Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

They sold their product through the computer retail channel, something I knew nothing about. They sold to a set of customers I knew nothing about. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 150

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. 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. He continued: “I’d like to convince my boss so our company can be your first customer.”

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Five Easy Pieces – The Marketing Mission After a few months of talking to customers , talking to our channel and working with sales we defined the marketing Mission (our job) was to: Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin. Two paragraphs, Five bullets. It didn’t take more.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. These topics were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Clay : Yeah.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. Or blame my MarCom department who approved it.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple.

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Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

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. There couldn’t have been a worse choice for CEO in Silicon Valley.

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Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2015

My guests this past week on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Pete Newell , managing partner of BMNT Partners. Matt Weingart, program development manager in the Strategic Development Office at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe 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. End result? If they had done this, there would have been zero dollars in sales. .

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Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

press and use it to generate end user demand and then drive that demand into our sales channel. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential? We were constantly creating metrics [.] To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 124

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

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. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. But you probably never heard of ReelTime. You may know it by its final name. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2014

— Its been three and a half years since I first designed and taught the Lean LaunchPad class and lots of water has gone under the bridge since then. Like in all our Lean Launchpad classes we teach a combination of theory coupled with intense and immersive experiential learning outside the classroom. Massive pivot.

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Reply steveblank , on May 22, 2009 at 2:39 pm Said: Morteza, The comments about “ignore this post&# were meant that if your sales channel is the web you rarely go to trade shows. You are correct all channels, web or otherwise, need to generate awareness and leads. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

If you cant find any , maybe that means you havent figured out who your customer is yet. And if you dont know who your customer is, perhaps some customer development is in order? Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. Eric -- This is a pretty interesting idea.

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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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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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Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

Introducing Hacking for Defense – Connecting Silicon Valley Innovation Culture and Mindset to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. They don’t need an office in Silicon Valley to figure out what’s out there. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, CIA, NSA. They are experts in leveraging Web 2.0

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Mass blasts of information are ineffective, because the broadcast channels are suffering from information overload (even in social media). Test-marketing is now easier than ever before, thanks to leveraged distribution channels like AdWords and Facebook. There are too many products clamoring for attention. 12comments: Dougvs said.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

At Stanford, Ann Miura-Ko and I have been working on a simplified Silicon Valley version of this model. As a founder you start out with: 1) a vision of a product with a set of features, 2) a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who are the customers/users? What’s the distribution channel.

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Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. Barrington Coffee – Fort Point Channel. Flour – Bakery and Coffee Shop in Fort Point Channel. Dan Allred – Silicon Valley Bank (@dgallred). Great for recent grads or career switchers.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 263

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Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. Customer Development This strategy of starting on faith, and quickly turning them into facts is the core of the Customer Development process. Employ customer development.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

Silicon Valley’s pay-it-forward culture means that others will help when you’re starting up. Looking to create their accelerator/incubator, Wayne and seven other founders rented a Silicon Valley house together one summer. The features didn’t match what ultimately the customers would buy or wanted.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Steve Blank

MARCH 9, 2016

When the legend becomes fact…print the legend” The Hollywoodization of Silicon Valley startup stories “prints legends,” but for most startups those stories are pure fiction. Customer input shaped Amper’s product: One of the things that was really important to us was using Lean methodology.

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Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

Jessica ran things as lean as she could for the next few months while figuring out what to do. When Peggy first arrived in Silicon Valley, she worked for Boole & Babbage , before founding her own firm. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. . If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

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Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Resegmentation means these startups are trying to lure some of the current or potential customers away from incumbents by either offering a lower cost product, or by offering features that appealed to a specific niche or subset of the existing users. Me – “Have you used Company x’s product? Do you know have they distribute their product?

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Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 188

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

, it seemed time to return to the subject of investigating who my customers are. Today, Id like to spend some time on two techniques: the problem presentation and learning what channels of information reach customers. But beyond the obvious, its also important to know where customers go to get answers to pressing questions.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

That was the message from the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on Sirius XM Channel 111. Entrepreneurs are Everywhere airs Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern on Sirius XM Channel 111. I’ve been blessed by having a lot of very supportive people in Silicon Valley, including you. …

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

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. Today he teaches his students at Notre Dame how to use Lean Startup principles. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111 to hear these upcoming guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere : Sept.

Cofounder 192

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Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

— The Hawken School entrepreneurship program is modeled on the Lean LaunchPad curriculum, and has been adopted by high schools across the country. Next on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere : Congressmen Daniel Lipinski and Seth Moulton discuss how the government’s innovation efforts are now Lean. Guido : Yeah.

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Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 160

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

Lessons learned from starting up and teaching entrepreneurship were the focus of an interview with the latest guest on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). We did a lot of talking to customers, trying to understand who really had the need.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder DC Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 120

Steve Blank

MAY 5, 2016

— The Hawken School entrepreneurship program is modeled on the Lean LaunchPad curriculum, and has been adopted by high schools across the country. Next on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere : Congressmen Daniel Lipinski and Seth Moulton discuss how the government’s innovation efforts are now Lean. Guido : Yeah.

Brazil 120

Brazil Entrepreneur Cleveland Cofounder 120

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

KQED Forum: LIVE at 10am PST this Wednesday Nov 28 When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I used to have a pretty short commute. We'll be discussing the Lean Startup movement, the upcoming conference, and whatever else you decide you want to ask about. and a chance to win free tickets, if you keep reading. FM or 89.3

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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. Today he teaches his students at Notre Dame how to use Lean Startup principles. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111 to hear these upcoming guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere : Sept.

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Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 120

blog.startupsquare.com

APRIL 13, 2010

2 Comments Tags: Customer Development , lean startup , pivot , Strategy. Having gone through 51 iterations of my mockups and gathered as much as feedback as I could with our primitive alpha, I feel confident about our basic customer problem hypothesis. So I decided to make a list of my potential pivots.

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