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Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers?

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The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

In the next few posts that follow, I’ll describe more specifically how this model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. Because it isn’t until after first customer ship that a startup discovers that their initial hypotheses were simply wrong (i.e. All of this is usually a bad idea.

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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

Steve Blank

NewTV will depend on partners like telcos to distribute the content. Given Verizon just shut down Go90 , its short form content video service, it will be interesting to see if Verizon distributes Katzenberg’s offerings.). They needed to be sure that what they were building was what customers wanted and needed.

Lean 335
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I-Corps @ NIH – Pivoting the Curriculum

Steve Blank

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. Customer Segments change over time. I-Corps @ NIH Lecture Order Details.

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How To Find the Right Co-Founders?

Steve Blank

Activities define the unique expertise your company needs to deliver the value proposition, customers, channels, customer relationships and/or revenue. (If Filed under: Customer Development. Customer Development' If you’re a startup it’s easy to get confused on this step.

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Early-stage Regional Venture Funds–part 2 of 3 of Bigger in Bend

Steve Blank

The cloud , open-source development tools and web 2.0 as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest. This is true whether the company is concept stage or ramping revenue. So a regional fund must do three things: focus on early stage investments.

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Revenue Development

K9 Ventures

In the end the revenue simply wasn’t enough to make a sustainable business and so we had to switch gears once more (in today’s parlance that would be a “Pivot”). Over the course of that relationship that lasted several years, we did over $1M in revenue just from HP. We found a customer whom we knew had the resources to pay.

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