Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

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. I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. It’s just a story about what happened to me.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. Interestingly this response almost always comes from first time entrepreneurs. I was an idiot.

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Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. The relevant part starts about 4:30 into the video (wait for it to download.) luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Look at the early Silicon Valley companies – Homebrew Club =>PCs. Product Development Diagram 1.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

This year, with the kids grown, their choice was to fly up from Southern California and spend the holidays at our ranch. So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. California, where even the rabbits are bigger than life! Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 137

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

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Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. Forget the Hypertext idea and come on back to California. Reply Karma in the Lean Startup Era , on January 28, 2010 at 5:26 pm Said: [.] And so was his reputation for being verbally abusive to his direct reports.

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North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. The first question to ask is: “Does your startup have market risk or is it dominated by technical risk?” Lean Startup /Customer Development is used to find answers to the unknowns about customers and markets.

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Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. But at times it’s why entrepreneurs can sink their own companies. More on this in later posts.)

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. If you’re an entrepreneur, ESL is the most important company you’ve never heard of. In ten years Sylvania EDL grew to be one the largest companies in the valley ?

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Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Other Roles in a Startup Generic advice given to entrepreneurs assumes that everyone is going to be the founder/co-founder. Reply steveblank , on June 14, 2009 at 2:22 pm Said: Actually this is the mistake most startup entrepreneurs make – particularly in tough economic times. This is the minimum feature set for founders.

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Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. There’s lots of lore, emotion, and misconceptions of what VC’s do or don’t do for entrepreneurs. What this meant for entrepreneurs and VC’s was simple– the gold rush to liquidity was on. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

I’ve tried to read a lot of your History of Silicon Valley posts. Find out Memorex’s position in Silicon Valley. Some say we were the first PCM in the valley. Some say we were the first PCM in the valley. were the first computer entrepreneurs here. They are very interesting. Now In Print!

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Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Part 1: Bend, Oregon Ecosystem and Entrepreneurs.

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Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 312

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Finally, since no one would believe a set of benchmarks named after our company, we needed a façade of independence, so we named them after the street the company was headquartered on in Sunnyvale California – they became known as the Potrero Benchmarks. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

There couldn’t have been a worse choice for CEO in Silicon Valley. Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley was an Oxymoron A key premise of our new company was that our video compression and authoring technology would revolutionize how games were made and played. This wasn’t just some random Silicon Valley fantasy.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Reply 4 Anti-Lean Startup Archetypes at Market By Numbers , on August 4, 2009 at 11:30 am Said: [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Steve Blank’s market type discussions to learn when a big megaphone might be the right [.] Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

A partner allows me the flexibility to miss a session or two (my job as a California Coastal Commissioner meets three days every month up and down the coast of California.) One part of Silicon Valley culture that doesn’t get enough credit is the generosity of entrepreneurs and VC’s who are willing to share their time with students.

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Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

For entrepreneurs good things come to those who ask. Entreprenuers Know How to Ask Successful entrepreneurs have the ability to ask for things relentlessly. Entrepreneurs are fearless, persistent and uninhibited about asking – whether it’s asking to assemble a team, get financing, sell customers, etc.

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Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

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Silicon Valley Customer RSS Philippines 134

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

A key lesson is that as an entrepreneur, you get to choose your segment. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System » 20 Responses brantcooper , on March 26, 2009 at 3:52 pm Said: Great story, Steve. Glad to see you blogging! To Order Outside of the U.S.

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Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2009

If you read only one previous post, read this one (or this one.) ————- The Birth of Entrepreneurship in The Hot Cold War Silicon Valley entrepreneurship was born in the middle of a secret war with the Soviet Union. military, the CIA and the National Security Agency.

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Silicon Valley RSS Europe Germany 153

Steve Blank

JUNE 4, 2012

As the morning fog burns off the California coast, I am working with Steve Blank, preparing for the Lean LaunchPad Faculty Development Program we are running this August at U.C. Alex is a successful serial entrepreneur –with the same drive and energy of many we have known here in Silicon Valley, but different.

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Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 305

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

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Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

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. To Order Outside of the U.S.

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Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Write it down and keep it in a tradeshow handbook for those who will follow. Go to trade shows like it matters. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2010

The Churchill Club , Silicon Valley’s largest public affairs organization, invited Carl Schramm , president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation and I to talk about entrepreneurship. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Translation: They write checks for $100 Million dollars a year.) Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 140

Silicon Valley RSS United States California 140

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. How did Silicon Valley start?

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Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

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.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2015

The focus of our first segment is how Silicon Valley and the U.S. military and are now helping government agencies operate with the speed and urgency of Silicon Valley. — — — — In this second segment, Takashi Tsutsumi and Masato Iino talk about how they brought the Lean Startup to Japan.

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Channel Japan Bosnia Silicon Valley 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

sgblank Lean Startup Cirle 111909 This movie requires Adobe Flash for playback. Big thanks for the continued sharing, and certainly the link to Lean Startups. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. They were kind enough to sponsor a meet-up in San Francisco. The slides below go with the video.

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Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 212

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

But then the Lean Startup’s scientific method of validating their business idea quickly has them feeling right at home. What it’s like to go from the comfort of the lab bench to the chaos of a startup was the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Sunny Shah. Sunny received his Ph.D.

Cofounder 190

Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 190

Steve Blank

AUGUST 1, 2016

Based on those results we believe that we can do the same with Diplomacy so working with the State Department’s innovation cell in Silicon Valley we will prototype the Hacking for Diplomacy course at Stanford this fall. (see the final Hacking for Defense class presentations here ). Result: Hell yes. 15 more schools are in the pipeline.

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Silicon Valley Southern California San Diego Lean 128