Steve Blank

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Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Weeks 8 and 9

Steve Blank

The founder of this 1964 Silicon Valley startup was Bill Perry. His work at ESL made him one of the 10 founders of National Reconnaissance. Four decades ago my first job in Silicon Valley was with ESL, the first company to combine computers and signals intelligence. Dr. Perry eventually became the 19th secretary of defense.

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Story Behind “The Secret History” Part III: The Most Important.

Steve Blank

Communism being a bad science experiment) ESL’s founder Bill Perry was moving the chess pieces. One key difference: unlike HP, which had restricted stock ownership to the founders and top management, Perry made sure everyone at ESL had stock. Smart weapons, smart sensors, and stealth. And no one who really knew could tell you.

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?????????? – Tenacity: How I Spent A Year One Night in Kiev

Steve Blank

When it was over, Happy Farm CEO and founder (and serial entrepreneur) Anna Degtereva drove me to the airport and–for some strange reason–escorted me to the gate. The problem was that I had 25 founders from all over the Russian republics expecting me to teach a Lean LaunchPad class 12 hours later in Moscow.

Ukraine 291
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It’s Time to Play Moneyball: The Investment Readiness Level

Steve Blank

Or the founder, or the product, or the market – no metrics can measure those intangibles. Last September Andy Sack , Jerry Engel and I taught our first stealth class for incubator/accelerator managers who wanted to learn how to play Moneyball. Finally the software rolls all the data into an Investment Readiness Level score.

Oakland 326