Steve Blank

JANUARY 27, 2011

This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. When founders discover their assumptions are wrong, as they inevitably will, the result isn’t a crisis , it’s a learning event called a pivot — and an opportunity to update the business model.

Business Model 275

Business Model Utah Intellectual Property Agile 275

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. 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.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

www.kernelmag.com

MARCH 8, 2012

The Scene Developers Nailing that elusive technical co-founder. Just last week, start-up supremo Naval Ravikant of AngelList wrote how the “oversupply” of founders starting companies is making it harder to hire for the average startup. Are there any ‘Founders Dating’ events coming up?”. Yiannopoulos.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Coder 43

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Here’s why.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

We shook hands with the customers, but instead of launching into a product pitch (or better, letting me launch into the pitch) he started asking how their families were. He even remembered the names of their wives and kids and some details about schools or events. (I what Market Type is your startup?

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

It was amazing to see the two founders, Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, build a $100 million company from coffee cups and T-shirts. But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and got an 8-digit term sheet that same afternoon.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. The process they use to guide their search is customer development. They would: Blog their Customer Development progress as a narrative. Founders operate in a chaotic regime. Victor Hugo.

Silicon Valley 281

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital 281

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 14, 2013

Amsterdam-based startup accelerator Rockstart last year launched a program to find and support ten teams of startup founders in Europe. It recently announced the results of its incubator program – and the results look promising.

Silicon Valley 231

Silicon Valley Europe Venture Capital Incubator 231

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. Wondering how do I get in touch with you - I am founder of a company here in San jose, CA and would like to invite you to be part of our advisor team.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

I’ve built my company using the Customer Development Model from Day One. I recently completed the Validation step (less the industry analyst presentations) and am ready to move on to Customer Creation. On a more serious note, any tips on attracting founders? So the ask is made — shall it be given?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

Our LivePlan customers are entrepreneurs, our founder and staff have run and sold companies, the Bplans readers are aspiring entrepreneurs (or actual entrepreneurs), and as I sell my own handmade jewelry, I like to think I have a very small claim to the title. At Palo Alto Software, I am surrounded by entrepreneurs. What to do next.

Curation 60

Curation Lean Software Review Finder 60

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

What makes an individual a great startup founder (versus an employee) has been something I had been thinking about since I retired. A Day in the Life of A Founder For those of you who’ve never started a company, let me assure you that it never happens like the pleasant articles you read in business magazines or in case studies.

Founder 297

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 297

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

They taught you about customers, markets and profits. The reward for doing so was a liquidity event via an Initial Public Offering. Startups needed millions of dollars of funding just to get their first product out the door to customers. That requires building a company using Agile and Customer Development.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

How founders cope with startup challenges was the focus of 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. I started working with startups and venture capitalists.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2010

Rich Karlgaard , publisher of Forbes and co-founder of the Churchill Club refereed the event. Filed under: Customer Development « Requiem For A Roommate 2 Responses steve , on October 21, 2010 at 7:05 am Said: what did Carl say at 1:12 ? Here’s a 6 minute excerpt from the talk.

Silicon Valley 140

Silicon Valley RSS United States California 140

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Truth: There’s nothing wrong with raising venture capital. Many lean startups are ambitious and are able to deploy large amounts of capital. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback. But they do not blindly do what customers tell them , nor do they mechanically attempt to optimize numbers.

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Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 15, 2011

The process they use to guide that search is "Customer Development" ; and to track their progress startups now have a scorecard to document their week-by-week changes – the business model canvas. They would: Blog their Customer Development progress as a narrative. Structure : Founders operate in a chaotic regime.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Startup Early Stage Business Model 118

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The new “discovery&# will be a continuous series of events, starting with a niche following and, for the successful artists, gradually transitioning into mainstream success. We faced this same problem in entrepreneurship and venture capital, but we are getting past it. Take a look and let me know what you think.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

female founders. founder friday. Lessons learned from female founders and women entrepreneurs. WHATS HOT: EVENTS NEWS LEARN CAREER VIDEOS ESPAÑOL. Startup Quote: Wendy Tan White on Building a Successful Startup » FounderDating: How I Found My Co-Founder. Scoring Founder “Dates” On My Own.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2012

These are with no doubt worthwhile goals, but I’d like to pose an important challenge for founders: Make learning and development your key resolution in 2013. How to Build a Startup (EP245) by Steve Blank: You’ll learn the key steps of the Customer Development process. Khan Academy.

Artificial Inteligence 156

Artificial Inteligence Founder Private Equity Ruby 156

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? What went wrong?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

APRIL 22, 2009

Customer Development.) Calculate the Odds The heuristic I suggest is: hear the corner case objections, make the objector calculate the odds, if the potential damage estimate is low (probability of the event occurring multiplied by its ability to put you out of business) keep the meeting focussed and move on. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 176

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 176

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Is the company hosting/co-sponsoring some event? Customer Discovery Sitting inside of your company you’ve made a whole bunch of assumptions about who your customers are and why they will buy. Now there are thousands of real live customers walking around the show floor with facts.

Silicon Valley 178

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

“If you can fix a problem for someone and do it better, quicker, and/or cheaper than your competitor, you’re off to a good start.” – Gabriel Kuperman, founder and CEO of CuePin. We created UpKeep to fill this void—a cloud-based solution that was affordable for any size business.” – Ryan Chan, founder of UpKeep.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. And even if they did – customers don’t ask to see your business plan. to compete. It provides a guideline for a methodical growth path for the company.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140

Rob Go

JULY 16, 2012

What many of the insights around Customer Development have been really impactful to my thinking, there is something that has always bothered me as the “Lean Startup Movement” has gotten more and more formulaic. There are just too many chance events.” ” On the other axis is optimistic / pessimistic.

Lean 47

Lean Framework Venture Capital Valuation 47

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

The founders coming out of the DEC ( Digital Equipment Corporation ) and Intel culture of the 1960’s and ‘70’s. As an early employee I worked all hours of the day, never hesitated to jump on a “ red-eye ” plane to see a customer at the drop of a hat, and did what was necessary to make the company a winner.

Entrepreneur 276

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 276

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

A seed round can come from friends, family, Kickstarter, angels – and most importantly, early customers. These sources are a lot more forgiving of iterations and pivots than later-stage venture-capital funds. In times of unlimited cash (internet bubbles, frothy venture climates) you can fix your mistakes by burning more dollars.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 333

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

We Don’t Need Domain Experts When I looked around at our executive staff, there wasn’t a single founder who was a gamer. Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. Nor was there anyone with game experience on our board. Make sure they are.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Discovering that your worldview is wrong or mistaken can be a life-changing event. Dinner in a Strange Land When I was in my mid 20′s working at ESL, I was sent overseas to a customer site where the customers were our three-letter intelligence agencies. He prefers to interact directly with the founders of a startup.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 184

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2010

If you’re a non-technical founder, while your team is building and refining your product, you’ve got to figure out what to do with your time. It’s the kind of thing you can repeat in an elevator, simple to understand , universally applicable , and, most importantly, doesn’t burden your tech team with a lot of custom development.

Early Stage 120

Early Stage Developer Technical Review Widget 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2013

A seed round can come from friends, family, Kickstarter, angels – and most importantly, early customers. These sources are a lot more forgiving of iterations and pivots than later-stage venture-capital funds. In times of unlimited cash (internet bubbles, frothy venture climates) you can fix your mistakes by burning more dollars.

Venture Capital 225

Venture Capital IRR Liquidity Event Business Model 225

www.aaronkharris.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

I was told that finding a CTO/technical co-founder in NYC was about as easy as climbing Everest with one leg, no O2, and carrying a dead elephant. Skipping ahead a bit Suffice it to say that we spent much of the last few months on customer development, a topic which merits its own post, and at which I think we’ve done a decent job.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New York City .Net Cofounder 40

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The timing is perfect, there is more than a little overlap with Vivek Wadhwa’s guest post on venture capital earlier today. One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going. I think I just really feared working for the Man.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Both Sides of the Table , July 22, 2010 An updated Digital Trends presentation - Jeff Hilimire , June 2, 2010 I do what I hate - Jessica Mah , January 7, 2010 Startup Equity Allocation - charliecrystle.com , January 11, 2010 When good investment decisions end up backing more women CEOs: Conversation with Cameron Lester at Azure Capital.

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2009

Biological Clocks After Convergent and now single again, I was a co-founder of my next two startups; MIPS and Ardent. Never miss an event. And I made sure I was in town for the major events.) My ideas about Customer Development started evolving around these concepts. Read the previous post first for context.

Entrepreneur 331

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development 331