Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. But part of his life that that doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry is that Bill Perry used Silicon Valley to help end the cold war.

Silicon Valley 176

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 176

Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2020

Those of us in AI would love to see GPU compute costs come down, and unfortunately, the success of blockchain-based technologies isn’t doing us any favors on that front. However, we’ve just started to see a decrease in GPU cost due to compute farms buying up graphics cards from failed crypto miners.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Los Angeles Cofounder Silicon Valley 63

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

The Startup Death Spiral: The Cost of Getting Product Launch Wrong By the time of first customer ship, if a startup does not understand its market and customers, failure unfolds in a stylized ritual, almost like a Japanese Noh play. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 228

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

Sloan put in place GM’s management accounting system (also borrowed from DuPont) that for the first time allowed the company to: 1) produce an annual operating forecast that compared each division’s forecast (revenue, costs, capital requirements and return on investment) with the company’s financial goals. Modern Corporation Marketing.

Michigan 275

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The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. That includes us. As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Your best bet is probably taking an existing market and serving a portion of it better than the competition, through lower cost or a different set of features. That’s no longer the case in Silicon Valley. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. End of theory.&# Keep teaching! Order Here.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Computer hardware companies were faced with their customers asking for low-cost (relatively) desktop computers they had no experience in building. I’ve tried to read a lot of your History of Silicon Valley posts. Find out Memorex’s position in Silicon Valley. They are very interesting. Order Here.

Technology 139

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 139

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) Look at the early Silicon Valley companies – Homebrew Club =>PCs. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Not testing these hypotheses upfront is a fundamental and, in many cases, fatal error most startups make.

Customer Development 241

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

And as more economies worldwide seek to shift their investment strategies offshore and seek out technology, hubs like Silicon Valley and Shanghai, among others, have reaped the benefits. During this time, there’s financial leverage used in the transaction to help buffer the firm’s cost of capital (e.g.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 133

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.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 130

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 130

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Was the company attempting to be a low cost provider by introducing cheaper products to an existing market? Therefore, no, we weren’t really equipped to be the low cost provider. Was SuperMac attempting to introduce radically new products and create a new market ? No, not really. And we lost money when we did so.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 144

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. What VCs most typically talk about are: – Industry expertise.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. What VCs most typically talk about are: – Industry expertise.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

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?

Silicon Valley 279

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 279

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Creating a vertically oriented regional ecosystem is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any country or industry. The trap most of them fell into (common almost everywhere): they were reading the blog posts and advice of Silicon Valley-based companies and believing that it uniformly applied to them. It doesn’t.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

It will cost you your job.” Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. By accountable I meant, “we agreed on a delivery date, and between now and the delivery date it’s OK if you ask for help because you’re stuck, or something happened outside of your control. That kind of accountable. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 263

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

In less than a month they designed a low-cost video-capture board that plugged into the Mac and allowed you to connect a video camera and VCR. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. But to get video to fit and playback on the computers of the era, they needed to compress it. Order Here. Now In Print!

Video 168

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 168

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 2, 2019

Each week we like share our thoughts on a range of topics from vertical markets to general startup advice and our reflections on investing. Changing the narrative on distributed teams in Silicon Valley”. Among our Silicon Valley-based portfolio companies, every company past “A” has a distributed team.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Distribution Artificial Inteligence 144

The Equity Kicker

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Jeff Richards of US VC fund GSV Capital has a good post up today: Content, Community and Commerce: Why Verticals Win. His investment thesis is that vertical platforms combining content, community and commerce will make great investments over the next period, and he cites existing portfolio companies including Houzz as good examples.

eCommerce 109

eCommerce Community Silicon Valley Vertical 109

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

First up today was John Bertoni with Mava Consulting , who is setting up a part-time sales force for companies to use without having to invest the fully loaded cost of a direct sales rep per geography. So, effectively, at the cost of one full-time sales rep, they can access coverage in four different regions.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 12, 2019

Silicon Valley can frequently be too provincial in its views of entrepreneurship, strategy, and markets. In my previous podcast with my friend and entrepreneur Wences Casares, we talked about the ability of entrepreneurs down here to see global markets that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs might miss.

Chile 36

Chile Global Silicon Valley Estonia 36

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Repaid 12-36 months with ability to prepay at reduced cost. Feenix focuses on companies in the consumer space across a number of industry verticals including: multi-unit Food & Beverage operators, hospitality, managed workspace (office or food halls), location based entertainment venues, and various direct to consumer online companies.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

She said, “Dad, one of the great things you and Mom did was never tell us how much things cost.” Now that I’m older, I’m starting to know what things cost. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. For a minute it was a pretty depressing thought for a parent. Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.

North Carolina 146

North Carolina Silicon Valley RSS Connecticut 146

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Combined with product costs, an engineering budget, and schedules, this results in a spreadsheet that faintly resembles the first financial plan in the company’s business plan. With that information in hand, Engineering estimates delivery dates and development costs. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

So I gave my “ The Secret History of Silicon Valley ” talk as the keynote to the CIA’s venture capital conference. So this post is how I came to write “The Secret History of Silicon Valley&#. (I’ll And you’d like me to do my talk on Customer Development and startups?” “No, we’re the other CIA.”

Silicon Valley 253

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Venture Capital 253

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

StrongSalt also lowers costs for companies by removing friction from encryption while making it accessible for all developers via the API platform. It’s in the heart of Silicon Valley, but against the traffic in the morning. What has the startup experience taught you about life? Don’t be stressed?—?tomorrow

San Jose 75

San Jose Cofounder API Silicon Valley 75

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. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 188

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 188

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. Alternatively, it may be inevitable to move your HQ to one of the major business centers, especially if other decision-makers in your vertical are based there. Austin is also home to creatives of all stripes.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan put in place GM’s management accounting system (borrowed from DuPont) that for the first time allowed the company to: 1) produce an annual operating forecast that compared each division’s forecast (revenue, costs, capital requirements and return on investment) with the company’s financial goals. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 161

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

As a private company you can decide that winning at all costs is your culture. You can decide that coming in first at all costs is your culture. Think through if you want to win at any cost. (I It’s the decisions that you make that might cost you an order, a sale or a higher stock price. .&# And we decided not to.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 124

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Without a budget, costs can quickly spiral out of control (last minute impulse purchases to jazz up your booth, for example) and defeat your best laid plans. A rule of thumb is that your space costs represent about a quarter of your total show budget. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 185

ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

An incubatee with Indian Angel Network, Anirudh Motwani from New Delhi, India, discussed IndiaCollegeSearch , a vertical search engine to address the problem of finding detailed information about various colleges and institutions in India. At 1/12th the cost, 1M/1M provides far more value.". IndiaCollegeSearch.

India 115

India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Reply Haut Tech » SaaS: K_I_S_S – Value, Features & Options , on August 5, 2010 at 7:57 am Said: [.] Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

Customer Development 246

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 246

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

I was asked to explain why a marketing program that cost $150,000 bucks literally generated nothing in revenue for the company. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. They hit each other with baseball bats until one of them dropped.) This first Zen moment happened at a SuperMac exec staff meeting. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 120

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.) Sales people cost money, and when they’re not bringing in revenue, their wandering in the woods is time consuming, cash-draining and demoralizing. Who recommends a sale?

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250