Steve Blank

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Is a Venture Studio Right for You?

Steve Blank

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. Venture studios create startups by incubating their own ideas or ideas from their partners. Reducing Startup Risk.

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Customer Development in Japan: a History Lesson

Steve Blank

By then, I had become a venture capitalist at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and found myself talking to a lot of entrepreneurs who were proclaiming their great technology yet were struggling with little revenue, and claiming they were “crossing the chasm”. Maysee now enjoys hockey stick revenue growth.

Japan 292
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Is This Startup Ready For Investment?

Steve Blank

Corporations running internal incubators face many of the same selection issues as startup investors, plus they must grapple with the issues of integrating new ideas into existing P&L-driven functions or business units. data that investors, accelerators and incubators can use to inform selection.

Incubator 310
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Why Companies are Not Startups

Steve Blank

Sales teams are commission-based, executive compensation is based on EPS, revenue and margin, business units on revenue and margin contribution, etc. While it’s fashionable to build corporate incubators there’s little evidence that they deliver more than “Innovation Theater.” What Does this Mean?

IRR 335
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Machine Learning Meets the Lean Startup

Steve Blank

While these acquisitions have teams of great researchers, they rarely contribute actual revenue generating products (because most never reached that stage when they were acquired.) Before this class this team had spent three months in an incubator building the product after talking to only one customer.

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Making a Dent in the Universe – Results from the NSF I-Corps

Steve Blank

The NSF I-Corps Lean LaunchPad class has different goals then the same class taught in a university or incubator. In an incubator, the Lean LaunchPad develops angel or venture-funded startups. In a university, the Lean LaunchPad class teaches a methodology the students can use for the rest of their careers. Here’s what they found.

Lean 248
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ESADE Business School Commencement Speech

Steve Blank

Companies horde cash and squeeze the most revenue and margin from the money they use. They can partner with suppliers, co-create with consumers, open-source key technologies, open their application programming interfaces, or run open incubators for customer ideas.