Up and Running

FEBRUARY 12, 2022

Learn why the traditional way of writing a five-year business plan is often a waste of time and how to use a Lean Plan instead for smarter, easier strategic planning to establish your long-term vision. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan for the long term. What is a long-term plan?

Business Plan 83

Business Plan Lean Forecast Exit Strategy 83

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

He just hired Meg Whitman. Startups wrote business plans, generated expansive 5-year forecasts and executed (hired, spent and built) to the plan. First Movers” didn’t understand customer problems or the product features that solved those problems (what we now call product-market fit).

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Instead of sitting down to write a 40-page business plan, start with a one-page pitch. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Hearpreneur

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Besides the general focus on customer and product development, an entrepreneur should foresee the next moves that will serve to guide him on the right path.When an entrepreneur can forecast his next moves, even his/her employees become part of the moves the business makes. 7- Several forecasts.

Forecast 59

Forecast Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur SEO 59

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

These founders specify, design, and build a fully featured product using classic product development methods without ever leaving their building. Executives look at that date and the calendar, working backward to ignite fireworks on the day the product is launched. Executing on a sales and marketing plan.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

YoungUpstarts

MAY 16, 2018

Schramm, author of “ Burn the Business Plan: What Great Entrepreneurs Really Do “ If I asked you to describe the prototypical successful entrepreneur, you may share a story mythologized in our culture of a brilliant young man with an idea so good and so disruptive that he just can’t waste any time finishing college.

Silicon Valley 157

Silicon Valley Forecast Venture Capital Business Plan 157

Up and Running

OCTOBER 8, 2015

Instead, we built a product first (that’s expensive!) and then started hunting around for the right target market (that’s usually the cheap part of product development). See Also: How Not Doing Market Research Sunk My Business. Don’t just do it to fill in a section of your business plan.

Marketing 60

Marketing Forecast CTO Hire Finder 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. For example, some startup sales execs believe hiring the core sales team is a key objective. Here’s what the product development diagram looks like from a sales perspective.

Customer Development 225

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 225

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 267

Steve Blank

JANUARY 10, 2011

The VP of an operating division had run into trouble in product development; the product was late and getting later. The revenue plan had the new product baked into the numbers and it was clear that this division General Manager was going to crater his forecast (happens all the time, nothing new here.)

Forecast 267

Forecast Agile Revenue Founder 267

YoungUpstarts

MAY 28, 2013

If you’ve had an amazing idea swirling around in your mind for a while now, the first step to making it a reality is committing it to paper and writing a business plan. The root of many business failures is not making the right hiring decisions. Have confidence.

Entrepreneur 191

Entrepreneur America Social Media Forecast 191

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Certainly venture-backed startups don’t have this luxury – every business plan has a model in it. Companies that reliably fail to make their forecasted numbers are exceptionally prone to “management retooling.&# Just because entrepreneurs tend to forget about these models doesn’t mean their investors do.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

Most of our management tools, like planning and forecasting, require a long and stable operating history. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. I believe entrepreneurship is the management discipline that deals with the domain of extreme uncertainty.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167