Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Entrepreneurs in Beijing were knowledgeable about Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship and the state of software and tools available for two reasons. Almost every entrepreneur I met was using VPN to circumvent the Great Firewall. There’s a noticeable lack of tenacity in young, new entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial Culture.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? Organization.

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. See part one for the first time it happened. This time it was serious.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

For entrepreneurs good things come to those who ask. I found that having a senior marketer responsible for business strategy surrounded by ex-engineers and domain experts makes one heck of a powerful marketing department. Entreprenuers Know How to Ask Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to ask for things relentlessly.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see obstacles and why hubris is an entrepreneur’s worst enemy, were two topics of discussion on my SiriusXM radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere. You’re constantly critically analyze the gaps in someone’s business plan. Ajay Kshatriya.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Entrepreneurs see opportunity where others see obstacles and why hubris is an entrepreneur’s worst enemy, were two topics of discussion on my SiriusXM radio show, Entrepreneurs are Everywhere. You’re constantly critically analyze the gaps in someone’s business plan. Ajay Kshatriya.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We have two great teaching assistants , plus we’ve rounded up a team of 25 mentors (VC’s and entrepreneurs) to help coach the teams. Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). (Or

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Students formed 5-person teams, came up with a business idea then got out of the building to validate their business model. Our goal was not to teach the students to write a business plan nor were we trying to teach them how to give a pitch to VC’s. A Startup is a Search For A Business Model.

Intellectual Property 226

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 226

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

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

In 1960’s and ‘70’s few MBA’s would give up a lucrative career in management, finance or Wall Street to join a bunch of technical lunatics. In the real world a startup is about the search for a business model or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

3) An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing? Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

3) An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc. What is the entrepreneur supposed to be doing? Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

For example, most entrepreneurs know that the most successful entrepreneurs - from Bill Gates to Jeff Bezos - kept tight control over their companies. Having seen these dilemmas derail countless startups, I wish every entrepreneur and prospective founder would read this book." - Eric. But such a best-case approach is hazardous.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

A business geek with no money and no income isn’t going to inspire confidence in a software geek. If a software geek really wants to try building something for no pay, they’re going to work for themself instead of following another cashless entrepreneur. I’ve had many conversations with entrepreneurs.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The 11 Harsh Realities Of Being An Entrepreneur - OnStartups , November 1, 2010 There's always talk about the end game in the form of an acquisition, funding announcement, or eventual flame out. love to find great products and services made by entrepreneurs who are trying to change the world. This doesn’t make sense.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, etc. You literally have to take your vision of the opportunity and against all rational odds assemble financing, and a team to help you execute. And that’s just to get started.

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Introducing Lean Planning: How to Plan Less and Grow Faster.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. They are: Fred Wilson: Lead Investors, Dipshit Companies, and Funding Every Entrepreneur. Often board members give entrepreneurs two bits of advice regarding scale: Get a mentor. twenty in your wallet?

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

We still have some collective scar tissue: the idea conjures up the hordes of dot-com hopefuls that descended on VC’s and angel investors with little more than a business plan. One of my beliefs is that such a theory should be addressed to entrepreneurs and the people who hold them accountable. I also frequently see the reverse.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

news.ycombinator.com

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Investors are looking for proven entrepreneurs to enter this emerging market and they will get well funded too. His quote on the subject, "no amount of finance will cure mismanagement". In all the time Ive been an entrepreneur (over a decade), Ive built many successful businesses, sold my companies, etc.

Stealth 41

Stealth Technical Review Startup Software Review 41

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

These diagrams are the visual representation of the how and the what a team learned in the class – how they tested their hypotheses by getting out of the building using the Customer Development process and what they learned about each part of their business model. is just another engineering process, not building a business.

Lean 279

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 279

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. What’s the worst case?

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

If you’re an Entrepreneur, you can do it from any place in the world. Outsourcing is something a big company, with a known customer / problem (that has revenue & traction) does to save cost. How important is education when I know I want to be an entrepreneur? If you’re a young entrepreneur, than congrats!

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2019

It’s hard to imagine, but only a decade ago, the capstone entrepreneurship class in most universities was how to write – or pitch- a business plan. As a serial entrepreneur turned educator, this didn’t make sense to me. In my experience, I saw that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers.

Lean 248

Lean Business Model Balance Sheet Video 248

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

A Harvard Business School professor and early evangelist for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, Doriot was the Fred Terman of the East Coast. Corporate Finance One of the ironies in Silicon Valley is that the two companies which gave birth to its entire semiconductor industry weren’t funded by venture capital.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 159

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , January 10, 2010 Developing new startup ideas - Chris Dixon , March 14, 2010 Batch Processing Millions and Millions of Images - Code as Craft , July 9, 2010 jQuery Plugin: Give Your Characters a NobleCount - The Product Guy , March 23, 2010 How do the sample Series Seed financing documents differ from typical Series A financing documents?

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Or what if a new brilliant idea that you hadn’t considered when you were planning emerges? Build in fluidity to your business plans. I’d implemented a business plan including marketing, engagement, sales strategy and realized a few months in that it wasn’t servicing a key influence or in the sales process.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

A 20 th century VC was likely to have an MBA or finance background. Until then investors and entrepreneurs acted like startups were simply smaller versions of large companies. This would continue for months, as customers weren’t behaving as per the business plan. Finally the board would fire the VP of sales.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Managewith.us - Collaborative Task Manager Mavenlink - manage project communications, documents, schedules, budgets, payments Industrial Logic – Agile eLearning Misc Office Help Google Apps – cloud mail server, calendar, docs, etc.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

A group of Seedcamp entrepreneurs started a startup tools wiki for that purpose, and we thought it would be well suited here. An additional list of business resources for startups is available here. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. easy business finance software. SW Courses.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53