View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

The obvious answer we all give (and receive) in the startup community is to talk to people. Customer development” has become its own skill and body of knowledge, and there are some crucial nuances to understand up front before beginning your customer dev discussions. But how do you go about figuring out what people want?

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Customer Development Developer Customer Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Today we are announcing the biggest entrepreneurial program ever launched – Startup Weekend Next. A partnership of Startup Weekend , Startup America , TechStars and Udacity , Startup Weekend Next brings four weeks of amazing hands-on training learning to build your startup to cities around the world.

Startup 335

Startup Lean Incubator Business Model 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

ConversionXL

SEPTEMBER 6, 2013

Most startups fail. The product or website (be it software, e-commerce, or a service) might be awesome , but if it puts itself in front of the wrong market, or packages itself so the right market can’t figure out why it’s awesome, the startup will fail. Same goes for e-commerce, SaaS or any startup really.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 126

Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

Therefore we needed them to think and learn about two parts of a startup; 1) ideation - how to create new ideas and 2) customer development – how do they test the validity of their idea (is it the right product, customer, channel, pricing, etc.). Hawken students practicing Customer Discovery in a mall.

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Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 334

VC Cafe

JULY 26, 2020

VC’s were no longer insisting that startups spend faster, and “swing for the fences”. It was a nuclear winter for startup capital.” ” Steve Blank, “Is the lean startup dead?” ” The Lean Startup movement started out of necessity. Agile Development: launch an MVP early and iterate quickly.

Lean 214

Lean Seed Capital Startup Burn Rate 214

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. The relevant part starts about 4:30 into the video (wait for it to download.) luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. Now In Print!

Customer Development 124

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 124

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 24, 2022

When you have a startup, time and money are always at a premium. This blog post will discuss some of the most effective methods of promoting your startup. It will also offer tips on how to make the most of your marketing budgeting and successfully promote your startup. Develop a Strong Online Presence. All the best!

Social Media 130

Social Media Startup Audience Web Development 130

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 5, 2010

I believe it is the best introduction to Customer Development you can buy. As all of you know, Steve Blank is the progenitor of Customer Development and author of The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Four Steps primarily centers its stories and case studies on B2B hardware and software startups.

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 166

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. How To Build a Web Startup – The Lean LaunchPad Edition. So today, I offer my next attempt.

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Lean Web Coder Business Model 333

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? But too often when its time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." Many of us are not accustomed to thinking about markets or customers in a disciplined way. Heres the catch.

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Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 7, 2008 Customer Development Engineering Yesterday, I had the opportunity to guest lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at the Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA program. Can this methodology be used for startups that are not exclusively about software?

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Customer Development Engineer San Francisco Developer 131

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? —— When I wrote Four Steps to the Epiphany and the Startup Owners Manual , I believed that Life Sciences startups didn’t need Customer Discovery.

SBIR 314

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 314

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

He gave my innovation team free reign on designing a new employee innovation program. The design challenge. Our challenge was to design a program that could: Teach participants on how to turn their ideas into fundable experiments. His only request was that we keep two of the original program’s goals: 1. What went right?

Programming 291

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 291

crowdSPRING Blog

JUNE 6, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Listen Close: 5 Tips for Small Business and Startups – crowdspring.co/1oNwUSD. How to Design a Billion Dollar Company – crowdspring.co/RXZyBZ.

Social Media 94

Social Media Small Business Design Software Review 94

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

He gave my innovation team free reign on designing a new employee innovation program. The design challenge. Our challenge was to design a program that could: Teach participants on how to turn their ideas into fundable experiments. His only request was that we keep two of the original program’s goals: 1. What went right?

Programming 283

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 283

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 25, 2014

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! The Ultimate List of Customer Development Questions – crowdspring.co/1nHT6tS. Salaries Startup Founders Pay Themselves | Business Insider – crowdspring.co/1nHU2OK.

Social Media 92

Social Media Small Business Design Media 92

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In previous posts I’ve talked about what the combination of Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Methodologies mean to startups and intrapreneurs in large companies; it’s the beginning of entrepreneurship as a science with its own rules and methodologies. She posted her notes from the talk here.)

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Customer Development Business Model Developer Design 270

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. I told Radhika this is a perennial question for startups. ——-.

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Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 16, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, March 16, 2009 Combining agile development with customer development Today I read an excellent blog post that I just had to share. Jim Murphy is a long-time agile practitioner in startups. But startups sometimes have trouble applying agile successfully. Enter Jims post.

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Agile Customer Development Developer San Francisco 111

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. Lets see why.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference The Lean Startup Conference is next week--and now that we can step back and see all the speakers and mentors, we have to say: Wow. Ben Horowitz ’s book The Hard Thing About Hard Things is driving the conversation around startup management this year.

Lean 165

Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with. As much as I loved the magazine, there was little in it for startups (or new divisions in established companies) searching for a business model.

Technical Review 327

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 327

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. Most startups fail. The most common mistake startups make is assuming they can operate the same way big companies do, and expect success with little to no feedback from potential customers. This is a customer development problem.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2012

When Bob Dorf and I wrote the Startup Owners Manual we listed a series of Customer Development principles. I thought they might be worth enumerating here: A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development. Not All Startups Are Alike.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Cofounder 328

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. Chief Sales Officer (VP Sales). Chief Brand Officer.

CTO Hire 244

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 244

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 16, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. As Lean Startup methods have been used now for a number of years, we’ve become increasingly interested in how companies use them to sustain growth. The hand-offs between teams are (mostly) eliminated, and close-working autonomy creates a good startup vibe as well.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Software Engineering Agile 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. This left an open playing field for Chinese software startups as they “copy to China” existing U.S. If you’re a software startup competing in China, the words that come to mind are “ruthless and relentless.”

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

He wanted to get input from me on what he's doing, and he wants to begin to ask developers what it would take to build his product. I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs? Send across any graphic designs you currently have.

Developer 354

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO Software Review 354

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. Why Branding Is the Next Essential Startup Competency – [link].

Social Media 105

Social Media Small Business Design Media 105

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean 315

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 315

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with. As much as I loved the magazine, there was little in it for startups (or new divisions in established companies) searching for a business model.

Technical Review 219

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 219

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2015

He’s now run several Lean LaunchPad classes and has seen a ton of healthcare startups. Here’s his advice for startups in this space. Over the past couple of years as Director of Innovation for Intermountain Healthcare I’ve mentored and worked with many Healthcare-focused startups. For a proof of concept or pilot this may be OK.

Startup 120

Startup Early Stage Azure Lean 120

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

These posts and videos are about logo design , web design , startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Small Business and Startups: Slice & Dice Your Customer Service Data | crowdSPRING Blog - [link]. Is The Only Purpose of Customer Service To Change Feelings?

Social Media 93

Social Media Small Business Design Media 93

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2010

It’s the combination of Business Model Design and Customer Development. Business Model Design. Today every business organization from startup to large company uses the words “business model.” Business Model Design Gets Dynamic, Customer Development Gets Strategic. Pivots and Iterations.

Customer Development 329

Customer Development Business Model Developer Customer 329

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Tells you how to design new ventures with it.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

With a few more questions I learned that the code base, which had now grown large, still had vestiges of the original exploratory code written back in the early days when the company was in the discovery phase of Customer Development. Filed under: Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

Part-Time VPE 318

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 318