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

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

The initial hypothesis for Epiphany (from my much smarter partner Ben ) was that as departments in the enterprise (manufacturing, finance, customer support sales) became automated, the marketing department would eventually get its turn. Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice.

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Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Market Type affects your spending and sales ramp after you reach product/market fit. You say, “Market Type affects your spending and sales ramp after you reach product/market fit.&# Use the Lean Startup - When There's Market Risk The second question is : “What’s the “ Market Type ” of your startup? Does this help?

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Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

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.” However, if the founder is still running the company, the last thing he wants is a company complacent with day-to-day execution.

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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. We were constantly creating metrics [.] there were words of encouragement on the package.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

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. Am I in a company with “invention risk?

Vertical 144

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 144

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. Yahoo would hit $104/share in March 2000 with a market cap of $104 billion.)

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Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

We knew from back-of-the-envelope calculations that I would need 3 times the combined marketing and sales budgets of the incumbents for a head-on assault. (I The 3:1 Lanchester Laws said I would need $60M in marketing and sales spending to win. You need to hire the right type of sales people for the type of [.]

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Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 141

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service. Some sales guy who was too busy to take the meeting was probably retired in Maui on the commissions. Your Customers are Not Who You Think For years I thought this “million unit chip sale by accident&# was a “one-off&# funny story.

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. I walked into the VP of Sales’ office and with my knees trembling, I politely asked for the job. I even had time to find a girlfriend who was a contractor to the company.

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ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 26, 2014

Ask your sales team: How do different product categories do throughout the year? What days are the sale staff present? Are there things that you do on a weekly basis like start new sales, launch email campaigns, or push new content? Dig into your analytics and ask: How do different sections of your site perform? image source.

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PPC Widget Campaign Technical Review 111

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

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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. Since we had gotten out of the software business when we came out of Chapter 11 , and our sales channel didn’t know what to do with software, we licensed ReelTime to Adobe. We knew something our CEO didn’t.

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www.jonsamsel.com

MAY 12, 2011

Jon Samsel Social media, SEO, marketing and writing Home Bio Books Portfolio Login A Framework for Web Analytics On May 10, 2011, Heardable’s CEO, Jon Samsel, was asked to speak at the Jamba Juice Digital Marketing Summit in Emeryville, California. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 startupcto

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techcrunch.com

AUGUST 12, 2012

She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Writing and Art, and moved to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the Media industry. San Francisco, California. As The Trial Rages On, Court Filing Sheds New Light On Apple And Samsung Device Sales. Alexia Tsotsis. View Staff Page.

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Early Stage San Francisco Los Angeles Southern California 70

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

San Diego, California) Jobs Comentum is a dynamic and cutting edge company.Be Unfortunately, none are very focused on Florida (California and New York are the top two destination). How iPad Magazine Sales Stack Up [REP. Carlos - Here is a list of super angels along with what they invest in and where.

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Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 83

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. In the next few posts that follow, I’ll describe how thinking of a solution to this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – that offers a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 215

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

However, in catching up with the VP of Sales of Ardent last night, I was reminded one of the few times I did return for closure. . In my career I’ve been involved with lots of sales deals, and for some reason losing this was the one deal I never forgot. It was for sale on Ebay. I liked to fail fast, move on, and not look back.

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Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Market Type Integral to the Customer Development model is the notion that Market Type choices affect the way the company will deploy its sales, marketing and financial resources. In Customer Validation it is when you have enough early sales to declare that you have discovered a repeatable and scalable sales process.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. Marketing starts to build a sales demo, writes sales materials (presentations, data sheets), and hires a PR agency.

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Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

mashable.com

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Topics are divided into IT, marketing, sales, finance, customer service, operations and human resources sections, which makes it easy to search for the latest discussions on your interest area. View More » Jobs VP of Sales at Mashable (New York, Ne. Twitter is more about advertising these days instead of about connecting.

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Steve Blank

MAY 1, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

Customer Development 139

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 139

mashable.com

OCTOBER 16, 2010

Unfortunately, none are very focused on Florida (California and New York are the top two destination). How iPad Magazine Sales Stack Up [REP. Carlos - Here is a list of super angels along with what they invest in and where. Its Not Just Facebook: MySpace Trans. 7 Handy iPhone Apps for Managing Empl.

Angel Investor 84

Angel Investor Venture Capital Social Media Technical Review 84

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

As the company gets larger and a large professional sales organization kicks in, its second priority is to generate qualified leads. Before you go to a trade show sales and marketing need to agree to measurable goals. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t tertiary goals, but they are just that – not the top one or two.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

With that implicit assumption, startups hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies while marketing creates a brand and buzz to create demand and drive it into the sales channel (web, direct salesforce, etc.) They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2009

Reply Ray Debs , on April 29, 2009 at 6:55 pm Said: Hi Steve, I am thoroughly enjoying reading your blog posts, and looking forward to more.

Silicon Valley 170

Silicon Valley Iraq RSS Vietnam 170

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Execution by Vertical Market As the class progressed, students asked how the activities/functions of a startup; (Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Product Development, etc.) For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Sales – What Channel to reach the customer? would look in each of the verticals.

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

But I wrote a post about an iterative, process-oriented approach to high-tech sales and marketing on 2.9.9. Posts are going to be a mix of topics: entrepreneurship, secret history and conservation. Reply Customer Development and Start-up Models « Market By Numbers - Brant Cooper , on March 26, 2009 at 3:06 am Said: [.]

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Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

If it was a very big mistake, I blamed the VP of Sales. “This marketing campaign didn’t work? It was a brilliant strategy but Sales screwed it up.&# (My own lame defense here for this behavior is that sales and marketing are always cats and dogs in startups. Or simply wishful thinking?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. An Existing Market All four were trying to resegment an “Existing Market.”

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

APRIL 22, 2009

I took a deep breath and asked, “Ok, if you were, what percentage of your sales do you think these markets would be in 5 years?” “I guess less than 5%,” was the answer. How big are your Mexican and Spanish markets,” I asked? Well, we’re not in those markets today… but we might be some day.”

Silicon Valley 176

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 176

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. And most startup code and features end up on the floor as customers never really wanted them.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.)

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

NOVEMBER 20, 2015

[ Download MP3 | Transcript | iTunes | Soundcloud | Raw RSS ] Alexa Fischer grew up with a keen interest in acting, which she pursued through her studies as a young adult. This path led her to a career in California, appearing in commercials and shows including Numbers, CSI: NY, NCIS, Jag and Bones.

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RSS California Programming Sales 40

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

It’s the decisions that you make that might cost you an order, a sale or a higher stock price. Posted on April 2, 2009 by steveblank A comment left on the previous post made me realize that it was time to discuss a subject I was going to save for latter – ethics. I’m sure at Enron and Madoff there were plaques and posters about ethics.

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Software By Rob

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. If you’re affiliated with a group in California who might be interested in a free speaker, please drop me a line. Subscribe via RSS On Twitter? Check out my book Subscribe via RSS Thousands of entrepreneurs cant be wrong. at 5:05 pm [.]

Software Review 37

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Fresno 37

thenextweb.com

OCTOBER 17, 2011

In California? Apples first weekend iPhone 4S sales surpass 4 million. Meetups are a great way to find users that are interested in what’s new in the startup world, so find out if there are any in your area. If not, try and organize one! Coworking is another way to get out there and network. 8 Leverage what you already have.

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