Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2016

In my view, starting a new business has never been easier, and according to reports from the Kaufmann Foundation , the numbers are finally here to show it. The number of startups rose in 2015 for the first time in five years, with the largest year-over-year increase in two decades. Establishing your brand with interactive social media.

Intellectual Property 120

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

by Steve Owens, Founder and CTO of Finish Line Product Development Services. The lean start-up movement has been based on a single insight – which the purpose of a start-up is to discover a business model that works. Reducing product turn time. The Lean Start-Up Environment. Extending the runway.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 2, 2019

Most of you aspiring entrepreneurs have no idea how dramatically your own role has to evolve as you develop a solution, start a business, and expect it to scale into a successful self-managed company. Thus my job as a small business advisor really is really more about getting you developed than perfecting the business.

Leadership 248

Leadership Technical Review Cofounder Social Media 248

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

A key to making this entire process much easier is to invest a little time and write a business plan. It’s true — not all investors will ask to see your business plan. Why do investors want to see a business plan? The business plan document itself isn’t what’s important to investors.

Business Plan 138

Business Plan Forecast Balance Sheet Exit Strategy 138

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

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The Lean Startup Book is done. If you've been waiting for a comprehensive account of the Lean Startup and how it can help you achieve dramatically better business results, this is it. Some are from obscure startups who you haven't heard of -- yet. I am no longer writing a book. Finally, really, truly, done.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

Up and Running

OCTOBER 10, 2018

This article is part of our Business Planning Guide —a curated list of our articles that will help you with the planning process! Business advisors, experienced entrepreneurs, bankers, and investors generally agree that you should develop a business plan before you start a business.

Startup 114

Startup Forecast Lean Balance Sheet 114

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 6, 2018

In today’s rough-and-tumble startup scene, “lean” is all the rage, and the ability to cut costs without compromising performance is prized above virtually any other managerial competency. Creating a Business Plan. Don’t create your business plan entirely from scratch. Product Development.

CPA 124

CPA Bandwidth Lean Startup 124

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

This theory has become so influential that I have called it one of the three pillars of the lean startup - every bit as important as the changes in technology or the advent of agile development. You can learn about customer development, and quite a bit more, in Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Heres the catch.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

In the last few years we’ve recognized that a startup is not a smaller version of a large company. We’re now learning that companies are not larger versions of startups. But paradoxically, in spite of all their seemingly endless resources, innovation inside of an existing company is much harder than inside a startup.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, June 5, 2009 It’s a startup, not a spreadsheet Some people, when they start to realize the power of using data to inform their decisions, become obsessed with optimization. Unfortunately, most decisions that confront startups lack a definitive right answer. But this is wrong, too.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup.

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Analytics spark more questions and discussion than almost any other aspect of the Lean Startup method. Alistair and Ben, co-authors of the book Lean Analytics, will help you sort it out in our next webcast, Lean Analytics for Non-tech Companies.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

YoungUpstarts

MAY 10, 2012

Launching a startup is no small feat; if you’ve got one in the works, surely you know there’s plenty of hard work and a very real possibility of failure ahead of you. But you can stack the odds in your favor by taking advantage of all of the great resources available to startups these days, including a vast library of helpful readings.

Startup 247

Startup Lean Silicon Valley Open Source 247

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. It has become an integral part of startup culture. None of mine did.)

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

I pointed out to Bob the irony – in a large company “fear of failure” inhibits speed and risk taking while in a startup “fear of failure” drives speed and urgency. Startups have finite time and resources to find product/market fit before they run out of money. for new product development that emphasize immediate returns.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2009

For the rest of us, there is an alternative: to create credibility by building a lean startup. At IMVU, we were terrified by how early we shipped (and charged for) our first product. When startups ask me what to measure, I always come back to these three as a starting point: Revenue per customer. Is there s choice?

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Tampa Continuous Deployment Lean 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2008

I was building a new startup in 1999, and wanted to do it right. That startup didnt turn out so well, but not for lack of technology. Some combination of the dot-com crash and a just terrible business plan prevented us from having to take our scalability problems to the next level. Expo SF (May. . Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 68

San Francisco Technology Continuous Deployment Lean 68

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. What kind of objectives would a startup want or need for sales and marketing? For example, some startup sales execs believe hiring the core sales team is a key objective.

Customer Development 220

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 220

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I hate business plan competitions. I Love Business Plan Competitions I had a breakfast with a friend who has founded a few companies in Thailand and started the New Ventures Program at one of their universities. Local venture investors and/or companies offer cash prizes for the winners.

Business Plan 143

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 143

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

YoungUpstarts

MAY 3, 2013

But before you can launch a high-growth company, you’ll need to find the right business plan and create a culture of success. We recently used customer preference data collected by automated feedback mechanisms to create a product upgrade that is generations ahead of our competitors’ product offerings. Keys to Success.

Cofounder 230

Cofounder Entrepreneur Ohio Aggregator 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

Our new Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Joe Bingold (MBA, Jun 2011) Head of Product Development for Naval Nuclear Propulsion Plant Control Systems, US Navy, MSME (Naval PGS), BSEE (MIT), P.E. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here.

Business Model 237

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 237

This is going to be BIG.

JUNE 30, 2010

Startups, on the other hand, have lots of little failures and successes over time. While it has been time-consuming, the market research, retailer meetings and focus groups with consumers has driven us to iterate in this way and we believe we have a much more realistic, and great business proposition in front of us.

Technical Review 106

Technical Review Due Diligence Venture Capital Later Stage 106

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Customer Development by Vertical - Click to Enlarge (As a reminder, the Customer Development process says your business plan is just a series of untested hypothesis (unless you’re a domain expert.) You take your product vision and get out of your building to turn your hypothesis into facts.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 19, 2009 Inc Magazine on Minimum Viable Product (and a response) Inc Magazine has a great new piece up about the increasing use of the Minimum Viable Product by businesses (and not just startups). The Inc story, and many others, does a good job emphasizing its lean-ness.

San Francisco 137

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 137

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

Customer Development 264

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 264

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

One of the sayings I hear from talented managers in product development is, “good enough never is.&# And, most importantly, it helps team members develop the courage to stand up for these values in stressful situations. Yet startups rely on collective learning in order to find their way.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Ali G meets with business leaders and investors on Wall Street to learn how to create a new company around a new product idea. After some general lessons, he then proposes his first product idea, complete with flip charts, business plan, and marketing plan. The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

San Francisco 104

San Francisco DC Continuous Deployment Lean 104

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. Noah has been a key figure in the making of LivePlan, our own SaaS product. Step 1: Start with a lean plan.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Up and Running

JULY 24, 2015

When you’re ready to launch a startup, the name of the game is research. You need to tap every resource you can to learn the ins and outs of business. From securing funding to marketing your business, there’s a lot to consider. We’ve put together a list of 34 resources that will play a role in your startup. Edison Nation.

Entrepreneur 60

Entrepreneur Small Business Administration SBA Pennsylvania 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. I think Drucker said it best.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 5, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, November 5, 2008 Getting educated about advertising, agencies, and media buyers I see lots of startups whose business plans revolve around selling high-value ad space to brand advertisers. So many startups hope to benefit from that seismic trend. Expo SF (May. . Expo SF (May.

Advertising 60

Advertising San Francisco Media Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, March 13, 2009 Dont launch Heres a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? Marketing launch) Make a new product available to customers in the general public. In fact, in most situations its a bad idea for startups to synchronize these events.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Up and Running

JANUARY 17, 2014

The phrase “lean startup” comes up a lot in conversations about entrepreneurship. I’ve been to several panel discussions on the topic, had it taught to me in a business school classroom, and read a book dedicated to lean startup methodology. Revise your product or service as quickly as possible.

Lean 107

Lean Startup Philadelphia Business Model 107