Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

This post describes how companies using the Customer Development model can increase their credibility, valuation and probability of getting a first round of funding by presenting their results in a “Lesson Learned&# venture pitch. Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?” Just as a refresher.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Over the years Dino and I brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. The cloud , open-source development tools and web 2.0 as a distribution channel have vastly reduced the amount of capital a startup needs at the early stage when the risk is greatest.

Early Stage 286

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 286

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2014

Kathryn has been the founding VP of Marketing of Oracle , a successful recruiter, a world class Venture Capitalist, a co-founder of a Venture Capital firm, a great board member, one of my mentors and most importantly a wonderful friend. The answer of course, was Venture Capital, but that was not in the cards—as yet.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Chicago Cofounder 333

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first post described how China built a science and technology infrastructure to support advanced weapons systems development. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. It went bankrupt in 1997.).

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

In recent years Business Incubators have developed into diverse models. Part 3, the next post describes the rise of Chinese venture capital. Torch has four major parts: Clusters, Business Incubators, Seed Funding, and Funds to support Venture Capital firms. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 278

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 278

Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2013

But what if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? Yep, it cost 80 times more to get a successful drug developed and approved today than it did 60 years ago. It was the best of times and the worst of times. WTF is going on?

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Startup Lean Philadelphia 301

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

For decades this revered business magazine described management techniques that were developed in and were for large corporations – offering more efficient and creative ways to execute existing business models. Each of these authors ( along with others too numerous to mention) profoundly changed my view of management and strategy.

Technical Review 327

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 327

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

Startup Accelerators: Startup Sauna and Vigo which includes Lifeline Ventures , KoppiCatch , and Veturi. Venture Capital: FVCA , NextIt Ventures , Primus Ventures , Open Ocean Capital , Connor VC , and Inventure. 9-to-5 Venture Capital. Startup Blog: Arctic Startup.

Finland 324

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 324

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Larry had the DNA I’ve seen common with all the successful entrepreneurs I’ve backed in my 25 years of Venture Capital work—only he had a more exaggerated case than most. It took a long time for our market to develop, so Oracle wasn’t exactly a growth explosion in the early days. Filed under: Technology , Venture Capital.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review Database 333

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Customer Development is all about gathering a list of what features customers want by talking to them, surveying them, or running “focus groups.” Customer Development is about Testing the Founder’s Hypothesis Any idiot can get outside the building and ask customers what they want, compile a feature list and hand it to engineering.

Customer Development 278

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 278

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Part 4 of the Customer Development Manifesto to follow.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

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. Compressing the Product Development Cycle. The New Structure of the Venture Capital industry.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital Software Review 335

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

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. The second thing that’s changed is that we’re now Compressing the Product Development Cycle.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

The first post described how China built a science and technology infrastructure to support advanced weapons systems development. This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. It went bankrupt in 1997.).

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

For decades this revered business magazine described management techniques that were developed in and were for large corporations – offering more efficient and creative ways to execute existing business models. Each of these authors ( along with others too numerous to mention) profoundly changed my view of management and strategy.

Technical Review 219

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 219

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

In recent years Business Incubators have developed into diverse models. Part 3, the next post describes the rise of Chinese venture capital. Torch has four major parts: Clusters, Business Incubators, Seed Funding, and Funds to support Venture Capital firms. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 170

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 170

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

Customer Development 124

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 124

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

No Knowledge of Computers Silicon Valley emerged from work in World War II led by Stanford professor Fred Terman developing microwave and electronics for Electronic Warfare systems. The company took on any engineering work that came their way but were kept in business developing new code-breaking machines for the Navy.

Minnesota 281

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 281

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. The first step of Customer Development is called Customer Discovery. Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2011

I spent two weeks of December in Chile as a guest of Professor Cristóbal García, Director of EmprendeUC at the Catholic University of Chile , which just signed up a 3-year collaboration partnership with Stanford’s Technology Ventures Program. Venture Capital. The country needs to build a deeper Venture Capital industry.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley Chile South America Venture Capital 335

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2022

It uses new words to define programming steps, job descriptions, development tools, etc. People (programmers) write software code (programming) to develop applications, thinking a priori about all the rules, logic and knowledge that need to be built in to an application so that it can deliver a specific result.

Artificial Inteligence 417

Artificial Inteligence Software Review Algorithm Technical Review 417

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. Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital. Tags: Customer Development Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 219

Silicon Valley Venture Capital China New York 219

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. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

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. Finnish culture makes risk-taking and sharing hard.

Finland 324

Finland Naming Russia Government 324

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

In the Installation Period , a great surge of technology development (Perez calls this Irruption) is followed by an explosion of investment (called the Frenzy.) and to develop professional managers and management hierarchies to run them. Venture capital firms, as we know them only date back to the 1970s.)

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 27, 2011

student of our MS&E department at Stanford ,) where they are set on being a leader in developing the management science of entrepreneurship. This startup search process is the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. The 47th (-46) Annual Business Model Competition.

Business Model 275

Business Model Utah Intellectual Property Agile 275

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

These are investment vehicles in which central and local government agencies make investments that are combined with private venture capital and State-Owned Enterprises in areas of strategic importance. The result was that by default, private equity and venture capital were the de facto decision makers of U.S. In the U.S.

China 323

China Venture Capital Government Artificial Inteligence 323

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

The benefits of customer and agile development and minimum features set are continuous customer feedback, rapid iteration and little wasted code. But over time if developers aren’t careful, code written to find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling.

Part-Time VPE 318

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 318

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' They are the signs of a leadership frightened not by external enemies but by their own people. It usually doesn’t end well.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Steve Blank

MARCH 16, 2016

But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Luckily in the last quarter of the 20 th century a new source of money called risk capital emerged. At its core Venture Capital is nothing more than a small portion of the Private Equity financial asset class. ——-. The Good News.

Liquidity Event 120

Liquidity Event Founder Liquidation Preference Venture Capital 120

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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

Do they have better sales, marketing, or product development groups? What the winners start with is the realization that in a world of continuous disruption, they have only a few years to develop new capabilities or be pushed over the brink. Is it that some CEOs are better than others? Are their people smarter? The short answer is no.

Incubator 402

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2013

Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Lean 330

Lean Venture Capital Customer Development Startup 330

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Understanding the left-side of the mission model canvas ( activities, resources , partners , and costs) forces all teams to ask, “Are we building a product for a DOD/IC customer only or do we have a “dual-use” product that could be sold commercially and get funded by venture capital?”. This post is a continuation of the series.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital. Download the full Startup Genome report here. ——-. I can’t wait to see what Max does by the time he’s 21.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333