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.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 299

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. Electron-based Venture Capital. Here’s why.

Lean 260

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 260

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The previous post described the evolution of the Chinese Venture Capital system. Startups here are primarily in what they call the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) segment.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 269

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

What are they, how do they differ and what can startup do to take advantage of them? Paths to Liquidity: a quick history of the four waves of startup investing. Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. The motivation in the mid 1950’s for these new startups was a crisis – we were in the midst of the cold war , and the United States military and intelligence agencies were rearming as fast as they could.

Engineer 307

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 307

ReadWriteStart

JULY 21, 2011

When we were trying to raise money for E.piphany, my last startup, I was negotiating with a venture capital firm called Infinity Capital. But it was my eighth startup and my partner Ben was even more experienced. All we had were six slides, and I wanted a $10 million post-money valuation. I still have the photo.

Post-Money Valuation 122

Post-Money Valuation Valuation IPO Venture Capital 122

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. The reality is that the United States is still a nation of small businesses.

Silicon Valley 307

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 307

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The previous post described the evolution of the Chinese Venture Capital system. Startups here are primarily in what they call the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) segment.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 161

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

My first IPO at Convergent. Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing , SuperMac , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , SuperMac « Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions Gravity Will be Turned Off » 17 Responses EricS , on May 11, 2009 at 11:05 am Said: I loved my Spigot. It was fun watching it happen.

Video 168

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 168

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. He became the first venture investor and “present at the creation.” He became the first venture investor and “present at the creation.”

Venture Capital 182

Venture Capital Agile Customer Development 182

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

(Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) 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.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Thirty years later we now realize that its one the causes of early startup failure. This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. It has become an integral part of startup culture.

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 18, 2010 Four myths about the Lean Startup Myth: Lean means cheap. Lean startups try to spend as little money as possible. Truth: The Lean Startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Myth: The Lean Startup methodology is only for Web 2.0/internet/consumer

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Yet one of the most remarkable things about the boom in microwave and silicon startups occurring in the 1950’s and 60’s was that it was done without venture capital. These technology startups had no risk capital – just customers/purchase orders from government/military/intelligence agencies. There was none.

Silicon Valley 163

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 163

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In other words, they are facing conditions of extreme uncertainty, just like startups. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. We faced this same problem in entrepreneurship and venture capital, but we are getting past it. What is the right revenue model?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley.

Product Development 146

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 146

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was still a year away from its IPO. And venture capital and entrepreneurship has made life even tougher for the modern corporation. Over the last 35 years venture capital has funded nimble new entrants (on a scale never imagined by Schumpeter ) who exist to exploit discontinuities in technology or customer behavior.

Silicon Valley 169

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 169

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. Interestingly enough, Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford Engineering was tied to all three companies.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 126

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

In 1995 Netscape IPO’d and browsers started to become more prevalent. He wanted to build direct customer relationships to get product feedback but only 2% of customers would ever return their registration cards. That gave Google a huge cost advantage. Think YouTube vs. the rest. Bill’s a huge believer in MVP.

Product 350

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator 350