Steve Blank

MARCH 7, 2012

The premise of the class is that startups, are not about executing a plan where the product, customers, channel are known. We trying to teach students a methodology that combines customer development, agile development, business models and pivots. The Sync customer discovery narrative blog is here.

Lean 256

Lean Business Model Agile United States 256

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. You are correct all channels, web or otherwise, need to generate awareness and leads.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. You leave the comfort of your existing job, convince a few partners to join you and you jump off the bridge together. No building, no money, no customers, no market?

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. I remember after a month or two of talking to 14-22 year old male gamers (our potential target market,) I realized that for the first time in my career I had no emotional connection to my customers or channel partners.

Silicon Valley 139

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

www.ashmaurya.com

AUGUST 29, 2012

There are many channels that can produce your first early customers and contacts, but the one I see most often is cold email. Running through the complete process in the early stages makes you much more efficient in later stages as you get a feel for the industry and have warm introductions.

Email 52

Email Customer Tennessee Software Review 52

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? This is the usual reason given for a marketing launch, but for most early stage startups, its a failure. Establish credibility with potential partners.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. List key partners and resources you will need, and then list your core team as well as their roles. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. The positive effect of the tidal wave of press was as a door opener for us to raise money from corporate partners. Our VP of Business Development had no problems getting meetings and fund raising was easy.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. You can be an Independent studio or do “work for hire&# (either a revenue share or buy-out model) - If you’re an independent studio you have a set of choices for distribution channel and marketing models. -

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile my partner was in heaven working with his newly hired group of game designers directing and producing our first games. No, not really, but my partner owns the studio and tells me it’s spectacular and everyone will love it. Go spend some time outside the building talking to potential distribution partners.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

Teams use the Lean Startup toolkit: the Business Model Canvas + Customer Development process + Agile Engineering. These three tools allow startups to focus on the parts of an early stage venture that matter the most: the product, product/market fit, customer acquisition, revenue and cost model, channels and partners.

Oakland 326

Oakland Incubator Lean Metrics 326

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

1) It all starts from the Growth Hacking Funnel - in the early stages, startups should not just focus on top/bottom line metric like unique users and revenue. In a nutshell: Acquisition - Get people to hear about your product from press, blogs and social channels. First Steps in Growth Hacking for Startups.

API 167

API Viral Startup Retention 167

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? How do we attract, keep and grow customers? Who are the partners? And at this early stage you’ll be giving up a larger percentage of your firm to investors. How do the fund and the partners make money? And what are its costs?

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

Does our product or service solve a customer problem (product-market fit)? How do we attract, keep and grow customers? Who are the partners? And at this early stage you’ll be giving up a larger percentage of your firm to investors. How do the fund and the partners make money? And what are its costs?

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 225

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2012

I explained that the goal of the Innovation Corps was to bridge what the NSF calls the “ditch of death” – the gap between when NSF research funding runs out and when a team is credible enough (with enough customer and market knowledge) to raise private capital or license/partner with existing companies.

America 241

America Rhode Island Southern California Illinois 241

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Don’t quickly choose any business partner. The key is to ask the right people what they think – not your friends, parents or partner. The right people are potential customers – ask them if they have the problem. That like quickly choosing a wife.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?). Partner up?

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Marketing is Heard From Engineering was discussing how sophisticated the graphics portion of our computer should be, debating cost and time-to-market tradeoffs of arcane details such as double-buffering, 24 versus 32-bits of color, alpha channels, etc. Customer development isn’t just for [.] Getting out of the building.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development California 271

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

are just emerging for business people (customer development, business model generation,). Developers who understand and can execute on a business model. Four developers who have the ability to take on the following roles while cranking out an awesome product in the early stages.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Mark Suster GRP Partners Advice. Seed Stage Valuation Guide. Philippe Botteri, Bessemer Venture Partners. Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). Codeacademy.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53