Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Dot.com Bubble ( 1995-2000): “ Anything goes” as public markets clamor for ideas, vague promises of future growth, and IPOs happen absent regard for history or profitability. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. The New Bubble : (2011 – 2014): Here we go again…. (If

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Startup lifecycle in an IPO Market. Netscape’s 1995 IPO changed the rules. Depending on your industry, in this decade it’s 5 to 10x less likely that your company will have an IPO as an exit.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2011

Today, the signs of the new bubble are the Linked-In initial public offering (IPO), Facebook’s stratospheric valuation and the rapid rise of early-stage startup valuation. The Linked-in IPO valued the company at $8.9 It sent a signal that there is an irrational demand for tech IPOs. We have just entered the mania phase.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Stealth Valuation Mississippi 327

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

— Unremarked and unheralded, the balance of power between startup CEOs and their investors has radically changed: IPOs/M&A without a profit (or at times revenue) have become the norm. In the 20th century tech companies and their investors made money through an Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

Steve Blank

JUNE 4, 2012

Alex explained that in his community building a successful venture that generated nice cash flows – not IPO’s – were the big win. It was clear Alex was a bit apologetic; photo studios, online retail subscriptions to commodity household and personal hygiene products, etc.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley Lean Utah Customer Development 305

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Because device IPOs are rare, and M&A is much tougher, liquidity for investors is hard to find. Moreover, the absence of recent IPOs and public companies benchmarks creates uncertainty for VCs evaluating later investments too. Venture Capital Issues. Early stage Venture Capital for medical device startups has dried up.

Startup 294

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 294

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

This all changed in 1980 with the Genentech IPO. In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. In the 60’s and 70’s, while engineers were founding companies, medical researchers and academics were skeptical about the blurring of the lines between academia and commerce.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

In 1980 Genentech became the first IPO of a venture funded biotech company. Finally, the “ death of the IPO &# and the emergence of the “ small market M&A &# changes Consumer Internet economics. Cell-based Venture Capital – The Birth of Biotech Venture Capital.

Lean 258

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2012

The Facebook IPO has reinforced the new calculus for investors. In the past, if you were a great VC, you could make $100 million on an investment in 5-7 years. Today, social media startups can return 100’s of millions or even billions in less than 3 years.

Silicon Valley 336

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Social Media Media 336

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2012

We don’t care if entrepreneurs want to build lifestyle businesses or go for IPOs, if they are tethered to their email or check out at 7pm – that’s a personal decision. What are your working styles? What are your values? What are your other priorities (family, etc.)?

Cofounder 329

Cofounder IPO Early Stage Green 329

Steve Blank

MARCH 9, 2016

We didn’t IPO it. It was all strategic partnerships leading to IPOs. At his first venture, Henry O’Bryan, LLC, Drew quickly learned that startup life is nothing like the movies. Drew : It wasn’t a successful startup. We didn’t sell it. I think that removed the sheen of startup glory (for me). …

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Cofounder Entrepreneur IPO 120

Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2011

After our IPO Infinity’s and Kleiner Perkins’ investment in Epiphany would be worth $1 billion dollars to each of them.). He has reminded me since, “Sometimes you invest in the idea, but you should always be investing in the people. Kleiner Perkins would do the Series B round for E.piphany. I still have the photo.

Post-Money Valuation 250

Post-Money Valuation Venture Capital Valuation IPO 250

Steve Blank

JUNE 17, 2011

But they don’t support his justification of the bubble valuations we are seeing for companies filing for IPO’s (Pandora Media just priced its IPO at $2.6 billion dollars while admitting it will have operating losses through the end of fiscal 2012.)

Investment Bankers 310

Investment Bankers Stock Valuation Venture Capital 310

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

The banks lobbied regulators in Louisiana , New York , California, and Idaho and soon they were issuing injunctions forcing PayPal to delay their IPO. As the company grew larger, incumbent banks forced PayPal to register in each state.

North Carolina 335

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

In the Grow phase the company has achieved liquidity (an IPO, or has been bought or merged into a larger company event) and is growing by repeatable processes. This Build phase typically begin with around 40 employees and will last to at least 175 and in some cases up to 700 employees.

Startup 120

Startup Lean Venture Capital Advisory Board 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Liquidity for most Internet startups happens via IPO’s. 70% of exits in China are via IPO (in the U.S. It’s much easier to just steal their ideas and hire their employees. So big companies rarely acquire startups. Alibaba (commerce), Tencent (games/chat) and Baidu (search) all have market caps over $40 billion.

Silicon Valley 267

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

My first IPO at Convergent. We must have made them play the demo twenty times. There were a few times in my career I knew at that moment I was watching something profound – (Holding the glass masks of the Z80 microprocessor. First silicon of the MIPS RISC processor.)

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Steve Blank

JUNE 24, 2013

The banks lobbied regulators in Louisiana , New York , California, and Idaho and soon they were issuing injunctions forcing PayPal to delay their IPO. As the company grew larger, incumbent banks forced PayPal to register in each state.

North Carolina 227

North Carolina New Jersey New York Government 227

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2014

My first IPO wasn’t until 1995—the VC business takes patience. Help people with their careers, their ideas, contacts—and I’m serious, good things come back years later. I also learned that the first time without a paycheck is a little scary. Find Your Obession. I joined VC firm Merrill Pickard in 1989.

Venture Capital 333

Venture Capital Silicon Valley Chicago Cofounder 333

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

Liquidity for most Internet startups happens via IPO’s. 70% of exits in China are via IPO (in the U.S. It’s much easier to just steal their ideas and hire their employees. So big companies rarely acquire startups. Alibaba (commerce), Tencent (games/chat) and Baidu (search) all have market caps over $40 billion.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 159

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Assuming no early liquidity (via an IPO or merger) for the company, more fund raising is required. In the dot-com bubble economy, the investors used an IPO at product launch to take the money and run, before there was a track record of success or failure.) Building the sales channel and supporting the marketing can burn a lot of cash.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

When I looked at the diagram in that ski cabin I realized there was a fundamental question I couldn’t answer: if all startups follow that model, why is it that some companies are opening bottles of champagne at their IPO and others who almost followed the same rules are selling off their furniture? What was the difference here?

Product Development 143

Product Development Developer Silicon Valley Product 143

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

M&A, IPO? Product Development – How do you engineer it? Waterfall, Agile, Lean? Manufacturing – How do you build it? Seed and Follow-on Financing – How do your finance it? Liquidity – How? These are just my checklist list items for students, your list doesn’t have to look like this.)

Vertical 122

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 122

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

It was still a year away from its IPO. But first some background.) Things Change In 1956 Hewlett Packard (HP) was a 17-year old company with $20 million in test equipment sales with 900 employees. Its latest product was an oscilloscope, the HP 150a.

Silicon Valley 164

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2022

While most of the IPOs have been in Quantum Computing, Quantum technologies are used in three very different and distinct markets: Quantum Computing , Quantum Communications and Quantum Sensing and Metrology. Pretty amazing for computers that won’t be any better than existing systems for at least another decade – or more.

Technology 436

Technology Algorithm Stealth Distribution 436

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2011

In 5 to 10 years most of them will be worth a fraction of their IPO price. Are we in the beginnings of a tech bubble – yes. Prices for both private and public tech valuations exceed any rational valuation to their current worth. A few will be worth much, much more. Is this tech bubble as broad as the 1995-2000 dot.com bubble – no.

Internet 295

Internet Silicon Valley United States .Net 295

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You too can name a building after your IPO (and $30 million.) Notice the names of the buildings; Gates , Allen , Moore , Varian , Hewlett , Packard , Clark , Plattner , Yang , Huang , etc. Extra points if you know who they all are and how they started their companies.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley San Francisco San Jose Venture Capital 335

Steve Blank

JULY 6, 2010

He started a new venture firm when he realized that that the rules had changed for the venture business – VC’s could no longer expect the same kind of returns they got in the past through an IPO. Instead, he realized that most VC-backed startups would exit through a merger or acquisition- at a sale price of $20 to $100 million.

Venture Capital 175

Venture Capital Agile Customer Development 175

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

ARD’s most famous investment was the $70,000 they put into Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 for 77% of the company that was worth hundreds of millions by its 1968 IPO. It wasn’t until the rise of the semiconductor industry and a unique startup culture in Silicon Valley that entrepreneurship became associated with the West Coast.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 159

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

. ———————– The First Valley IPO’s Silicon Valley first caught the eyes of east coast investors in the late 1950’s when the valleys first three IPO’s happened: Varian in 1956, Hewlett Packard in 1957, and Ampex in 1958. Interestingly enough, Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford Engineering was tied to all three companies.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 125

Steve Blank

AUGUST 19, 2013

For exits, acquisitions are the rule and IPOs the exception. In the last six years half the VC’s in the space have disappeared , unable to raise new funds, and the number of biotech and device startups getting first round financing has dropped by half.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Startup Lean Philadelphia 301

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

For life sciences it was the Genentech IPO in 1980 that proved to investors that life science startups could make them a ton of money. When the product and channel are bits, adoption by 10’s and 100’s of millions and even billions of users can happen in years versus decades.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222