Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2021

Anduril founder Palmer Luckey has sardonically noted that the only defense companies to reach unicorn status in the past 30 years have all been founded by billionaires able to endure long gaps in funding. The best prepared companies can either raise sufficient funds to keep operating or count on revenue from other sources.

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The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. As a founder, ask yourself – does your business actually warrant VC funding?

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

The OEM Business Convergent’s business was selling desktop computers (with our own operating system and office applications) to other computer manufacturers – most of them long gone: Burroughs, Prime, Monroe Data Systems, ADP, Mohawk, Gould, NCR, 4-Phase, AT&T.

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David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. What VCs most typically talk about are: – Industry expertise.

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David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. That said, one limitation in early-stage investing particularly is that 2022’s growth sectors probably don’t fit neatly into a vertical we can define today. What VCs most typically talk about are: – Industry expertise.

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Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. Communism being a bad science experiment) ESL’s founder Bill Perry was moving the chess pieces. If you think the Cold War turned out the right side up (i.e.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

In a startup the role of Customer Development is to: test the founders hypothesis about the customer problem test if the product concept and minimum feature set solve that problem This is a big idea and worth repeating. One question: which “endianness&# did the founders at this startup expect the chip would have?

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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. Governments blocking acquisitions, the curtailment of company expansion, more scrutiny on overseas operations of U.S. 3/ Crypto Hibernation.

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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. “Oh Order Here. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

That’s no longer the case in Silicon Valley. I don’t think you need operational experience to be a good VC but Mark Suster’s great new post illustrates the difference. [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Keep teaching! Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.

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David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

RBI normally requires founders to pay back their investors with a fixed percentage of revenue until they have finished providing the investor with a fixed return on capital, which they agree upon in advance. For background, see Revenue-Based Investing: A New Option for Founders who Care About Control. Decathlon Capital.

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Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Reply Manish Gajjar , on December 1, 2009 at 2:37 pm Said: As an entrepreneur/founder, I want to clarify to my team what is expected out of them in what time. We must get established EDI companies and new SAAS B2B platform operators to adopt our EDI API, with all of its amazing advantages. Thank you for sharing this. Order Here.

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Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

I spoke with Toptal Co-founder and CEO Taso Du Val to find out more about how Toptal got started and his predictions for the future of the talent economy. We really wanted to build a network of top tier talent, similar to the caliber of talent that’s working in-house at top Silicon Valley tech companies.

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Version One Ventures

OCTOBER 17, 2018

And we also look at companies that are creating the best product for a specific vertical – including bio/healthcare and other emerging tech. From Fund I and now to Fund III, we have been able to serve as an important bridge between Silicon Valley and other tech ecosystems. We invest across North America.

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Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

However, I’ve seen this story repeated time and again, and not just in Silicon Valley. Let this article serve us reminders to founders and boards alike Reply Michael F. The same principles operate in living as in business. Are his costs in control? Is the story over?

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

But the team believed adding video as an integral part of an operating system and user experience (where there had only been text and still images) would be transformative. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. But Apple had planned to announce and demo QuickTime without a way to get video into the Mac.

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Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

Brunner (@heatherjbrunner) | Twitter Preston James Co-founder & CEO DivInc Preston is at the center of everything Diversity & Inclusion in Austin. Advisor, Austin Mayor Steve Adler Eugene has long operated at the intersection of business, government & nonprofits, locally and nationally. Carolyn was recognized by Inc.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2013

by Bill Clerico, CEO and co-founder of WePay. Homebrew, an early stage venture firm focused on this same revolution has illustrated the following: An engineer or designer gets work by offering his skills via vertical marketplaces. An entertainer sells music, tickets and merchandise directly to her fans online.

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www.businessinsider.com

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

JOB OF THE WEEK: Operations Manager. Microsofts New Enterprise Operating System Is Going To Be A Big Hit. Silicon Valley 100. Notes like this are part of Grahams ongoing process of steering them through the thickets of Silicon Valley startup life. Wow, The iPhone 5 Is Going To Be Pretty Thin. Clusterstock.

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Silicon Valley Startup Valuation Venture Capital 54

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 12, 2019

Silicon Valley can frequently be too provincial in its views of entrepreneurship, strategy, and markets. In my previous podcast with my friend and entrepreneur Wences Casares, we talked about the ability of entrepreneurs down here to see global markets that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs might miss.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2009

And when I wasn’t reading, I was also teaching operations which gave me a pretty good understanding of what we were looking for on the other side. And during the Cold War it sat side by side with commercial firms in Silicon Valley, with its nondescript sign on the front lawn. All You Can Read Without a Library Card It was 1978.

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Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

the Connectors, Angels, Venture Capitalists, Founders, Professors, Hackers, Press… and the Legends. Find the Connectors , the Angels , the Venture Capitalists , the Founders , the Professors , the Hackers , and the Legends you need to meet and get some hints about the best ways to meet them. Here is your COVID-friendly cheat sheet.

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Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

Ben's Blog

MARCH 1, 2011

Some firms hire pure investors, some firms hire operators, some Wall Street analysts, some firms hire sales people, some firms hire lawyers, and others hire reporters. Two aspects of the original vision that deeply depend on the kind of general partners that we hire are: We will help develop founders into CEOs. A Little Help.

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Partner Technical Review Venture Capital Cofounder 78

Start Up Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

Sir Martin Sorrel , the founder of WPP (the worlds largest media organization), recently said he went to Tech Punta in Montevideo instead of the CES in Las Vegas. A bit like Silicon Valley. Especially when the brand normally operate in an invisible category like washing powder.

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Uruguay Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 123

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2009

As a founder you need to prepare yourself to think creatively and independently, because more often than not, conditions on the ground will change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant. Every potential startup founder should think about their level of comfort operating in chaos and uncertainty.

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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.) What happened to him?

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Concept and Seed Stage In the Concept and Seed Stage, founders capture their passion and vision for the new company and turn them into a set of key ideas, which quickly becomes a business plan, sometimes on the back of the proverbial napkin. (In Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

I would be very curious to hear the (hypothetical) suggestions you would have given to twitter’s founders, for example. Startups are – and will remain – an art, not a science. … The tactics you can use to create demand for a new product differ significantly when you operate in a new vs. existing market.

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Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Cracking the Code

JANUARY 19, 2016

Even in 2006, when I joined Bessemer Venture Partners, there was still a lot of skepticism in the Silicon Valley around SaaS (one of my first blog post in 2006 was titled: “W hy I disagree with Tony Zingale — CEO of Mercury Interactive — on the future of SaaS ").

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API Silicon Valley Europe Differentiation 48

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

As we ran our tests, our engineering team found ways to improve our graphic boards performance for these applications and they made revisions to the boards firmware (its operating instructions.) If you are a founder of a startup ethics begin with you. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. A final note.

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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. He is the founder and former Co-Chairman and CEO of Motion Computing. Edward’s University.

Venture Capital 54

Venture Capital Austin Texas Private Equity 54

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2009

Biological Clocks After Convergent and now single again, I was a co-founder of my next two startups; MIPS and Ardent. In hindsight this list looks pretty organized but in reality we made it up as we went along, accompanied with all the husband and wife struggles of being married and trying to raise a family in Silicon Valley.

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Austin Startup

MARCH 4, 2018

AirPop’s co-founder Chris Hosmer (pictured above) answered our questions for this interview. We marry the mobile-first pragmatism and ingenuity of China’s tech scene with the core creative and technical innovation Silicon Valley is known for, particularly in digital devices and healthcare innovation. I attended in 2007.

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www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

Like Edison and the lightbulb, like Gates and the pc operating system, I would launch a revolution that would transform society while bringing me wealth and fame. When a co-founder walks out of a company — as was the case for me — you’ve already been dealt a heavy blow. Post-Mortem Title : How My Startup Failed. Company : BricaBox.

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Software Review Startup Technical Review Vesting 79

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2017

I knew there was a Friday night poker game in Silicon Valley where all the software pioneers were getting to know each other and helping shape the industry. The leadership centers of the microcomputer world shifted from Albuquerque to the San Fernando Valley (LA), the Bay Area, and Seattle. Deals were getting done there.

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Atlanta Albuquerque Incubator Austin 48

Reid Hoffman

SEPTEMBER 8, 2020

From there, it further shifted to operating its own refrigerated warehouse and fleet of delivery vans to deliver organic foods directly from farmers and specialty suppliers. This pivot fundamentally changes your required organizational competencies, from Sales and Marketing to Engineering, Operations, and Support. WHAT LEADS TO PIVOTS?

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techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Researchers divided the portfolio companies into six stages and startups are still operating a loss in each of the first four. Been there Done that This is very depressing for all future founders, or even currently early stage founders. Paglia, Pepperdiine’s Denney Academic Chair and Associate Professor of Finance.

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Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62