Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. This means that those winning deals have to make a ~30x return to provide the venture capital fund that 20% compound return (the 6x). Part 3: Engineering a Regional Tech Cluster.

Early Stage 292

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 292

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

—— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Startup Accelerators: Startup Sauna and Vigo which includes Lifeline Ventures , KoppiCatch , and Veturi. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Startup Blog: Arctic Startup.

Finland 328

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 328

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

the wave of semiconductor startups in the 1960’s/70’s, the emergence of venture capital as a professional industry, the personal computer revolution in 1980’s, the rise of the Internet in the 1990’s and finally. Yet time after time, after the product shipped, startups would find that customers didn’t use or want most of the features.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital Software Review 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first post described how China built a science and technology infrastructure to support advanced weapons systems development. The previous post described how the Torch program built China’s innovation clusters. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Venture Capital 276

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 276

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. Let’s Fire Our Customers Part of the DNA of great entrepreneurs is a bias towards decisive and immediate action. Get it done, now.

Customer 216

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 216

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. The country needs to figure out a long term privatization strategy for Venture investing. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Finland 331

Finland Naming Russia Government 331

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. In July I got a call from Errol Arkilic , a program manager at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the $6.8-billion The I-Corps Incubator Program. This week we saw the results. billion U.S.

Incubator 307

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 307

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first post described how China built a science and technology infrastructure to support advanced weapons systems development. The previous post described how the Torch program built China’s innovation clusters. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Venture Capital 168

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 168

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2010

Thirty plus years ago when I came to Silicon Valley Asian’s and Indian’s in high technology were a small minority and almost none were running companies or in venture capital. Hint – Unit 8200 and the Talpiot program.). Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital. Is it their DNA?

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley Venture Capital China New York 233

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. And most startup code and features end up on the floor as customers never really wanted them.

Lean 260

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2012

How to Build a Startup (EP245) by Steve Blank: You’ll learn the key steps of the Customer Development process. How to identify and engage the first customers for your product, and how to gather, evaluate and use their feedback to make your product, marketing and business model far stronger. Become a Web Developer from Scratch!

Artificial Inteligence 156

Artificial Inteligence Founder Private Equity Ruby 156

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Kathy Sierra at Business of Software 2009 - Business of Software Blog , May 4, 2010 "In the old days, getting customers was easy. Putting customers first. Legendary customer support. Guide to Evaluating Startup Ideas - Tony Wright dot com , May 27, 2010 A great developer I once worked with was kvetching at lunch one day.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Now with over 917 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.), Using the Lean LaunchPad methodology our teams do much more than just build a product or understand customer problems/needs. We just held our eighth and ninth weeks of the Hacking for Defense class. This post is a continuation of the series.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

They were one of the first companies to sell an external disk drive for the original Mac; they had the first “color paint programs” for the Mac; and when the Mac was just black and white they had the first color graphics boards and large screen color monitors for the Mac. They sold to a set of customers I knew nothing about.

Silicon Valley 165

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 165

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford's Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. Yore launching to the customers you’ve already discovered and validated your ideas. . …

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

China has embraced state capitalism in a way Wall Street can only dream about. Startups, Venture Capital and the Communist Party: how did this happen in China? The majority of the science and technology programs are driven by MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology ) and NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation).

China 320

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 320

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

The program examines the DNA of entrepreneurs: what makes them tick, how they came up with their ideas; and explores the habits that make them successful, and the highs and lows that pushed them forward. And most importantly, you have your customers that you want to sell your product or service to. You have your team.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Bend needed its own venture firm.

Silicon Valley 317

Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 317

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I Love Business Plan Competitions I had a breakfast with a friend who has founded a few companies in Thailand and started the New Ventures Program at one of their universities. I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure.

Business Plan 156

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 156

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2015

Starting this Monday, March 9 th 4-6pm Pacific Time I’ll be on the radio hosting the Bay Area Ventures program on Sirius XM radio Channel 111 – the Wharton Business Radio Channel. Over this program I’ll be talking to entrepreneurs, financial experts and academic leaders in the tech and biotech industries.

Channel 120

Channel Venture Capital Lean Business Model 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

China has embraced state capitalism in a way Wall Street can only dream about. Startups, Venture Capital and the Communist Party: how did this happen in China? The majority of the science and technology programs are driven by MOST (Ministry of Science and Technology ) and NSFC (National Natural Science Foundation).

China 212

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 212

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Venture Capital Issues. Early stage Venture Capital for medical device startups has dried up. The amount of capital being invested in new device companies is at an 11 year low. Venture Capital. The National Institute of Health (NIH) is also setting up translational centers through its NCATS program.

Startup 300

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 300

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers.

Technology 143

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 143

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 had been recruited back by his Alma Matter to create an entrepreneurship program. They accounted for 65 percent (or 9.8

Silicon Valley 311

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 311

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Or offer some real insights into our customers? It wasn’t a lack of competence or skill in her job; it was just that as far as she was concerned, her job had no connection to the rest of marketing, our customers or our ultimate success as a company. “We Has anyone ever spoken to a customer?” An in-depth reseller survey?

Silicon Valley 210

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 210

Steve Blank

JANUARY 24, 2014

Is it creating a job works program? Ideally your existing talent base and ecosystem naturally support the “core competency magnet” you want to develop. Finally, put your money where your mouth is – help fund the events and programs in the early years. Stopping brain drain in the region?

Engineer 313

Engineer Silicon Valley Oregon San Francisco 313

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Ann who had been my Teaching Assistant while she had finished her PhD at Stanford felt the same frustration about teaching entrepreneurs to assemble a business plan that we knew in the real world wouldn’t survive first contact with customers. After Stanford, Ann joined Mike Maples’ Venture Capital firm Floodgate as a partner.

Business Model 235

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235

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

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

The previous post described the evolution of the Chinese Venture Capital system. If there ever was any question about the value of China’s Torch Program walk around Zhongguancun. China Venture Capital. If it’s driven by profit then the ecosystem needs both entrepreneurs as well as Venture Finance.

Silicon Valley 272

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 272

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

What we didn’t envision was that one creative corporate VP would take that post and build a world-class corporate innovation program around it. Almost every large organization has some kind of incubator or accelerator program. in developing these new models. And this has created a global entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Lean 329

Lean Nepal Cofounder Customer Development 329

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Given the hardware I had worked on at ESL, learning microprocessors wasn’t that hard but figuring out how to teach hardware design and assembly language programming was a bit more challenging. So our people in the field could correct any egregious design advice I gave to customers who mattered. Life was good. Where Am I?

Silicon Valley 200

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 200

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

All branches of the military (the Air Force and Army would fund the program as well) wanted Stanford to build prototypes of electronic intelligence and electronic warfare systems that could be put into production by partners in industry. Stanford had a Customer Development loop going on inside their own lab.

Silicon Valley 155

Silicon Valley RSS California Government 155

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Now we needed to put the tactical programs in place to make this repositioning strategy happen. The “strategy” of learning who SuperMac’s customers were, what solutions they needed and what our repositioning would be was a three month effort. it was the speed of the applications that customers were using to get their work done.

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 127

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

The combination of Venture Capital and technology entrepreneurship is one of the great business inventions of the last 50 years. The NSF has announced the Innovation Corps – a program to take the most promising research projects in American university laboratories and turn them into startups.

Engineer 284

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 284

Steve Blank

MAY 12, 2015

Here’s Edmund’s description of the I-Corps Lite program. SBIR/STTR Program and Startup Seed Funding. The Small Business Innovative Research ( SBIR ) and Small Business Technology Transfer ( STTR ) programs are startup seed funds created by Congress to encourage U.S. startups that don’t fit whatever’s hot in venture capital.

SBIR 120

SBIR Maryland Lean Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2011

I spent a few days in March in Ann Arbor Michigan as a guest of Professor Thomas Zurbuchen , Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs, and Doug Neal , Director of Center for Entrepreneurship in the Engineering School at the University of Michigan. Venture Capital ; met with the local hardware/software venture capital firm.

Michigan 313

Michigan Silicon Valley Venture Capital Incubator 313