Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for. The first step was to recruit a new management team.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. Union Square Ventures The next morning I got to spend time with Brad Burnham , partner at Union Square Ventures talking about their investment strategy and insights about web-based businesses.

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Up and Running

OCTOBER 30, 2017

Be sure to take our quiz to find out if you’re entrepreneur material , too. Instead, your plan can follow a Lean Planning process that involves creating a pitch , forecasting your key business numbers, outlining key milestones you hope to achieve, and regular progress checks where you review and revise your plan.

Venture Capital 166

Venture Capital Business Plan Limited Liability Company Finance 166

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 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. customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) Product Development Diagram 1.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 6, 2011

The Lean Startup Book is done. If you've been waiting for a comprehensive account of the Lean Startup and how it can help you achieve dramatically better business results, this is it. And others are from unusual folks we don't normally think of as entrepreneurs, from corporate managers to government agencies.

Lean 167

Lean Startup Metrics Private Equity 167

This is going to be BIG.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2014

10) We only fund great entrepreneurs. 12) We''re using lean startup methodology. 15) We have an agency that is going to distribute us to all the major brands, so we fully expect huge distribution and revenue in the next year. 10) We only fund great entrepreneurs. 12) We''re using lean startup methodology.

Venture Capital 160

Venture Capital Cofounder Distribution Startup 160

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford. Innovators are not entrepreneurs. My contribution has been, “Why don’t we design classes more closely modeled to what innovators and entrepreneurs actually do.” And the Lean LaunchPad class I developed at Stanford was the first such class. Worth a read. It’s a big idea.

Incubator 331

Incubator Lean Programming Government 331

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. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup.

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Lean Startups/Back to Basics (2000-2010): No IPO’s, limited VC cash, lack of confidence and funding fuels “lean startup” era with limited M&A and even less IPO activity. VC’s worked with entrepreneurs to build profitable and scalable businesses, with increasing revenue and consistent profitability – quarter after quarter.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2019

He’ll be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference , and also has a new book (for which I very happily wrote a short foreword) coming out next month: Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It. What is venture capital, really? And what does a venture capital firm do?

Lean 108

Lean Venture Capital Conversion IPO 108

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

I took the opportunity this past week to publish summary notes of some of the VCs and entrepreneurs I had interviewed on This Week in VC. One of my goals in doing the show was not only to educate entrepreneurs but also to put a human face on many of the VCs in our industry as VCs can be hard to get to know. Startup after Iron Planet?

Vertical 265

Vertical Curation Boston Burn Rate 265

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Entrepreneur news from reporter Eric Markowitz. Dave Graham Business Venture Capital Private Equity GlobalLogic Inc. Venture Capital Firms. In the 1990s, Graham was one of those entrepreneurs giving away equity in exchange for crucial services. But Ive definitely had to lean on Dave. Tools & Research.

Arizona 40

Arizona Equity Iowa Venture Capital 40

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

An Entrepreneur’s Guide To Patents: How To Determine Whether They Are Right For Your Company | TechCrunch – [link]. The problem with a Lean Startup: the Minimum Viable Product | Paul Kortman – [link]. Want Venture Capital Funding? How PRWeb Helps Distribute Crap Into Google & News Sites – [link].

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

500hats.com

AUGUST 2, 2012

TL:DR : This post aims to recap significant changes in the venture capital industry over the past ten years, and then make some [biased] predictions as to major forces at play in the next five years. However, all three shifts are related and can be summed up simply as: Geeks are Taking Over Venture Capital.

Silicon Valley 74

Silicon Valley Early Stage Venture Capital Valuation 74

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

. — Though I haven’t talked to Larry face-to-face for 20 years, and haven’t worked at Oracle for 30 years, he’s the yardstick I’ve used to pick entrepreneurs all of these years since. Without a doubt, Larry was the most potent entrepreneur I’ve known. Pragmatic and Lean. Filed under: Technology , Venture Capital.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review Database 333

Genuine VC

JANUARY 3, 2013

Look back to the reasons why there was a Cambrian explosion of seed funding in the first place – a dramatic reduction in the initial capital requirements to launch a new company because of cloud hosting infrastructure, social graph distribution platforms, open source and low-cost development tools/methods, etc.

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Seed Stage Venture Capital Audience New York 166

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. “I don’t know the exact math, but I hear it again and again: the top 2% of firms generate 98% of the returns in venture capital.” Shame on you.

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LP Later Stage IRR Term Sheet 374

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 29, 2020

Most importantly, the phrase “ bootstrapping a startup ” translates into “growing your business with little or no venture capital or outside investment. It is also important to realize that, statistically speaking, most startups become operational without any venture capital or external funding sources. Draw up a budget.

Bootstrapping 85

Bootstrapping Global Startup Hungary 85

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 6, 2012

For a number of years, my partner Jason Mendelson has been teaching an extremely popular course at CU Boulder Law School with Brad Bernthal titled Venture Capital – A 360 Degree Perspective. Being an Entrepreneur. Reading: Alfred Kahn As A Case Study of A Political Entrepreneur (Weiser). Entrepreneurial Communities.

Venture Capital 133

Venture Capital Leadership Lean Community 133

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Partnership Opportunities At any show you are attending there has to be tons of opportunity for business to business relationships you hadn’t thought about. Write it down and keep it in a tradeshow handbook for those who will follow.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 29, 2011

Yesterday I wrote Part 1 of the series on the changes to the software industry over the past decade that has led to changes in the venture capital industry itself. Surprisinly, this strategy works well with many entrepreneurs. Or at least venture-style returns. This led to an explosion in startups. Funny, that.

Venture Capital 296

Venture Capital Software LP Early Stage 296

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. This is incisive and powerful and I hope many entrepreneurs or would-be entrepreneurs “get&# this eloquently stated point. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Up and Running

MARCH 1, 2016

Boris Wertz, founding partner of Version One Ventures, believes that if you’ve worked in an industry you’re passionate about for a long time, you may know something about the market that nobody else knows. If You Want Venture Capital, You Need It. See Also: Market Research Resources for Entrepreneurs.

Non-disclosure Agreement 60

Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Non-Compete Naming 60

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I responded to their RFP by proposing that Ardent build the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center a distributed supercomputing environment with hundreds of Ardent personal supercomputers rather than a monolithic Cray supercomputer. A entrepreneur’s idea of closure. And where are we today…distributed computing.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. The distribution discussion also leads to some assumptions about pricing.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

The Equity Kicker

FEBRUARY 24, 2014

Having worked in VC backed growth businesses for many years, I’m now changing seats and changing gear, looking forward to helping the best UK entrepreneurs succeed. I have real practical experience having worked in multiple high growth international startups and I hope to provide sound advice that will really help entrepreneurs succeed.

Partner 91

Partner Early Stage Business Model HTML 91

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 11, 2019

Ann will be speaking at this year’s Lean Startup Conference in October about all of this and more. I've been in venture now twice. I was in Boston, working for the first time in venture capital as an analyst for this guy who was incredible and an amazing mentor. How do you develop power within a venture capital firm?

Founder 68

Founder Lean Venture Capital Cofounder 68

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. Step 1: Start with a lean plan. Introducing Lean Planning: How to Plan Less and Grow Faster.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . Small investment firms often have interns and entrepreneurs in residence passing through, each of which is a security risk. ff Venture Capital hired two full-time engineers to build out Totem.

Technical Review 78

Technical Review Software Review Analytics Private Equity 78

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

I lovingly call him the curmudgeon of fintech – in this episode we go deep into how he is building a venture capital firm and practice, not just running a fund and how he views the world of fintech investing. It is the entrepreneurs that are singing their heart out, playing the instruments, et cetera.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

online.wsj.com

SEPTEMBER 23, 2012

To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com. SIGNIFICANCE PROMINENT. --> The Venture Capital Secret: 3 Out of 4 Start-Ups Fail. Semiconductors. Telecommunications. Transportation. Stock Quotes.

Venture Capital 107

Venture Capital Software Review Rhode Island North Dakota 107

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Waterfall, Agile, Lean? At a glance, you can see how startup capital needs differ by markets, how distribution channels and demand creation activities differ by market, and even how VC’s assess risk and reward by market. Intellectual Property/Patents – Strategic or Tactical, timing? Regulatory Issues – What are they?

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Some of the conversations went like this: Startup 1 Entrepreneur -“I’m competing against Company x and have been following the Customer Development process and I’ve talked to lots of customers.” Do you know have they distribute their product? Entrepreneur – “We tell potential customers about all our features.”

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.) I find both intriguing.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2009

Worries from the garage One of the worries I hear from entrepreneurs (not just my students) is that Customer Development means getting out of the building and sharing what you are working on. In the end, the CEO couldn’t get his board to give us the cash in exchange for the Japanese distribution rights and some equity.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 149