Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2011

Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development , Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. Entrepreneurial employees are the talented performers who hear the siren song of a founder’s vision.

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Agile Customer Development Early Stage Business Model 332

The Startup Magazine

OCTOBER 29, 2018

The introduction of remote employees opens your business to an influx of new talents and skill sets. If you want app development that is both affordable and efficient, you need to know how to hire programmers to do the job. Where to Hire Developers for Your Project. How to Hire Remote Developers.

Developer 107

Developer Offshore Software Developers Software Development 107

Up and Running

MARCH 21, 2018

These don’t require coding skills—they’re usually visual templates that are easy to use but don’t allow for great customization (that would require technical skills). Custom development. This means hiring/contracting a freelance web developer or an agency to design and develop your site from start to finish.

Entrepreneur 107

Entrepreneur Technical Review Hosting SEO 107

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

They’ve stopped hiring the best talent, and startups are not looking so risky compared to large companies. You find early stage employees expecting to work normal hours, to get paid a regular salary, and not asking or expecting equity. Nokia was blind-sided in a classic disruptive innovation.

Finland 327

Finland Naming Russia Government 327

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

This person may be an extraordinary communicator, who rallies employees, customers, and colleagues around the vivid future he sees. What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers.

CTO Hire 252

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 252

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

At Tekes, government employees (and their hired consultants) – with no equity, no risk or reward, no startup or venture capital experience – try to pick startup winners and losers. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching , Technology , Venture Capital.

Finland 325

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 325

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

He was a very early employee of Facebook , and engineering director there through the moment it blew up. Companies of note Learn from companies that have been through the fire--and have lessons to share. Aditya Agarwal has lived through startup hypergrowth--twice. Now he’s VP of engineering at Dropbox , where he’s seeing similar growth.

Lean 165

Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

This person may be an extraordinary communicator, who rallies employees, customers, and colleagues around the vivid future he sees. What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers.

CTO Hire 244

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 244

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Turnover of employees in capital in Beijing is very high. Employees work here for a few months and are suddenly gone. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

China 324

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 324

Gust

APRIL 20, 2014

This person may be an extraordinary communicator, who rallies employees, customers, and colleagues around the vivid future he sees. What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers.

CTO Hire 171

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 171

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

This person may be an extraordinary communicator, who rallies employees, customers, and colleagues around the vivid future he sees. What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers.

CTO Hire 227

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 227

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Changing Equity Structures for Early Startup Employees Tweet Recently someone asked me for advice on how much equity they should give to their early employees. His company had just closed an early round of funding and he wanted to cement the employee relationships. Those first employees will take 0.5-1%

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Turnover of employees in capital in Beijing is very high. Employees work here for a few months and are suddenly gone. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

China 216

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 216

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 and they will.

Warrant 48

Warrant Bootstrapping Framework Hiring 48

Steve Blank

JULY 14, 2020

MatchBook – Hiring platform structured similarly to dating apps. Remote Daily – Simplified employee feedback for small businesses. Mango Lango – Mobile app that allows small businesses to reopen safely. MemLove – Helping people grieve for lost loved ones. MUSTA – Telemedicine platform for patients in the Philippines.

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Peru Philippines Mobile Global 293

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. We hired union laborers to do that. I hired a Director of Product Marketing who in his last company had ran its marketing and then went out into the field and became its national sales director.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 263

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Think about it: Companies hire people who come from outside the buyer’s world and don’t share his interests — employees, agencies, consultants, and the like — and expect them to persuade buyers to hand over their money. Build strong customer communities. Yeah, right!

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 29, 2012

Over Saturday and Sunday teams focus on customer development, validating their ideas and building a minimal viable product. Now is a full-time employee that works for the operation, but that was a relatively recent circumstance: before he was hired, he volunteered his time.

St. Louis 135

St. Louis Kansas City Norway Kansas 135

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Hire around you to fill those weak spots. …. 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. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Steve : Did you personally know about any of this?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany." Blank teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University and UC Berkeley and blogs at steveblank.com.

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

If your don’t have enough employees on the payroll, hire relatives, friends, or part-timers and train them. Where can I read about the training to give for employees who will be at a booth? You’ll never have to do it again.) Trade Show Post Mortem Evaluate the experience. Physical booth: What worked?

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 129

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. They hired a world-class team with co-founders and early employees who shared their vision. After that, there was no doubt to existing employees and new hires what the company was aiming for.

Hockey Stick 284

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 284

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.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

doing postdoctoral internships, supervised by faculty members or hired staff (many from Fred Terman’s WWII Electronic Warfare lab.) 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.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley RSS California Government 144

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

It was an educational mission to tell the story of who our customers were (and by inference who all the graphics board customers were) and why the current reviews of these graphics boards weren’t adequately measuring what was important to this large market. Theoretically, that’s why I hired them.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Find and hire one or more developers Pros: Implementation Speed - Developers working full time will be much more efficient for you and your product since they’ll be dedicated to your company. Access - Good developers are tough to find. Cons: Cost - Most development shops work on a cash basis.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

They’re afraid to hire, afraid to spend, afraid to risk. Nor is it about building a product you and your employees love and waiting for the adoring masses to arrive. ‘If First, get employees excited about the future. What do your employees think your company’s purpose is? Just… afraid. Here are some tips: 1. Not likely.

Product 251

Product B2B Product Development Developer 251

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

The students “get out of the building” and test their hypotheses in front of potential beneficiaries using the Customer Development methodology, all while building and updating their Minimal Viable Products. At the same time, it’s a chance to expose some career State Department employees to Silicon Valley thinking.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

The students “get out of the building” and test their hypotheses in front of potential beneficiaries using the Customer Development methodology, all while building and updating their Minimal Viable Products. At the same time, it’s a chance to expose some career State Department employees to Silicon Valley thinking.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

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 30, 2009

Initially your job is to understand each of the parts of your business model before you hire someone to do it. 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.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

These are just a few of the powerful, growth-fostering impacts “Rock Star” customers are creating for a variety of companies. And engaging customers in such ways is generally much less expensive than hiring costly employees or agencies. But it does require some new thinking.

Customer 154

Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

Hearpreneur

JULY 30, 2016

The short answer was no and whilst many of the businesses present had a large technology component to their company, with custom developed software etc they could not present themselves as a tech company. It seems like everyone around us is constantly shopping, ordering and hiring services they find online or in town.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur CTO Hire 48

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. That year the two founders decided to get serious about being a company, and hired a CEO. The TiVo CEO hated the idea that customers might think of TiVo as a better VCR.

Hockey Stick 272

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 272

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

The team hired only the best and the brightest. Not to be outdone, the technologists on the team had also brought their big guns, and the meeting was packed with employees of every level – from VP’s all the way down to me. The team hired only the best and the brightest. The engineering team wasn’t happy either.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Joel is focused on the fact that in many environments, programmers are considered "just the hired help" akin to manual labor, and not treated properly. I would add, though, a further question: Do new employees write code on their first day? The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

It’s much easier to just steal their ideas and hire their employees. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' In the U.S. Unlike the U.S. there are almost no mergers or acquisitions in this market segment.

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Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 269