Remove Engineer Remove Product Development Remove Silicon Valley Remove Vertical
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Observations from my trip to India

Version One Ventures

It’s obviously very large, but most start-up activity is concentrated in a few cities: Bangalore (the “Silicon Valley” of India), Delhi (the 33m strong capital of India), Mumbai (the financial capital) and Chennai. Many of the most talented entrepreneurs and engineers left India to study and then work in the US and Canada.

India 87
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Vertical Markets 2: Customer/Market Risk versus Invention Risk.

Steve Blank

Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. is whether there is a customer and market for the product as spec’d. Holding founders and engineers feet to the fire will inevitably remove the rough edges from the the product, imporving bounce rates of newcomers and loyalty of established users.

Vertical 147
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The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

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?

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Why the Future of Tesla May Depend on Knowing What Happened to Billy Durant

Steve Blank

But in 1904, after his first time seeing a car in Flint, Michigan, he was one of the first to see that the future was going to be in a radically new form of transportation powered by internal combustion engines. He also believed that to succeed the company needed to be vertically integrated and bought up 29 parts manufacturers and suppliers.

Michigan 275
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Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores.

Steve Blank

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.) They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. Their engineers hated us.

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Out of the Ashes - Something Isn't Quite Right

Steve Blank

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. Would you mind sharing them? Order Here.

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He's Only in Field Service

Steve Blank

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.