Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2013

As our Lean LaunchPad for Life Sciences class winds down, a good number of the 26 teams are trying to figure out whether they should go forward to turn their class project into a business. It was a lifelong lesson that taught me to never start a business where you hate your customers. It never goes well. You just want them to go away.

Cofounder 328

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Liquidity Event Lean 328

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how. Build-Measure-Learn.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

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.

Oakland 312

Oakland Asia Lean Video 312

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2010

I’ve been teaching Customer Development at U.C. Berkeley was brave enough to let me write and teach a class on a subject that no one had ever heard of – Customer Development. Customer Development was a process to quickly search for a profitable business model when customer needs (features, pricing, channel, etc.)

Customer Development 239

Customer Development Lean Developer Customer 239

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

I earnestly believe that large corporations should emulate Lean Startups (Business model design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering.) However, they need to match a top-level (board, CEO, exec staff) agreement on strategy and structure. Developing a program to generate new ideas is the easy part.

Programming 269

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 269

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

I began formulating the key ideas around what became the Lean Startup – that startups and existing companies were distinctly different – companies execute business models while startups search for them. Let’s Teach Lean Via Experiential Learning. Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering).

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 17, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Join the Lean Startup discussion at Web 2.0 Expo for free Im honored to announce that my Lean Startup session at the Web 2.0 Everyone else can register to come to both sessions for free, including the Lean Startup talk in the main conference. What does this mean for you?

Lean 76

Lean San Francisco Web Continuous Deployment 76

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. You’ll learn how to: get to know your customers. get, keep and grow customers. Module 1, The Lean Method.

Intellectual Property 330

Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development Acquisition 330

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.) This post is part four. Syllabus is here.

Customer 239

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 239

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

State Department and asks students to use Lean Methods to test their understanding of the problem and deliver rapid-fire innovative solutions to pressing diplomacy, development and foreign policy challenges. Deliver minimum viable products that match State Department needs in an extremely short time. Lessons Learned.

Lean 164

Lean Government Agile Africa 164

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 9, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, June 9, 2009 The Lean Startup Tokyo edition I had a blast speaking at Startonomics Tokyo , which was organized to foster ties between the startup cultures in Japan and Silicon Valley. The idea is that great product visionaries dont need to listen to customers or test their ideas against reality.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Japan Continuous Deployment 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Teaches you how to use Customer Development to test it.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

State Department and asks students to use Lean Methods to test their understanding of the problem and deliver rapid-fire innovative solutions to pressing diplomacy, development and foreign policy challenges. Deliver minimum viable products that match State Department needs in an extremely short time. Lessons Learned.

Lean 120

Lean Government Agile Africa 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Steve Blank

JUNE 4, 2012

As the morning fog burns off the California coast, I am working with Steve Blank, preparing for the Lean LaunchPad Faculty Development Program we are running this August at U.C. Alex, vice provost for Innovation & Economic Development at Weber State University in Utah and completing his first year of teaching entrepreneurship.

Silicon Valley 310

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 310

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 ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

Followed by an 8-minute slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique. All the presentations are worth a watch. Team: Panacea.

Oakland 277

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 277

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

New strategic direction in companies with loyal customers have different consequences then when you had no customers Acquiring new customers are a lot more expensive that converting existing ones. 5) The customer’s needs don’t match your long term direction. Fire might be a strong word.

Customer 214

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 214

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 142

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 142

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 17, 2010

This feedback is a nasty trap, and it’s just how this room full of otherwise rational adults wound up in a screaming match about rounded corners. This feedback is a nasty trap, and it’s just how this room full of otherwise rational adults wound up in a screaming match about rounded corners. It was painful to watch.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review San Francisco Lean Software Review 164

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

(For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.) But in the meantime, by iterating on their product with customers, they have a chance to get there on their own. Labels: agile , customer development 15comments: Scott Shapiro said.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

This makes sense in a company where your customers, channel and competition are known. But for startups, business plans fail to match the chaotic reality they encounter in the real world. Yet year after year, decade after decade, VC’s would watch as no startup business plan survived first contact with customers.

Business Model 266

Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 266

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

The latest “aha” moment for me when I was at Columbia University teaching an intensive 5-day version of the Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps class. The goal of the class is to expose students to the basics of the Lean Methodology – Business Model Design , Customer Development and Agile Engineering. But hey, no problem.

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Business Model Agile 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. You have to wonder: does the VC you have on your board today have the right skill set to help you succeed in today’s economic environment?

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2019

I knew I wanted to write a book about a (then) radically new entrepreneurship idea called Customer Development (later the foundation of the Lean Startup movement). The Four Steps to the Epiphany , the book that launched the Lean Startup movement, was based on the course material from my first class. He was right.

Cofounder 151

Cofounder Lean Reputation Programming 151

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2014

Agile is a tremendous advance in reducing time, money and wasted product development effort – and in having products better match customer needs. And these changes may have unintended consequences leading to customer dissatisfaction and confusion. The Old Days – Waterfall Product Development.

Continuous Deployment 331

Continuous Deployment Customer Agile Cloud 331

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

We’re deep into teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists. The class has talked to 1,440 customers to date.). Filed under: Customer Development , Life Sciences , Teaching. This can be taught.

Lean 263

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 263

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Generate end user demand (to match our revenue goals) Drive that demand into our sales channels Value price our products to achieve our revenue and margin goals (create high-value) Educate our sales channel(s) Help engineering understand customer needs That was it. on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog.

Silicon Valley 268

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 268

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

If we tried to match them on their playing field we’d never catch up. Reply steveblank , on March 28, 2009 at 7:27 am Said: Denis, Over time the blogs tagged under the “customer development&# category will build up a narrative of illustrative stories of how customer development evolved in practice.

Silicon Valley 153

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 153

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. dumped Détente and embraced a new strategy to counter the Warsaw Pact by not matching them tank for tank or solider to solider. If you’re an entrepreneur, ESL is the most important company you’ve never heard of. Yet while the U.S.

Silicon Valley 190

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 190

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 2, 2008

In a subscription business, maybe your attrition starts matching your acquisition, balancing like magic. In an eyeballs business, you just cant seem to acquire or activate that next step-up of customers. Or your cost of customer acquisition just magically floats up to match your customer lifetime value.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Ideally we attempt to match the guests with the case or class session subject. For example, when we taught the value of getting out of the building and agile development, we had Eric Ries talk about the Lean Startup. So we tried to break up our lectures with guest speakers.

Business Model 235

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. But running a Lean Startup inside an organization designed for execution is an exercise in futility.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

I know that this all seems obvious now with the movements started by Steven Blank ( Four Steps of Epiphany ) with the whole Customer Development processes / Lean Startup movements also popularized by people like Eric Ries. but it is so important to see what your customers do in their daily lives. It was Salesforce.com.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

Join a select cross-disciplinary class that will put you hands-on with the masters of lean innovation to help bring rapid-fire innovative solutions to address threats to our national security. Targeting, assessments, technology, recipes, and tactics all flow at the speed of a Lean Startup. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, CIA, NSA.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Korea Agile Lean 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Week 3 of the class and our teams in our Stanford Lean LaunchPad class were hard at work using Customer Development to get out of the classroom and test the first key hypotheses of their business model: The Value Proposition.

Cloud 236

Cloud Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 236

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

As important as it is to get the initial equity split right—by matching it as closely as possible thefounders’ past contributions, opportunity costs, future contributions, and motivations—it is equally important to keep it right; that is, to be able to adjust the split as circumstances change. Lean Startup Book.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72