Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. He continued: “I’d like to convince my boss so our company can be your first customer.”

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Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

But he left to work on what he told me he came to do - crack the innovation code of Silicon Valley and share it with the rest of the world. Founders overestimate the value of IP before product market fit by 255%. . Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital. Congratulations. ——-.

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ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. Engineers in the very small world of silicon and semiconductors would meet at the Wagon Wheel and swap technical problems and solutions with co-workers and competitors. It's the "Pay-It-Forward" culture.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

After I retired, I began teaching Customer Development , a theory of how to reduce early stage risk in entrepreneurial ventures. My blog also allowed me to indulge my interest in a few other subjects: The Secret History of Silicon Valley , thoughts on a career as an entrepreneur, observations about family and startups, etc.

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Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

You don’t need to worry about any Intellectual Property (IP) issues. The next week another team, working on a new type of solid oxide fuel cell, remarked, “Professor Blank, in our industry there’s a ton of patents and stuff and people tell us we shouldn’t be out there unless we start patent protecting all our IP.” Yeah, I said.

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Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development. Later on in this same company’s life, sales will become the pointy end and product development moves to a supporting role. Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.

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maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

I have 2 options: set up a new startup or share my idea with google (or maybe another big silicon valley’s company). I am trying to target potential customers (web developers) with ads on Facebook but I’m getting zero click thrus. You don’t need to move to Silicon Valley. What/How should I do?

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