Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

In the early days of Rocket Science I realized that we needed high-level advice on multiple fronts; technology, game development, video game distribution, etc. Opportunities are not just about sales, marketing or product. Along the way I also learned yet another way entrepreneurs see the world differently from their investors.

Advisory Board 260

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 260

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2009

Copyright gives you the right to prevent others from copying, distributing or making derivatives of your work. within one year of sale, offer for sale, public disclosure or public use. Offer for sale in the U.S.:Red Trademark registration is optional, but has significant advantages if approved. Copyright. In the U.S.

Intellectual Property 213

Intellectual Property IP Software Review Non-disclosure Agreement 213

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

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers. Decades before we were able to articulate the value of “getting out of the building” and the Lean Startup, the value in having skunk works controlling their own distribution was starkly evident.

Channel 286

Channel Customer Development Distribution Restful 286

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job. He tripled Microsoft’s sales to $78 billion and profits more than doubled from $9 billion to $22 billion. After running Microsoft for 25 years, Bill Gates handed the reins of CEO to Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

. ———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. This is worthy of an open and honest discussion with sales up front. And inviting to the booth/dinner/private demo.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Market Type affects your spending and sales ramp after you reach product/market fit. Even startups that are dominated by technical risk have the customer validation risk of finding positive ROI distribution in a large market. You say, “Market Type affects your spending and sales ramp after you reach product/market fit.&#

Customer Development 219

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 219

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

These new entrants disrupted their food categories by offering high quality proprietary recipes, outsourcing their manufacturing, and using their cash and resources on sales and marketing to build distribution and a differentiated brand. Krave generated ~ $35 million in net sales over the last 12 months.

North America 120

North America Lean Customer Development Distribution 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

A business model diagram also shows how the product gets distributed to your customers and how money flows back into your company. What’s the distribution channel. A business plan is useful place for you to collect your hypotheses about your business, sales, marketing, customers, market size, etc. Who are our partners?

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

to understand distribution channel landscape, potential partners and rough cost of customer acquisition. sales office. Trip 2 to the U.S. Test product/market fit in the U.S. Trip 3 to China, pick manufacturing partner, start low volume production. Test channel and demand creation activities in the U.S. Trip 4 to the U.S. Establish U.S.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 8, 2010

They collected information that justified their assumptions about the problem, opportunity, market size, their solution and competitors and the their team, They rolled up a 5-year sales forecast with assumptions about their revenue model, pricing, sales, marketing, customer acquisition cost, etc. It was an exquisitely crafted plan.

Business Model 328

Business Model Business Plan Customer Cap Table 328

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2014

The good news is that corporations have access to resources and capabilities that most startups can only dream of , whether it is free cash flow, a strong brand, a vibrant supply chain, strong distribution, a skilled sales force, and so on.

Startup 327

Startup Business Model Lean Russia 327

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. Marketing is at its peak.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

However, in catching up with the VP of Sales of Ardent last night, I was reminded one of the few times I did return for closure. We had support from the scientists and researchers who had bought one of our machines and were beginning to see that distributed computing would ultimately triumph, but bureaucracy marched on, and we lost the bid.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Distribution channels, brand loyalty, etc. The hard part in a company is not getting a demo or setting up an internal accelerator, it’s getting something delivered all the way through your existing sales channel. In hindsight the 20th century was the golden age for corporations. And that’s where the difficulties are.

Incubator 331

Incubator Lean Programming Government 331

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

How to they use the new distribution channels competitors have adopted? How do they make these transitions without alienating and losing their existing customers, distribution channels and partners? How do they connect with a new generation of customers who had no brand loyalty? Are these the real problems?

Framework 389

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 389

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

Distribution Channel changes to Deployment. In the commercial world we ask, “What type of distribution channel (direct sales, app store, system integrator, etc.) In the defense and intelligence community mission models, there will always be multiple beneficiaries.

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

But these VC’s aren’t Lean because they fund startups with web-based distribution models. Previous experience of investing in software companies that hire direct sales organizations and take years to build the product using waterfall development doesn’t translate to expertise in Consumer Internet startups. Lessons Learned.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

What’s the distribution channel? Dave McClure’s AARRR Model is one illustration of the web sales pipeline. A startup is a search for a repeatable and scalable business model. As a founder you are testing a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who are the customers/users? How do we create end user demand?

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 25, 2014

Being distributed/network ready (even though Ethernet was just barely coming into use in the enterprise). Which is why I had OEM sales as part of marketing—we had to earn our keep.). Only a computer historian would know Cullinet, an ancient database company that made it to $100M in sales back in the early ’80s.

Technical Review 333

Technical Review Venture Capital Software Review Database 333

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

They’ve learned the best distribution channel to get the product from their company to the customer. They’ve figured out the revenue model (subscription, license, direct sale, etc.) That means in their core business, large companies have a series of knowns. They’ve found product/market fit (what products customers want to buy).

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

billion for a company with less than $50 million in sales. The IPO Bubble – August 1995 – March 2000 In August 1995 Netscape went public, and the world of start ups turned upside down. On its first day of trading, Netscape stock closed at $58/share, valuing the company at $2.7

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

what distribution channel? Dollar size of deals is sufficient to be profitable with direct sales strategy. what’s the product? Come up with ways to test each of the 9 business model canvas hypotheses. Decide what constitutes a pass/fail signal for the test. The goal was to figure out whether this product could become a company.

Business Model 236

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 236

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2010

Students formed teams, came up with a business idea then talked to customers, vendors and sales channel partners to validate their business model. Each week the students had to submit a two-page analysis of the presenting company’s business model, distribution channels, demand creation activities, and engineering.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley Business Model Customer Development Engineer 126

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. These are great, but they are not repeatable by a sales organization. Who influences a sale?

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Execution by Vertical Market As the class progressed, students asked how the activities/functions of a startup; (Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Product Development, etc.) For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Sales – What Channel to reach the customer? would look in each of the verticals.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2015

Rocio Perez-Ochoa , co-founder of Bidhaa Sasa , which finances and distributes household goods that can improve families’ quality of life in rural Kenya. A week later we had $10,000 in sales. Rocio Perez-Ochoa. Listen to the full interviews by downloading them from SoundCloud here and here. . … We went for it.

Africa 120

Africa Cofounder Entrepreneur San Francisco 120

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.)

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Do you know have they distribute their product? Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. Me – “Have you used Company x’s product?

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2010

The good news is this team found a business model, product/market fit and a repeatable sales model. What lies ahead, however, is a different set of challenges: finding the new set of mainstream customers on the other side of the chasm and managing the sales growth curve. What’s Next.

Agile 120

Agile Development Team Review Leadership Merger 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2020

For a Series A round you want to prove you have built a repeatable and scalable sales/revenue model and understand all parts of the business model. The goal of the product at this stage is not a sale, but to test hypotheses about customer product/market fit. Series B is about proving your net revenue model (can you be profitable?).

Cofounder 429

Cofounder Seed Stage Valuation Metrics 429

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

It is relevant to and aligns the entire organization, e.g., sales, marketing, development, etc. It makes the discovery of customer needs quicker, more effective, and less costly. It reveals all sources of competition, making disruption and other surprises less likely. Given this set of characteristics, how should a market be defined?

Customer 420

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 420

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 18, 2011

To make matters worse, the long service life of Ford and GM cars (8 years for Fords Model T, 6 years for everyone else) retarded sales of new cars. And catapult General Motors from the number 2 car company (with a ¼ of Ford’s sales) into the market leader for the next 100 years. In 20 years, U.S. But Sloan went further.

Detroit 302

Detroit Distribution Vertical Finance 302

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Part 6: Distribution channels in Life Sciences. Do we price based on hardware sales or do we offer hardware plus consumables (parts that need to be disposed or replaced regularly)? At the end of the lectures you can see a “compare and contrast” video and a summary of the differences in distribution channels. Diagnostics.

Revenue 230

Revenue Lean Channel Distribution 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 17, 2015

Sprocket had world-class resources and capabilities in brand, supply chain, distribution, sales force, financial metrics, all tailored to execute the existing business model , not to help search for a new one. Or sales, who shut out innovation groups from doing customer discovery with any existing, or even potential customer.

Lean 120

Lean Metrics Business Model Distribution 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 8, 2015

For example, Google’s acquisition of Nest (which had customers, revenue and a distribution channel) allowed it to enter the connected home market immediately. Acquiring a growth-stage private startup can provide a faster ROI at lower risk than the acquisition of an early- stage startup. W hat would be the charter for our Innovation Outpost?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Acquisition Boston Early Stage 120