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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

Women Entrepreneurs Can

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

A Venture Capital Firm is a firm that invests in startups and early-stage companies. Early-Stage Investments vs. Mid-Stage Investments. Investing in a startup company carries a high degree of risk, particularly at the early stage. They can also help you develop your product and sales channels.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. Let’s start with a simple question: why do early-stage startups want revenue? But all things are never equal.

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Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

In the tactics section, list your sales channels and describe how you will be selling your products. While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. The Recommended Sales Forecasting Method. The business model.

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Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Up and Running

JULY 26, 2016

1x hacker in charge of product/development. 1x hipster working with both product and growth. Aug-15: Head of Sales (growth team). Nov-15: Graphic Designer (growth/product). Nov-15: Graphic Designer (growth/product). Dec-15: Developer (product team). Apr-15: Head of Marketing (growth team).

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Hearpreneur

JULY 10, 2017

Prior to starting Ozmo both Ming and I worked in a design house creating new and better products. Throughout my five years of experience in product development, I realized that most of product launch failure could have been avoided by getting the product right earlier on, or understanding the limit of the maker.

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Entrepreneur Hungary Software Review Cofounder 102

OnlyOnce

MARCH 14, 2011

You find that you have to support channel partners as well as direct customers (or vice versa). All this takes away from the time you spend on “the new” as well. • Creating “productive stress” becomes difficult —At the point our business became profitable, life became a lot better. You’ll build custom code for certain clients.

Software Review 67

Software Review Development Team Review Later Stage Technical Review 67

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup.

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Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

enabling you to expand on an already working business model), and if you’re in the extremely early stages of building your company, you still need to develop your product. Product development. When it comes to product development and marketing in the early stages of your tech startup, funding is optional.

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Early Stage Startup Forecast Channel 60

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. Instead, do your product launch first.

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San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

ConversionXL

JUNE 25, 2021

The typical product lifecycle can be broken down into four stages: Introduction: Your product may still be in development and your marketing goals focus on generating awareness and motivating users to sign up and purchase. Growth: A sharp increase in users and sales.

Product 96

Product Social Media Audience Software Review 96

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 8, 2015

Do we believe “startup-driven” innovation (innovation that comes from relationships with external, early-stage companies) should be part of the corporate innovation portfolio? Acquiring a growth-stage private startup can provide a faster ROI at lower risk than the acquisition of an early- stage startup.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Acquisition Boston Early Stage 120

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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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 246

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 26, 2015

On Tuesday, we interviewed Amanda Krantz of Dohje, an early-stage startup, to talk about experimenting with product development. Today, we’ve got an edited Q&A with Back To The Roots, who have experimented with all parts of their business —from distribution channels to community engagement, product to retail sales.

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Lean Early Stage Distribution Metrics 60

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

If a consultant claims they can enhance your marketing efforts, pay them based on their direct impact on your incremental sales. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. Pyramid Power. The larger the firm, the larger the pyramid. John Greathouse.

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Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder Technical Review 40

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 4, 2009

Today, Id like to spend some time on two techniques: the problem presentation and learning what channels of information reach customers. But if that piece-parts solution is great, then its unlikely they are going to need to buy any additional products. This is important, especially if you are a very early stage company.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 68

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

It became clear to me that the mission of marketing in most companies has to be to support sales. While this may seem obvious to anyone not in sales and marketing, trust me, in a technology company this is a conceptual breakthrough. Every product marketer thought they should help define the product feature set, etc.

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Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 127

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

No startup will ever succeed without a persuasive and visionary sales leader. Sure, you can create a product, but it takes someone who can sell something that doesn't exist yet to people who don't know if they need or want it, to drive revenue. Spencer Fry • Nov 27, 2010 I guess i still need that sales guy.

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Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. turn customer feedback into sales and relationships. Great for visualizing work of product development. SaaS Sales Team Compensation â?? Roku Channel Store. Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013).

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Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Or should I launch products and a startup for each of them, focusing on only 1 product at a time? I would focus on one product and set a goal to generate $1M in yearly revenue from it. Do that – nothing else but one product / company / focus and get to $1M in sales with atleast $15% net profit. do something else.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Well, my advice for Chak is to focus steadily on a worldwide list of greeting card distributors using Telewebsales and Sales 2.0 methodologies - in other words, dont invest in travel and in-person sales, but try to close as many deals as possible by phone and the Web. (On While you may not have the budget to spend $500,000 on Sales 2.0

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

Well, my advice for Chak is to focus steadily on a worldwide list of greeting card distributors using Telewebsales and Sales 2.0 methodologies - in other words, dont invest in travel and in-person sales, but try to close as many deals as possible by phone and the Web. (On While you may not have the budget to spend $500,000 on Sales 2.0

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 13, 2015

Some VCs prefer investing at the earliest stages and then cycle off the board of directors. Others prefer to come in at the later stages, post product-market fit, and not have to deal with the risk and roller coaster of the early stages. first sales person, first marketing professional). 1-10 million.

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Mezzanine IPO Finance Business Model 20

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

So for this first post, here’s the best advice I can give you: join an awesome founding team and get your product out the door ASAP. 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. Love the guest post TechCrunch!

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84