Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. This left an open playing field for Chinese software startups as they “copy to China” existing U.S. If you’re a software startup competing in China, the words that come to mind are “ruthless and relentless.”

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2017

By coincidence, the CEO was an intern at one of my startups more than two decades ago.) Before the rapid rise of Unicorns, (startups with a valuation over a billion dollars), when boards were still in control, they “encouraged” the hiring of “adult supervision” of the founders after they found product/market fit. Adult Supervision.

Part-Time VPE 308

Part-Time VPE Liquidity Event Stock Engineer 308

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

A startup is not just about the idea, it’s about testing and then implementing the idea. This startup was broken at multiple levels. In fact, it wasn’t even a startup. There were three problems with Dave’s startup. A Startup is Not Just About a Good Idea. Coding is the DNA of a Web/Mobile Startup.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. This left an open playing field for Chinese software startups as they “copy to China” existing U.S. If you’re a software startup competing in China, the words that come to mind are “ruthless and relentless.”

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. The initial hypothesis for Epiphany (from my much smarter partner Ben ) was that as departments in the enterprise (manufacturing, finance, customer support sales) became automated, the marketing department would eventually get its turn.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

In the last few years we’ve recognized that a startup is not a smaller version of a large company. We’re now learning that companies are not larger versions of startups. But paradoxically, in spite of all their seemingly endless resources, innovation inside of an existing company is much harder than inside a startup.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance, and planning. A version of this article appeared in the Harvard Business Review.

Michigan 268

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 268

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 25, 2014

Since 2005 startup accelerators have provided cohorts of startups with mentoring, pitch practice and product focus. What’s been missing for everyone is: a common language for investors to communicate objectives to startups. a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance.

Incubator 310

Incubator Intellectual Property Startup Lean 310

Steve Blank

APRIL 26, 2022

At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. For existing investors, sometimes it was a “pay-to-play” i.e. if you don’t participate in the new financing you lose. This article previously appeared in TechCrunch.

Cram Down 404

Cram Down Founder Venture Capital Recapitalization 404

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. What I found in Finland was: a whole lot of smart, passionate entrepreneurs who want to build a startup hub in Helsinki. Startup Blog: Arctic Startup.

Finland 324

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 324

Steve Blank

JANUARY 5, 2023

We wanted to give our students hands-on experience on how to deeply understand a problem at the intersection of our country’s diplomacy, information, its military capabilities, economic strength, finance, intelligence, and law enforcement and dual-use technology.

Technical Review 353

Technical Review Artificial Inteligence Technology China 353

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

I suggested that they first might want to read my post on why business plans are a poor planning and execution tool for startups. A startup is not executing a series of knowns. A simple way to think about it is that in a startup no business plan survives first contact with customers. Business Plan Versus Business Models.

Business Plan 312

Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 312

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2014

Just look at the disruptive challenges that businesses face today– globalization, China as a manufacturer, China as a consumer, the Internet, and a steady stream of new startups. Perhaps that’s because where established companies might see risks or threats, startups see opportunity. Building Innovation Internally is Hard.

Private Equity 325

Private Equity Metrics China Intellectual Property 325

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

Everyone knows what a startup is for – don’t they? In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. In your startup’s business model, the boxes will have specific details of your company’s strategy.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

What if we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently? One would think that designing a medical device would be a simple engineering problem, and startups would be emerging right and left. Life Sciences II – Medical Devices. Regulatory Issues.

Startup 294

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 294

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

After seeing the process work so well for scientists and engineers in the NSF, we hypothesized that we could increase productivity and stave the capital flight by helping Life Sciences startups build their companies more efficiently. identify financing vehicles before you need them. It’s open to NIH SBIR/STTR Phase 1 grantees.

Lean 269

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 269

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. How do we finance the company, etc. Startup Metrics.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2020

If you’re a busy startup founder, you’re likely delegating the task of scheduling key meetings about things you want/need to your admin. Here’s why: A few weeks ago I got an email from a VC friend asking me to talk to a founder at one of his startups. A startup CEO handing me off to an admin sent a few signals. What Gets Missed.

Email 421

Email Framework Founder Finance 421

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. Gore , I’ve found two corporate strategy tools developed by other smart people helpful in bridging Lean Startups with Corporate Innovation.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

My startup career started on the bottom, installing process control equipment inside auto assembly plants and steel mills (in awe of the complexity of the systems that delivered finished products.) Up From the Bottom. Designed tradeshow booths, spent long nights at shows setting them up, and long days inside them during the shows.

Thailand 331

Thailand Engineer Customer Development SEO 331

Steve Blank

AUGUST 23, 2010

It reminded me of the differences in Customer Discovery between a scalable startup and a big company. The bad news is that the meetings become far more formal and more crowded, than one that a startup would have. Some parts of being a big company make it easier, others make being a startup even riskier. That’s the good news.

Customer Development 235

Customer Development Developer Customer South America 235

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. How can you tell if your startup has the potential to be the next Google, Intel or Facebook? A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup. The Scalable Startup.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

Disruptive innovations are coming from startups – Telsa for automobiles, Uber for taxis, Airbnb for hotel rentals, Netflix for video rentals and Facebook for media. Second, the leaders of these companies tended to be those who excelled at finance, supply chain or production. Startups are unencumbered by the status quo.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

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.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots. Startups, are not about executing a plan where the product, customers, channel are known. – not just web-based startups.

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. All the usual caveats apply.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 271

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

And building a startup is not for the faint of heart. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Prior to founding Andela , he co-founded 2U , an education technology startup that went public in 2014.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

And building a startup is not for the faint of heart. The tools and temperament needed to get from startup idea to startup success were the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Prior to founding Andela , he co-founded 2U , an education technology startup that went public in 2014.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

JULY 24, 2012

As other startups were quickly automating all the department of large corporations (SAP-manufacturing, Oracle-finance, Siebel and Onyx-Sales) our first thought was that our company was going to automate enterprise-marketing departments. I Know A Great Customer. A year later my co-founders and I had formed Epiphany.

Seattle 259

Seattle Cofounder Engineer Sales 259

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. Petersburg, Moscow, Prague, and Tokyo, but the visit to the heart of the Beijing startup world Zhongguancun has truly blown me away. In these series of 5 posts, I thought I’d share what I learned in China.

China 315

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 315

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2018

If you asked me why I gravitated to startups rather than work in a large company I would have answered at various times: “I want to be my own boss.” “I It never crossed my mind that I gravitated to startups because I thought more of my abilities than the value a large company would put on them. I love risk.” “I

Entrepreneur 336

Entrepreneur Business Model Capital Gains Aggregator 336

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. The world of building profitable startups as the primary goal of Venture Capital would end in 1995.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. The first wave of startups began when R&D centers and universities began to provide the technology and seed capital for new startups that were spin-outs or spin-offs. All the usual caveats apply.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2010

Last week I was having coffee with an ex engineering student of mine now on his second startup (and for a change it wasn’t a Web 2.0 startup) who wanted to chat about career choices. “I’m It was six years since he had left school and three and a half years ago he had joined an 8-person startup as a product manager.

Engineer 289

Engineer Business Model Programming Finance 289

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

VC’s invested their limited partners’ “risk capital” in a portfolio of startups in exchange for illiquid stock. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.). Startup Lifecycle Today.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2015

We need someone who can help get our library of entrepreneurship books into the hands of the startup founders and students who rely on them. It’s a great opportunity for someone detailed-oriented, and interested in startups and entrepreneurship. Maybe it’s a position for you or someone you know?

Connecticut 120

Connecticut Finance Web Sales 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. Petersburg, Moscow, Prague, and Tokyo, but the visit to the heart of the Beijing startup world Zhongguancun has truly blown me away. In these series of 5 posts, I thought I’d share what I learned in China.

China 207

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 207