Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

press and use it to generate end user demand and then drive that demand into our sales channel. Reply SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values « Steve Blank , on April 9, 2009 at 5:02 am Said: [.] The Potrero benchmark strategy was one component of this creating end user demand through PR.)

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 125

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The product development model is so focused on building and shipping the product that it ignores the entire process of testing your basic hypothesis about your business model (customers, channel, pricing, etc.) before you ship. Not testing these hypotheses upfront is a fundamental and, in many cases, fatal error most startups make.

Customer Development 243

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 243

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. The person who can quickly re-channel that excitement to a different idea (one based on fact, not faith) will have much more success. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one.

Silicon Valley 228

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 228

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Perhaps they have previous leadership experience at these companies or are still there today. In other cases, they may come from your channel partners or elsewhere. This is useful for a number of reasons, the most obvious of which is to help you navigate the right channels in your vertical and open doors to potential customers.

Advisory Board 48

Advisory Board Sweat Equity Marketing Vertical 48

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. But you probably never heard of ReelTime. You may know it by its final name.

Video 176

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 176

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. to look at: when the plan (or process!) is clearly defined, but we fail to follow it.

Silicon Valley 197

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 197

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Reply Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) » Dig for Leadership - Stories that try to make the world a better place. , AKPC_IDS += "1115,"; (No Ratings Yet) Loading … Posted in Leadership | Tagged [.] The absolute number depends on your channel and industry.

Customer Development 251

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 251

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.) have product/market fit,) then you invest the dollars to create end user demand and drive those customers into your sales channel.

Lean 257

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 257

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. The startup develops its first positioning statement and uses this to explain the company and its benefits to venture capitalists. Building the sales channel and supporting the marketing can burn a lot of cash.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 267

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. I was about 90 days into the company when I began to realize there was something very different about this business.

Silicon Valley 148

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 148

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.) End result? If they had done this, there would have been zero dollars in sales.

Customer Development 212

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 212

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. We understood none of this. More detail in future posts.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. Over scrambled eggs and diet coke, I listened to this seasoned startup veteran describe the excitement of his students who came to the U.S. to compete.

Business Plan 148

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 148

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

I knew we were selling through a multi-level indirect sales channel. Market messages to indirect sales channels are just like that. As we found out when we interviewed our dealers, our sales department was using extra commission payments – called Spif’s – to incentivize the channel to move our product.) What did I learn so far?

Silicon Valley 201

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 201

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

And since there was no Venture Capital in the 1950′s/’60′s where was the money coming from? In contrast, spark gaps are broad-band radio “noise&# sources – the idea of discrete radio channels was impossible spark gaps because of this. I’ll stop channeling James Burke now. to do that.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 290

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Given the lukewarm feedback we were getting from potential customers and channel buyers we should have dramatically dialed back the hype until the follow-on games could match it. The Customer Validation lesson of, “no formal launch until you have early sales validating the product and sales process&# was also born here.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Steve I have to tell you some bad news, I just showed our potential channel partners and customers a few completed pieces of the games we had. Tell them how great it’s going to be and see how many pre-orders we can get.” A month later the VP of Marketing appeared in my office again. They think the games stink.”

Silicon Valley 218

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 218

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

And they have channeled all this into whatever activity they could find outside of their home – sports, business, or …entrepreneurship. But a small percentage, whose brain chemistry and wiring is set for resilience, come out of this with a compulsive, relentless and tenacious drive to succeed.

Founder 307

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 307

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

We were going to do that by turning marketing into a machine to generate end user demand, drive the that demand into our sales channels, and educate our sales channels. Not understanding who are the “lead departments” makes companies feel like ponderous, bureaucratic and frustrating places to work.

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 129

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

Heather is an outspoken advocate for women in tech leadership roles and building an inclusive and diverse workforce. An early Human Rights Campaign board member and longtime Austin LGBTQ leader, Eugene co-chaired President Obama’s & the DNC’s LGBTQ Leadership Council.

Technical Cofounder 48

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 48

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. Cray Channels was describing my market, applications and customers for me. Hmm… typical booth stuff…key chains, data sheets, pens… Until I got to the material from Cray.

Silicon Valley 158

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 158

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.

Silicon Valley 281

Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development California 281