Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. Second, and full disclosure, I’ve invested in a few of these funds ; and third my teaching partner Ann Miura-Ko is a partner in one of these funds. Lean VC’s are expert in on-line distribution, Agile and Customer Development.

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Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 260

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

And, not surprisingly, I frequently get asked what to look for or what to think about when starting the process of finding a cofounder – a true partner to start your next company with. You’re looking for an employee, not a partner. Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture. What are your working styles?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Dont keep banging your head against the wall - if you cant convince your potential partners that your startup is printing money, try to figure out why. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

You might get a bunch of inbound emails from other press and partners, and all of these things can contribute to a feeling that you’re on your way to getting tons of traffic. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It strokes your ego.

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Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

In the late 1950’s Silicon Valley’s first three IPO’s were companies that were founded and run by scientists and engineers: Varian (founded by Stanford engineering professors and graduate students,) Hewlett Packard (founded by two Stanford engineering graduate students) and Ampex (founded by a mechanical/electrical engineer.)

Engineer 307

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 307

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

I trained the Startup Weekend Next Beijing mentors and instructors, presented to several hundred entrepreneurs, and had a great fireside chat with Zhen Fund founding partner Xu Xiaoping in front of another roomful of entrepreneurs. Liquidity for most Internet startups happens via IPO’s. 70% of exits in China are via IPO (in the U.S.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 269

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

As a result, the companies get a lot of exposure to VCs, investors, and partners in larger, more traditional startup hubs. And do your customer development. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Some of the mentors are based in Boulder, but many are not.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I thought Id share a little bit of that, too: I’ve been interested in different approaches to software development going back to 1987 when – in my first company Feld Technologies – my partner Dave Jilk and I started talking about “semi-custom software development&# (way ahead of its time).

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

I trained the Startup Weekend Next Beijing mentors and instructors, presented to several hundred entrepreneurs, and had a great fireside chat with Zhen Fund founding partner Xu Xiaoping in front of another roomful of entrepreneurs. Liquidity for most Internet startups happens via IPO’s. 70% of exits in China are via IPO (in the U.S.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 161

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

Herein lies the reason my partner and I started Dillotronics - as well as the reason your take on the matter resonated so well here. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Thanks for an enjoyable evening. June 3, 2009 8:16 PM Tom Gimbel said.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

I got a powerful taste of datablindness recently, as I’ve started to work with various large companies as partners in setting up events, speeches, and other products to sell around the Lean Startup concept. There are lots of good reasons why I can’t have instantaneous access to this data, and each partner has their own.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

For instance, when Robin Chase and her partner, Antje, founded the car-sharing startup Zipcar, they agreed with a quick handshake to split the equity 50–50. Robin wondered when her partner would be able to become more involved, but, in the end, Antje never joined full-time. Some IPO speculation. ► July. (4).

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Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

Secondly, they had an owned & operated (O&O) website – Google.com – and Overture had shut down GoTo.com at the request of their very profitable and large distribution partners. In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. That gave Google a huge cost advantage.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was still a year away from its IPO. Hewlett’s partner Dave Packard wanted to get into the computer business.) But first some background.) Things Change In 1956 Hewlett Packard (HP) was a 17-year old company with $20 million in test equipment sales with 900 employees. Its latest product was an oscilloscope, the HP 150a.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 1, 2009

I see that as a great way for my product to grow, but while Ive partnered with companies in my consulting business, its not something Im as familiar with now that Im on the product side. I question what numbers I would need to be considered respectable and/or worth a potential partners time. January 2, 2009 4:53 AM Dave McClure said.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Establish credibility with potential partners. You need to combine your product with others, and this requires partners like OEMs or system integrators. A marketing launch can help you get in the door with those partners, if youre having trouble getting their attention. Do some Customer Development instead.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. Or to some passionate customers. Were doomed!

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Each of these four currencies represents a way for a customer to “pay&# for services from a company. A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them.

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Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Steve Blank

JULY 6, 2010

Instead of ghost stories they were the first to hear the ideas of what would become Customer Development. One of those students, Shawn Carolan , is now a partner at Menlo Ventures. If you’re doing Customer Development /Lean Startup, Shawn is a great guy to have as an investor. Fast forward to today.

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

What about companies, like Siebel, that started with partner distribution first? For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.) It’s the difference between asking “how should we best solve this problem for these customers?&#

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. It exists to serve the needs of customers, and it does this by offering its capabilities to other functions in the company, and partnering with them. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

These IPOs meant that technology companies didn’t have to get acquired to raise money or get their founders and investors liquid. In a typical venture fund, the partners receive a 2% management fee. This is where the partners would make their money. But the biggest innovation was the “carried interest” (called the “carry”.)

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Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 126

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Whitney Company by writing a personal check for $5M and hiring Benno Schmidt as the first partner (Schmidt turned Whitney’s description of “private adventure capital&# into the term “venture capital”). set up companies to do just that – find and formalize investments in new and emerging industries. In 1946 Jock Whitney started J.H.

Silicon Valley 163

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 163

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

This is especially useful in situations, like most B2B businesses, where the total number of customers is likely to be small. This case study illustrates one company’s attempt to do customer development by testing their vision with customers before writing a single line of code. Oh, this is just a Photoshop file?

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2010

Sure, when entrepreneurs create startups that grow up into mature companies, they become part of an established industry, with its own ecosystem, norms, partners and best practices. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 122

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Mark Suster GRP Partners Advice. Philippe Botteri, Bessemer Venture Partners. Their Partners all come from industry, where each has held senior level executive positions delivering industry-leading products. Lodestone Innovation Partners (IP) Ltd are spin-out specialists.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

But it became clear that if IMVU was ever going to become a mainstream business, we had to effectively fire these early customers. Suffice to say that our partners, vendors, and most importantly regular mainstream customers all found the idea disturbing. The reasons were many and complex, so I won’t rehash them all here.

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Community Management Lean Software Review 158