Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Instead of email, they’ve grown up with QQ instant messages. Turnover of employees in capital in Beijing is very high. Employees work here for a few months and are suddenly gone. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

China 324

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 324

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Yet for every founder there are 10-20 other employees who take the near-equivalent risks in joining an early-stage company. If you’re not a founder (by choice, timing or temperament,) you may be an early employee or a later stage startup employee. If you’re unsure, you’ve just decided.)

Cofounder 223

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 223

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

The key principles of customer development are: There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside. You can test your hypotheses with a series of experiments with potential customers. And if they’re working at home, they may have a different email address. All you have are a series of untested hypotheses.

Customer 415

Customer Business Model Restful Video 415

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

An example of a reversible decision could be adding a product feature, a new algorithm in the code, targeting a specific set of customers, etc. An irreversible decision is firing an employee, launching your product, a five-year lease for an expensive new building, etc. These are usually difficult or impossible to reverse. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 302

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 302

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Instead of email, they’ve grown up with QQ instant messages. Turnover of employees in capital in Beijing is very high. Employees work here for a few months and are suddenly gone. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

China 216

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 216

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 29, 2012

Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas and building a minimal viable product. Several teams also sent around surveys to the group email list to start doing some basic market research. I am getting emails from the participants who have had ideas and gotten ignited," he says. "I

St. Louis 135

St. Louis Kansas City Norway Kansas 135

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Customer Development is all about gathering a list of what features customers want by talking to them, surveying them, or running “focus groups.” Gathering feature requests from customers is not what marketing should be doing in a startup. And it’s certainly not Customer Development.

Customer Development 280

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 280

Steve Blank

JUNE 6, 2016

As in a startup, listening to customers is paramount for a big company’s innovation efforts, he added: If it’s an individual, if it’s a company, they all have a point of view and I always assume that they’re acting in good faith and they’re telling me what they really think. Filed under: Customer Development.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Analytics 120

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Strong pre-show promotion will let your customers and prospects know about your exhibit. Direct email or snail mail to the pre-registered attendees is essential. Send everyone else who gave you a lead some kind of follow-up email/paper mailing. Are you twittering your appearance at the show? Measurement We measure everything.

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 129

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

They answer enumerable emails about logistics as well as substantive questions about class content. They typically met once or twice in person with the team, help them network outside the building, answer emails, provide critiques, etc. TA’s make managing 60 students working on cases and team projects manageable.

Business Model 230

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 230

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Certain big brands and large companies that would never return my phone calls were all of a sudden emailing us saying, “Hi. whether that’s partners or employees that you bring on. And most importantly, you have your customers that you want to sell your product or service to. We’re big fans of the show.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

In theory when you went public, everyone’s shares were now tradable on the stock exchange, but usually the underwriters required a six month “lockup” when company insiders (employees and investors) couldn’t sell. Or were they trained and raised in the bubble and M&A hype and still looking for some shortcut to liquidity? Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. Website Analysis.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Department Mission Statements – What am I Supposed to Do Today It wasn’t that we somehow had inherited dumb employees. The idea of intention is that if employees understand the thinking behind the mission, they can work collaboratively to achieve it. Titles are not the same as what your job is. This is a big idea. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 263

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 24, 2018

Much of the writing on startups focuses on two elements: finding product-market fit scaling the company once #1 is accomplished For product-market fit, we have a lot of source material to work with from the last decade: Steve Blank’s leadership on Customer Development , and Eric Ries’ on the Lean Startup ?—?along One example.

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

I’m curious, how many employees did SuperMac have at that time and what was your approach to educating the company? I’ll email a brief review of it. Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential? I bought one for Linn and she has never forgotten that. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

The Startup Magazine

DECEMBER 1, 2022

Creative individuals can see problems from new perspectives and develop innovative solutions. For these reasons, employers increasingly value creativity in their employees. Whether you are an artist or an accountant, developing your creative potential can help you achieve success in your chosen field. Leadership Skills.

Florida 147

Florida Leadership Networking Management 147

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

By 1992 Research in Motion (RIM) had been in business for eight years, had 16 employees, sales of about $500,000 a year, and three or four business lines. The new device could hold names, email addresses, phone and fax numbers and incoming and outgoing messages. RIM and TiVo are two examples of getting it right and wrong.

Hockey Stick 272

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 272

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

I literally just received an email from someone (that I don’t know) asking to me to meet with them so that they can circumvent our regular process because, “I don’t feel like I have time for the regular FounderDating process.“ You’re looking for an employee, not a partner. It’s one of the most common mistakes we see.

Cofounder 330

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 330

ConversionXL

JULY 1, 2014

You send out email launch campaign to highly targeted list of 30 000 people and only 30 people sign up? Instead, questions like “Was there an employee that made your experience enjoyable?” & “What was it about them that made them stand out?” When sending invitations for the survey, keep the email as short and simple as possible.

Customer 76

Customer Design Software Review Lead Generation 76

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.) But the rest; sales, marketing, bus dev is actually customer development that the founder needs to understand. so at least some parts are being run by people who know what they are doing. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

Many of the other staff in the applied program were full-time employees hired to work solely on these military programs. Stanford had a Customer Development loop going on inside their own lab. The close tie between the two labs was a unique aspect of the Stanford Lab. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley RSS California Government 144

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

The bad news is that as a startup founder you have no brand, you have no balance sheet, you have investors behind you, you have employees that you’re responsible for, you have an impact you’re trying to make on people’s lives while building a business. Filed under: Customer Development.

Washington 289

Washington Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Cofounder 289

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Working professionals/white collar use emails, but most users grew up instant messaging on TenCent’s QQ and most are moving to Weixin/WeChat. It’s much easier to just steal their ideas and hire their employees. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. In the U.S. Unlike the U.S.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 269

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

That institution will touch many people in its life: customers, investors, employees, and everyone they touch as well. Please email me if you are interested. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? We meet the 3rd Thursday each month at SAP in Palo Alto.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. I’m listing instead companies that are A) under 100 employees AND B) adding >10 employees in the next 3 months. Yesware – Email for Salespeople (backed by Foundry Group and Google).

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Why Are They Referring New Customers Completely Unprompted? One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. The second largest spike is the day after I received an email directly drawing attention to the Referral program. Once you know who, you need to find out why.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers. With 21 employees today, kaChing is devoted to recruiting professional managers and finding product/market fit , first for money managers, then for consumers.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2016

So we use a partner channel, we do telesales and we do a lot of email. Then, I think it also really would have been helpful to identify employee management …. My wife and me, and two employees, and now we’re at about 18. … Send an email to terri@kandsranch.com describing your entrepreneurial journey.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Morocco Arkansas 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

JoAnn and I found that sharing our intentions to always put clients first with our employees, with colleagues, and with clients themselves made them ‘real’. Email him a link to an article you know would interest him. The next time you find yourself in a position to serve someone—a boss, an employee, a client—take the leap.

Customer 140

Customer Non-Compete Restful Developer 140

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 25, 2009

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Get in touch: Twitter Email Facebook Linkedin Additional resources Startup LessonsLearned, All Seasons : Every post from the blog, in one 600+ page PDF. I have registered and will be attending from Ottawa! Want to learn more about me?

Agile 60

Agile Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I would add, though, a further question: Do new employees write code on their first day? So if an employee pushed code that broke the site, wed ask: why didnt our cluster immune system catch that? That's fine occasionally, but most development should happen in response to what the team needs to learn next.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This is why companies often get out-competed by former employees (Palm vs Handspring to name just one), even though the upstart lacks all of the familiar resources, tools, processes, and support they used to have. For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.)

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2016

Relationships with customers, it’s relationships with your employees, your investors, because when you buy something, there’s an expectation, there’s a back and forth. . We were hiring our first employee … we didn’t have a lot of (money in the bank), we only had one grant $350,000 at the moment.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Michigan Detroit 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

I ultimately answered that call, joining Sun Microsystems with a 3-digit employee number. Had not yet heard of Silicon Valley at the time, but the siren call was already sounding. My first business trip to the valley was to visit California Microwave. Thanks for connecting the historical dots! To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 185

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Usually we think of pitches in the context of raising money, but that is only one of many pitch situations. Want to learn more about me?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128