Steve Blank

APRIL 21, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment with a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This week they were testing their hypotheses about the sales “Channel” – how a company delivers its value proposition (i.e. With two weeks and two more updates to go, this post is part six.

Channel 215

Channel Artificial Inteligence San Francisco Business Model 215

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

I lived through the time when working in my first job in Ann Arbor Michigan we had to get out a map to find out that San Jose was not only in Puerto Rico but there was a city with that same name in California. The response was inevitably “great pipeline.” (Great pipeline means no real sales.). We now understand that’s wrong.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Just as I was getting settled into Zilog, the manager of the training department got fired. (I I was beginning to think that my hiring managers were related to red-shirted guys on Star Trek.) Since the training department was part of sales no one really paid attention to the four of us. VP of Sales? Life was good.

Silicon Valley 175

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 175

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

In short order they learned how to transition from being customers on the receiving end of a sales pitch to giving one. Reply Fred H Schlegel , on October 20, 2009 at 1:20 pm Said: I believe the MBA was originally developed with the idea of helping functional experts move more smoothly into upper management ranks.

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

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.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

When I asked our trade show manager she looked at me like I was the house idiot and said, “Steve, don’t you know that my job is to set up our trade show booth?” But my favorite was when the public relations manager said, “we’re here to write press releases and answer the phone in case the press calls.” This is a big idea.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Our sales guys were on the front line and heard what they needed to win deals. They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when. The Outside In organization had a one-way flow.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Motioning to our VP of Sales, he ordered: “Go with him and get him in front of customers, and both of you don’t come back until you can tell us something we don’t know.” Reply Chui , on October 8, 2009 at 8:05 pm Said: Anyone squirming probably shouldn’t be in sales anyway, and a wise person would have realized it was good advice.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development California 271

Hearpreneur

JUNE 4, 2021

Jump forward 16-17 years, through numerous mergers, sales, wins and losses, and our current agency, HUB, is going strong, powered and pushed forward by that original desire to do a good job, create sustainable digital products and generally make a difference. As the agency work poured in, I also tried to manage everything on the home front.

Entrepreneur 133

Entrepreneur B2B Database Technical Review 133

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 12, 2018

But if you’re writing a plan as an internal guide for strategic growth, you should consider a lighter version— a Lean Plan. A Lean Plan can also serve as an initial plan that helps you think through all the aspects of starting your business. Marketing and sales plan. Your problem and solution. Target market (intended customers).

Business Plan 63

Business Plan Curation Balance Sheet Intellectual Property 63

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. Does this help?

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Your goal was to preserve your cash while you turned these guesses into facts and searched for a repeatable and scalable sales model. Your presentation doesn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. They will realize that you have built a startup that’s agile, resilient and customer-centric.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

I packed up my life in Michigan and spent five days driving to California to start work. I was met by a very apologetic manager who said, “We’ve been trying to get a hold of you for the last week. The manager of the training department who hired you wasn’t authorized to do so – and he’s been fired.

Agile 245

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 245

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 6, 2015

Many people are too cautious in sales processes and as a result when they present their solutions they end up sounding milquetoast and undifferentiated from anybody else in the market. I recently wrote about the three rules of sales. In sales we often call these USPs (I wrote about them here: Unique Selling Propositions ).

Sales 150

Sales Silicon Valley Las Vegas Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

We have structural employment issues : The official unemployment rate in the US is hovering just below 10% but “true” unemployment is much higher when you account for those that have stopped looking or taken part-time employment and in key states like California and Michigan we’re downright hurting.

Entrepreneur 298

Entrepreneur Technical Review Balance Sheet Government 298

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

I knew we were selling through a multi-level indirect sales channel. That’s a mouthful to say that our sales people didn’t sell our products directly to a customer. Instead they managed rep firms (independent sales companies that carried multiple, non-competing products) that called on computer resellers that sold to the customers.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 185

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

When a startup finds a repeatable sales process and steadily increasing revenue, its investors wants to harvest the rewards and build a culture of “execution.” Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank (tags: product-management startup business) [.] 3) Managing the relationship is more consumptive than the rewards.

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

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. What did I learn so far? We were constantly creating metrics [.]

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

The Customer Validation lesson of, “no formal launch until you have early sales validating the product and sales process&# was also born here. I can’t remember if they were in the Wired article or on the web site, but every once in a while I still go over to ebay and see if I can find any for sale. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. What happened?

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

Our small training department had been without a manager for months and finding a replacement didn’t seem to be high on the VP of Sales list. Then it hit me – no one else wanted to be manager – what was the worst that could happen? All I had to do was ask. For entrepreneurs good things come to those who ask.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

This happened to us at SuperMac when our sales skyrocketed. We hired an interior designer and a great facilities person to manage the process. If the management team is thinking they’ve made it, the new building is just symptomatic of a company heading for a crash. Stay hungry, stay lean.

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205

Steve Blank

JUNE 6, 2016

Evangelos Simoudis’ is the founder and managing director of Synapse Partners. Prior to his investing and advisory career, Evangelos spent 20+ years in high-technology industries, in executive roles spanning operations, marketing, sales and engineering. If you can’t hear the clip, click here. He was the CEO of two startups.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Analytics 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

Intelligence As I leafed through the Cray sales material, a glossy magazine with the headline Cray Channels jumped out of the pile. Ardent 3: Supercomputer Porn « Steve Blank (tags: customer-development product-management startup) [.] Hmm… typical booth stuff…key chains, data sheets, pens… Until I got to the material from Cray.

Silicon Valley 147

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 147

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. So he had adopted Steve’s Lean LaunchPad class and was using The Startup Owner’s Manual as his core text. . ———– The 99%.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 305

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. This is worthy of an open and honest discussion with sales up front. And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. On its first day of trading, Netscape stock closed at $58/share, valuing the company at $2.7

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

We had seen the reactions of people playing with the prototypes in our lab and when we demo’d it to our sales force. But the rest of the management team really skeptical. When we saw our salespeople actually trying to steal the early boards to take home and show their kids, we knew we had a winner. You may know it by its final name.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Duct Tape Marketing

OCTOBER 5, 2022

Discover the secrets and strategies of how your business can achieve the frictionless sale. Using Air is the leading platform for marketing teams to manage and automate their creative operations. Zak (11:46): But I think it's the same thing in, in, you know, direct sales, right? Learn more at Air.inc/ducttape. Hi John, I'm Paul.

Framework 78

Framework Technical Review Software Review Naming 78

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 13, 2011

Search engine marketing is a tactic that is perfect for a lean, iterative approach to marketing. To generate sales and revenue? Or does it have to be an actual sale for you to consider it a conversion? For instance you could target your ads only at people in California, who are single, and who’s birthday it is today.

Advertising 103

Advertising Lean Marketing Campaign 103

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

As a boot-strapped founder aka our biggest investor, one of the things I leaned into uncovering was the unknown. Lean into it. If you’re a founder/product manager/business owner, I encourage you to find that out! And, while working to build the business we want, a competitor in California secured resources to far outpace us.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

I learned a lot at Convergent, going from product marketing manager in a small startup to VP of Marketing of the Unix Division as it became a public company. His marketing and sales instincts and skills seemed magical and he built the company into a $400 million OEM supplier, ultimately selling the company to Unisys.

Entrepreneur 276

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 276

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 2, 2021

Dara manages Uber’s fast-growing business in 63 countries around the world and leads a global team of more than 22,000 employees. She worked as a sales clerk at a fashion company called Celine. I still remember it – she used to shop at those kinds of places, and she had to become a sales clerk. We had a management offsite plan.

Iran 39

Iran Technical Review Non-Compete Lean 39

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

Beyond just those who will be hearing about the lean startup for the first time, Im expecting to shake a lot of hands and have a lot of interesting side conversations. Policy makers need to know: regulations designed to manage big-companies actually protect those companies by stifling innovation (and competition) from startups.

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90