Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

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 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

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. The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. We were going to be guessing.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

One of the things he mentioned was that when it came to decision-making he still tended to think and act like an engineer. Since every situation is unique, there is no perfect solution to any engineering, customer or competitor problem, and you shouldn’t agonize over trying to find one. The same is true in your company. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

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

AUGUST 13, 2009

Since I wasn’t an engineer, my contribution was around the team-building and fund raising. 2-way search is still in the works but I have the semantic extracted tags (thanks to Zemanta) feeding in to many search engines (activate realtime frankensearch). Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 179

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Yet startup companies have traditionally used this model to manage and pace not only engineering but also non-engineering activities. The flaw in this thinking is that “first customer ship&# is simply the date when engineering thinks they “finished” the 1.0 Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

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.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 125

Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2020

The LexSet Co-Founders (left to right) CEO Francis Bitonti , President Leslie Oliver Karpas , and COO Azam Khan won $250,000 in Verizon’s Built on 5G Challenge The Forrest Four-Cast: March 3, 2020 LexSet serves AI engineers, especially those with limited resources, with a better way to annotate photos.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Los Angeles Cofounder Silicon Valley 63

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2009

If you read only one previous post, read this one (or this one.) ————- The Birth of Entrepreneurship in The Hot Cold War Silicon Valley entrepreneurship was born in the middle of a secret war with the Soviet Union. While officially in the electrical engineering department, the lab reported directly to Terman.

Silicon Valley 153

Silicon Valley RSS Europe Germany 153

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

A month or two before the QuickTime public announcement in May, the SuperMac hardware engineers (who had a great relationship with the QuickTime team at Apple) started a “ skunk works ” project. So SuperMac engineering also developed video compression software, called Cinepak. The software was idiot proof.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

when to build out our offices in Silicon Valley, New York & Los Angeles. Brett was formerly SVP of the Marketing Cloud at Salesforce with an enormous organization of sales, marketing, implementation, sales engineers, etc. So our board meetings consisted of discussion about. how to build an initial sales organization.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

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. And our Director of Technical Marketing was superb at understanding customer needs and communicating them to engineering.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

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.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 131

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 23, 2011

I asked Harshil to focus his entire product and go-to-market strategy on the college-bound age 18 market and develop his assessment module, vertical search engine for colleges and trust network to address the needs of that market and that market alone. Age 18 is worried about college and that in itself is a sizable market. Discuss.

Spain 115

Spain Entrepreneur India San Francisco 115

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 3, 2011

I suggested going for larger companies and also to pick some verticals where the value proposition really shines through. In that case, the verticals of choice could be manufacturing, wholesale and retail. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. Is it inventory risk that Statisco manages well?

North Carolina 116

North Carolina San Diego Entrepreneur Balance Sheet 116

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Since no benchmarks existed, we enlisted our engineering department in a serious software development effort and wrote our own. We listed the editors, writers, what they had previously had written, deadlines, what the competitive products were, how our benchmarks stacked up, what “upgrades” our boards needed from engineering to win, etc.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. Product Development – How do you engineer it? Others you need to know when you execute the plan.

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. How did Silicon Valley start?

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

Vertical 128

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 128

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

And as more economies worldwide seek to shift their investment strategies offshore and seek out technology, hubs like Silicon Valley and Shanghai, among others, have reaped the benefits. Technology is, like water, flowing and seeping into nearly every sector and eventually into most of the global economy. 2/ The Scooter Phenomenon.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 27, 2011

However, the mistake Said has made is to go "spray and pray" and build numerous different verticals without really fleshing out the business strategy for any of them. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. PTA Portals. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. Discuss.

Entrepreneur 116

Entrepreneur San Francisco Technical Review New Jersey 116

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

And I understood engineering since I interacted with them almost daily. And finally, I had a great working relationship with our engineers who designed the chips. I found that having a senior marketer responsible for business strategy surrounded by ex-engineers and domain experts makes one heck of a powerful marketing department.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

They connect buyers and sellers in creative new verticals, helping merchants and non-profits interact with customers or donors. The key to WePay’s ability to support platforms is our patent-pending risk engine technology, Veda, that lets us underwrite merchants of any size and shape.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley Non-Compete API Vertical 217

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 6, 2011

In fact, in the discussion on JuJu brands is yet another validation of the verticalization and niche-ization of the Internet. This week, I published an article called The Top 10 Vertical and Social Web Trends where I have discussed this at length.

Vertical 115

Vertical Web San Francisco Entrepreneur 115

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Combined with product costs, an engineering budget, and schedules, this results in a spreadsheet that faintly resembles the first financial plan in the company’s business plan. Engineering focuses on building the product; it designs the product, specifies the first release and hires a staff to build the product.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

The meaning of alpha test , beta test, and first customer ship are pretty obvious to most engineers. The plan calls for selling in volume the day Engineering is finished building the product. While the product is being engineered, Marketing begins to create web sites, corporate presentations and sales materials. Order Here.

Customer Development 215

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 215

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2009

I am also a pilot, and computer engineer, and love to read stories about sigint and black aircraft programs. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Besides it being harder to get funding, it seems like this would be a good time to get cheap labor, rent, and product. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 170

Silicon Valley Iraq RSS Vietnam 170

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 30, 2017

It follows up on my posts discussing why early stage startups should — or should not — move to Silicon Valley. In the earliest stages, these skills relate to what any good founding team should bring to the table — an acumen for business strategy and product development coupled with great engineering.

Early Stage 48

Early Stage Austin Silicon Valley Intellectual Property 48

Steve Blank

MARCH 28, 2009

Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Posted on March 29, 2009 by steveblank This is post II of how I came to write “ The Secret History of Silicon Valley “ 1974. Reply Palantir Technologies » The Secret History of Silicon Valley , on April 16, 2009 at 3:03 am Said: [.] Order Here.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Michigan 195

Ben's Blog

MARCH 1, 2011

As a founder who developed into a CEO, I know that there is no manual and it is a nearly vertical learning curve. Venture Capitalists in Silicon Valley are notorious for both their tardiness and distractedness. If you have never been a CEO, the number of things that you must learn can be absolutely staggering.

Partner 78

Partner Technical Review Venture Capital Cofounder 78

ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

An incubatee with Indian Angel Network, Anirudh Motwani from New Delhi, India, discussed IndiaCollegeSearch , a vertical search engine to address the problem of finding detailed information about various colleges and institutions in India. IndiaCollegeSearch. From 2008 to 2010, Mitra was a columnist for Forbes. Discuss.

India 115

India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

Austin Startup

JUNE 27, 2017

There are many investors in Silicon Valley that are looking to invest not just in great companies but those that are thinking really big and looking to create and define new categories. We would also welcome seeing more high risk, high reward investing by the firms in Austin.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Market Type Integral to the Customer Development model is the notion that Market Type choices affect the way the company will deploy its sales, marketing and financial resources. Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

We decided to work with our engineering department to create the Potreo benchmarks because we really wanted to see how our boards performed with the four applications customers told us that they used; Photoshop, Quark, Illustrator and PageMaker. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 124

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Marketing demand creation programs (Search Engine Marketing, Public Relations, Advertising, Lead Generation, Trade Shows, etc.) Very few companies can make the “Four Steps to the Epiphany” work financially – this is one reason having engineering located in a cheaper country from day one is a major plus.&#

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 10, 2011

Edward Varghese from New Delhi, India, pitched i-Globify , an outsourcing service catering to the niche travel vertical, focusing on building Web 3.0 I liked his approach to building an outsourcing solution: focusing on a niche and building in-depth skills and credibility within that vertical.

India 116

India Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Vertical 116

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

If you think you are going to offend your customers or embarrass your engineering organization, get out of the marketing department. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Then shout the messages out (virtually) at the top of your lungs. Visually, demo’s, wild colors, etc. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 178

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178