Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

I don’t recommend anyone become an entrepreneur. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Andela selects and trains world-class tech talent from Africa and matches them with U.S. It’s too hard.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Each of the teams is assigned a mentor to match their domainv(Head of device R&D of Phillips, Genetech, Crescendo, CTO of UCSF, venture capitalists from Sofinnova, Burrill, Lightstone, M34, etc.). It turns out that for commercialization, the business model (Customers, Channel, Revenue Model, etc.) This can be taught.

Lean 258

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 258

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

A business plan is the execution document that large companies write when planning product-line extensions where customer, market and product features are known. Business models allow agile and opportunistic founders to keep score of the Pivots in their search for a repeatable business model. It turns out that’s a mistake.

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Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 312

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc. It is the key to “customer development” that Steve Blank talks about. I’m going to save that for a future blog post.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products. Back then, an entrepreneur used a serial product development process that proceeded step-by-step with little if any customer feedback.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10 weeks. While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ), Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was unique. He runs H4X Labs.

Lean 385

Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

female founders. founder friday. Lessons learned from female founders and women entrepreneurs. Startup Quote: Wendy Tan White on Building a Successful Startup » FounderDating: How I Found My Co-Founder. Tweet By Elizabeth Knopf (Co-Founder & CEO, Sorced). Conference 2012.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

Founders Dilemmas: Equity Splits. The following is an excerpt from HBS Professor Noam Wasserman’s new book, The Founders Dilemmas: Anticipating and Avoiding the Pitfalls That Can Sink a Startup. On average, the founders who keep the most control over their company make the least amount of money. Lessons Learned.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. I have developed a founder curriculum on my blog.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

www.kernelmag.com

MARCH 8, 2012

The Scene Developers Nailing that elusive technical co-founder. But if tools are plentiful and costs resemble rounding errors, what stands in the way of the would-be entrepreneur of 2012? I’ve been sent a random email from someone who is “founding” a business, who needs a technical co-founder.”.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Coder 43

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2014

Kauffman launched Founders School - a new education series to help entrepreneurs develop their businesses during the startup stage by highlighting how startups are different from big companies. In January 2014 Part 1 of the “ Startups ” section of Founders School went online. 0:24: What is Customer Development?

Intellectual Property 328

Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development Acquisition 328

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. But at times it’s why entrepreneurs can sink their own companies. These customers are idiots and I don’t want them anymore.”

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. The case method and business plans are the antithesis of how entrepreneurs create startups. But the case method is the antithesis of how entrepreneurs create a startup. Here’s why and what we did about it.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

This was followed by an 8-minute slide presentation describing their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ) Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. He runs H4X Labs.

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on? Customer Development and Selling Strategy If you’ve just started your company you are in customer discovery. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

What it’s like to go from the comfort of the lab bench to the chaos of a startup was the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more.

Cofounder 190

Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 190

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? Here’s an attempt to put this all in context.

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 27, 2015

—– In a recent workshop with a large company focused on the Innovation@50x process, I mentioned that founders and intraprenuers operate more like artists than accountants – on day one they see something no one else does. I wondered what lessons Pixar, an animation studio, could have for founders. Like a startup founder.)

Founder 120

Founder Lean Hawaii Incubator 120

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Home About Contact Me How To Make It as a First-Time Entrepreneur Vinicius Vacanti Guide to Finding a Technical Co-Founder September 7, 2010 | View Comments Steve Job's Technical Co-Founder “I’ve got this HUGE idea. I just need to find a technical co-founder.&# So, why should they pick you?

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Ann who had been my Teaching Assistant while she had finished her PhD at Stanford felt the same frustration about teaching entrepreneurs to assemble a business plan that we knew in the real world wouldn’t survive first contact with customers. Ann and I recruited VC’s and entrepreneurs to be mentors for each team.

Business Model 226

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Believing Your Own BS is Toxic Lots of noise and smoke before a product ships seems to be a toxic byproduct of enthusiastic entrepreneurs. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to listen to customers. It’s that as CEO I was too busy talking to the press and raising money to hear customer comments directly.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The Golden Age for Entrepreneurs and VC’s. The two decades from 1979 when pension funds fueled the expansion of venture capital to 2000 when the dot-com bubble burst were the Golden Age for entrepreneurs and venture capital firms. They’ve created virtual IPO’s for founders and employees via late-stage private financing.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

What it’s like to go from the comfort of the lab bench to the chaos of a startup was the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

These topics were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern.) Joining me this week at the Stanford University studio were: Wayne Sutton , co-founder of BUILDUP VC. Wayne Sutton. Dave Kashen.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Carolina Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

Its power is matched only by the amount of confusion that it causes, because its actually quite hard to do. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Two Ways to Hold Entrepreneurs Accountable (for Ha. It certainly took me many years to make sense of it.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Colleges and universities that offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to teach innovation and entrepreneurship classes may benefit from a more formal onboarding process. Create a stream of translational entrepreneurship literature for practitioners (founders and VC’s.) . This post previously appeared in Poets and Quants.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Lean Reputation Programming 142

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

Our keynote speaker was Palmer Luckey , founder of Oculus and the designer of the Oculus Rift. He’s now the CEO/founder of the AI-focussed defense contractor Anduril Industries. Followed by an 8-minute slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. Presentation Format. Team: Panacea.

Oakland 266

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 266

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

In my last post I described what happened when a company prematurely scales sales and marketing before adequately testing its hypotheses in Customer Discovery. You would think that would be enough to get wrong, but entrepreneurs and investors compound this problem by assuming that all startups grow and scale by executing the Revenue Plan.

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Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 230

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This may sound crazy, coming as it does from an advocate of c harging customers for your product from day one. I have counseled innumerable entrepreneurs to change their focus to revenue, and many companies who refuse this advice get themselves into trouble by running out of iterations. Get product into customers’ hands.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you’re an entrepreneur, ESL is the most important company you’ve never heard of. If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. Communism being a bad science experiment) ESL’s founder Bill Perry was moving the chess pieces. The “customers’” contracts funded the company.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

JUNE 4, 2012

This is a 3-day program for entrepreneurship faculty from around the world how to teach entrepreneurship via the Lean LaunchPad approach ( business model canvas + customer development ) and bring their entrepreneurship curriculums into the 21st century. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 305

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

I often get asked about finding cofounders and I usually give the standard list of characteristics of what I look for in a founder. But Jessica Alter , Cofounder & CEO of FounderDating , pointed out that co founders did not mean two founders in the same room. Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

Cofounder 329

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 329

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

The quintessential California couple, they stood out in our crowd as the engineer (in his late 20′s, respected by his peers and the customer) had hair down to his shoulders, sharply contrasting with the military crewcuts of the customers and most of the other contractors. It’s his job to introduce new startups to the world.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 184

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2009

Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. I called the founder and noted that there are SAT tests that are shorter than the survey. Customer Development suggests that founders have continual and timely customer, channel and market information.

Metrics 239

Metrics Customer Customer Development Lean 239

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

I believe this is one reason why the myth of the dictatorial startup founder has such enduring appeal. One common worry is that this might lead companies to “release crap,&# shipping too soon with a product of such low quality that it alienates potential customers and, thus, causes entrepreneurs to abandon their vision.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2009

#leanstartup #goap It was great to be in an audience of entrepreneurs who recognized the value of iteration and speed. benjaminjoffe : early adopters of buggy product are visionary customers, sometimes smarter than founders! Many founders dont like to hear that visionary customers are as smart, maybe even more so, than they are.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Japan Continuous Deployment 60

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

I tell these stories to lay the groundwork for what I am going to call Revenue Development. We’re all familiar with Product Development, and thanks to the amazing Steve Blank and Eric Ries , Customer Development has become the mantra for so many startups. In a nutshell, Product Development is about building something.

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72