees – all from test and measurement equipment. For the first 25 years HP’s business model was static. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 169

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 169

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

This week, the startup tribe from Harvard Business School is making their annual trek to Silicon Valley. It’s a common refrain around Silicon Valley to disparage the role of MBA’s in entrepreneurship. One tweet read, “well, if HBS is investing in the lean startup we know it has jumped the shark.”

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. Peter described the first company in which “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” and we were enthralled.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

few years ago I also started following Alexander Osterwalder in his blog about his Business Model Generation -mantra. The Proof Is In The Revenue. Build Your Own Silicon Valley? Your First Iteration of an Idea Will Be Wrong. think his slides are great (and by far much easier on the eye then mine.). Absolutely.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Venture Chronicles

MARCH 3, 2011

Even in spite of Arment’s efforts to generate revenue to boostrap the company, the fact remains that it is hardly a new and novel business model… he is operating a freemium business where the metering mechanism is rate limiting against features.

Silicon Valley 40

Silicon Valley Bootstrapping Venture Capital Valuation 40

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. Well known founders within Silicon Valley demanded this kind of change across the board, and if they wanted to see it internally, they also had to see it within the organizations that touched their group.

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Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In fact, SaaS industry revenue is projected to grow from $49 billion in 2015 to $67 billion in 2018, a compound annual growth rate of approximately eight percent. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Instead of sitting down to write a 40-page business plan, start with a one-page pitch. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

We were focused on revenue, but we didnt understand that revenue is not important for its own sake in an early stage company. No business model, either. And then, at my first Silicon Valley startup , I watched friends get laid off in successive waves as it started to fail. What was different this time?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

Ben's Blog

MAY 15, 2020

Finally, we’ll zoom out and assess the big picture: how various categories of company may be impacted long-term, how this crisis compares to 2008 (and what that means for early-stage founders), and the industries and business models that are now prime for growth. We’re not going to book any revenue for the next 12 months.

Founder 36

Founder Conversion Technical Review Cash Position 36

Scalable Startup

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014

PHASE 1 – Amazing idea or business model, luck, funding, hyper-growth, parties, t-shirts. PHASE 2 – Long term business success, sustainable, agile, adaptable business model, ability to survive major downturns, extremely happy employees. So now what?

San Francisco 20

San Francisco Silicon Valley Agile Revenue 20

Up and Running

DECEMBER 5, 2016

Lean Planning is a concept that we introduced back in 2012 as an evolution in business planning. The traditional business plan just wasn’t fitting the needs of modern, fast-moving companies and it was time to bring more of a scientific approach to business planning. But, where did Lean Planning come from?

Lean 60

Lean Silicon Valley Business Model Forecast 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

There are two reasons to raise money: You have a killer idea that is only partially validated, that you think can get to $50M+ of revenue in 5 years with 80%+ gross margins (if margins are lower, you need a lot more revenue)and you need money to get to product-market fit, or. Team, Product, Traction, Business Model and Market.

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429