Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

90 days later, I found out our games are terrible, no one is buying them, our best engineers started leaving, and with 120 people and a huge burn rate, we’re running out of money and about to crash. We hired everyone according to our plan. This can’t be happening to me. Stage 2: Deny any of it was your fault.

Redemption 330

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 330

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2011

He hired an operating exec as the CEO a few years ago. At the last board meeting our VP of engineering explained that the root of our problems was ‘our code has accumulated a ton of “technical debt,’ it’s really ugly code, and it’s not the way we would have done it today. In reality this is a fools choice.

Part-Time VPE 318

Part-Time VPE Agile Engineer Startup 318

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. They’ve stopped hiring the best talent, and startups are not looking so risky compared to large companies. Thanks to Kristo Ovaska and team for the fabulous logistics!) Lessons Learned.

Finland 324

Finland Naming Russia Government 324

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

90 days later, I found out our games are terrible, no one is buying them, our best engineers started leaving, and with 120 people and a huge burn rate, we’re running out of money and about to crash. We hired everyone according to our plan. This can’t be happening to me. Stage 2: Deny any of it was your fault.

Redemption 222

Redemption Cofounder Silicon Valley Burn Rate 222

Steve Blank

MAY 19, 2015

While he kept bringing the conversation back to their big valuation I tried to steer the conversation back to how they were going to deal with: training the influx of new hires – in both culture and job specific tasks. retaining their existing hires who were working for intern-like salaries with little equity.

Technical Review 120

Technical Review Salary Early Stage Software Review 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

One of the first potential advisors I reached out to was someone who 10 years earlier tried to hire me as the VP of Marketing of his new division at Sun Microsystems. For lots of reasons that never worked out, but I liked him so much that the following year I tried to hire him as the VP of Engineering of Ardent. (He

Advisory Board 260

Advisory Board Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Stock 260

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Their engineering teams didn’t have the expertise using off-the-shelf microprocessors (back then “real” computer companies designed their own instruction sets and operating systems.) Their engineers hated us. Engineers as Salesmen I thought (and still do) that this sales guy walked on water.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Companies are great at improving their existing business model and value propositions, but fall short when it comes to inventing entirely new business models, value propositions, and growth engines. Large companies have a habit of hiring outside agencies to do market research and customer discovery.

Non-Compete 329

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 329

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to. Entrepreneurial Culture.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) release of the product.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2011

It is a very different skill than science, engineering, or management. it is an art) and again hired professionals. This concept of creating something that few others see – and the reality distortion field necessary to recruit the team to build it – is at the heart of what startup founders do.

Agile 332

Agile Customer Development Early Stage Business Model 332

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

—— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. At Tekes, government employees (and their hired consultants) – with no equity, no risk or reward, no startup or venture capital experience – try to pick startup winners and losers.

Finland 324

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 324

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

GE’s Energy Storage division is looking to hire two insanely great people who can act like senior execs in a startup: A leader of Customer Development — think of it as a Product Manger running a product line who knows how to get out of the building and not write MRD’s but listen to customers. Corporate elephants can dance.

Silicon Valley 222

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Hire around you to fill those weak spots. …. A strong founding team will help a startup weather the chaotic early days, Nayeem said: The key thing that I would tell people is really know yourself, know what you’re good at, and know where your holes are. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend. Our vision was that just as the PC was revolutionizing the business market, we were going to do the same for scientists and engineers.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

The large players like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent historically would be more likely to simply copy a startup’s features than to hire their talent. Though they’re familiar with technology in the valley, I picked up some important cultural difference from students and startup engineers I talked to. Entrepreneurial Culture.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

Alice and Bettina had taken an idea they had tested in the class – building toys for young girls to have fun with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and started a company. They outlined their retail channel and PR strategy and told me about the type of consultants they wanted to hire. Hiring Channel Sales. It’s wrong.

PR 314

PR China Channel Lean 314

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 21, 2009

Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. We Hired the CFO. Their business had just crossed cash flow breakeven, had grown past 50 employees, just raised a substantive follow-on round of financing and had recently hired a Chief Financial Officer.

Engineer 335

Engineer Valuation Hiring Stock 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

It wasn’t that Microsoft didn’t have smart engineers working on search, media, mobile and cloud. In contrast, large companies are often risk- averse engines – they are executing a repeatable and scalable business model that spins out the short-term dividends, revenue and profits that the stock market rewards.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2016

It wasn’t that Microsoft didn’t have smart engineers working on search, media, mobile and cloud. In contrast, large companies are often risk- averse engines – they are executing a repeatable and scalable business model that spins out the short-term dividends, revenue and profits that the stock market rewards.

Azure 120

Azure Business Model Cloud Artificial Inteligence 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

To do that we will create end-user demand and drive it into the sales channel, educate the channel and customers about why our products are superior, and help Engineering understand customer needs and desires. We hired union laborers to do that. What’s your advice about hiring sales/marketing folks? (I It didn’t take more.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

We were impressed when we found that they did the in-person interviews by hiring usertesting.com for $39 to set up test scenarios, gave the users specific tasks to accomplish with their minimum viable product, videotaped the customer interactions and summarized customer likes and dislikes.)

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Resources are what the team needs to hire or own inside their company — the team’s physical, financial, human and intellectual property. Activities might include hardware or software development, mastering a 10,000 mile supply chain, low-cost manufacturing, or to provide services in a foreign country. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

Resources are what the team needs to hire or own inside their company — the team’s physical, financial, human and intellectual property. Activities might include hardware or software development, mastering a 10,000 mile supply chain, low-cost manufacturing, or to provide services in a foreign country. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

Jeremy Johnson , founder of Andela , which embeds talented software engineers on the African continent into top engineering organizations worldwide. A college degree is great if you’re looking to get hired. Jeremy Johnson. Joining me in the Stanford University studio were. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Companies are great at improving their existing business model and value propositions, but fall short when it comes to inventing entirely new business models, value propositions, and growth engines. Large companies have a habit of hiring outside agencies to do market research and customer discovery.

Non-Compete 120

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2020

Customer Development became one of the three parts of the Lean Startup as Eric Ries and Alexander Osterwalder provided the other two components (Agile Engineering and the business model canvas.) He had introduced the idea that customers don’t buy a product, rather than they hire it for a “job to be done.”

Lean 428

Lean Business Model Government Agile 428

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

Jeremy Johnson , founder of Andela , which embeds talented software engineers on the African continent into top engineering organizations worldwide. A college degree is great if you’re looking to get hired. Jeremy Johnson. Joining me in the Stanford University studio were. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

Alice and Bettina had taken an idea they had tested in the class – building toys for young girls to have fun with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and started a company. They outlined their retail channel and PR strategy and told me about the type of consultants they wanted to hire. Hiring Channel Sales. It’s wrong.

PR 206

PR China Channel Lean 206

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

— I just watched a very smart company try to manage innovation by hiring a global consulting firm to offload engineering from “distractions.” This was a very large and established tech company; its engineering organization developed the core day-to-day capabilities of the organization. There’s a much better way.

Incubator 312

Incubator Curation Engineer Government 312

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

And I understood engineering since I interacted with them almost daily. The department had hired a recruiter and was interviewing candidates from other chip companies. And finally, I had a great working relationship with our engineers who designed the chips. In reality it would be another 20 years.) I also knew our customers.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2009

The test for non-obvious is: given the prior art at the time of the invention, would a typical engineer 1) identify the problem, and 2) solve it with the invention? If you hire subcontractors or friends to do some work, get assignment agreements as well.). Scientific principles or pure mathematical algorithms cannot be patented.

Intellectual Property 213

Intellectual Property IP Software Review Non-disclosure Agreement 213

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

Traditionally, engineering, sales, and marketing have all focused on the immovable launch date. Hiring VPs and execs with the right titles but the wrong skills leads to further trouble as high-powered sales and marketing people arrive on the payroll to execute the “plan.” Focusing on the launch date.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2012

Steve, the VP of Sales and Marketing previously ran their engineering department. Most of the sales force were previously design engineers. I can barely recall the other people I met, (my potential boss the VP of Marketing, interviews with various engineers, etc.) There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

Silicon Valley 315

Silicon Valley Michigan IP Architecture 315

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2016

She is an Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Cooper Union. Nina has a bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union, a master’s in Bioelectrical Engineering from MIT, a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and an MBA from Columbia University. Nina : Yeah, it became concrete. …We

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Michigan Detroit 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. VC’s engineered financial transactions, working with entrepreneurs to brand, hype and take public un profitable companies with grand promises of the future.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2010

I flew more red-eyes than I can remember, and also had days where I just slept in the office with the engineers. And if they’re really strategic older founders hire engineers in their 20′s and 30′s who don’t know what they’ve been asked to do is impossible (exactly the strategy of my partner Ben at E.piphany.).

Agile 328

Agile Engineer Distribution Technology 328