Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup. Lets see why.

Lean 259

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 259

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

The time has come for the Texas startup community to band together to change the world once again. Texas has produced world-changing startups in the past such as Dell Software , National Instruments and Whole Foods Market but all of those were founded more than 30 years ago. Texas cities are diverse.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. See part one for the first time it happened.

Silicon Valley 248

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 248

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Yet, this was a successful growth marketing campaign. In this article, you will learn how growth marketing compares to traditional marketing and its key components. You’ll also learn how to apply growth marketing to five key channels and how to plan and execute experimentation. What is growth marketing?

Framework 102

Framework Marketing Acquisition Retention 102

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

Customer Development 232

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

And he recognized it was making his startup feel and act like a big ponderous company. Most decisions in a startup must be made in the face of uncertainty. One of the things he mentioned was that when it came to decision-making he still tended to think and act like an engineer. The same is true in your company.

Silicon Valley 305

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 305

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. I gave my boilerplate answer, “I’m a product guy and I tend to invest and look at deals that have measurable revenue metrics.

Customer Development 227

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 227

Cracking the Code

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Chainalysis is the clear market leader in their vertical and sits at the nexus between crypto exchanges, financial institutions, regulatory bodies, and law enforcement agencies. important pillars towards the inevitable maturation of the cryptocurrency space.

Web 48

Web Silicon Valley Technical Review Artificial Inteligence 48

Haystack

DECEMBER 29, 2018

It’s that time of year, time to look back and reflect on the most significant storylines in the tech, startup, and VC world. And, with that warning, I offer to you, the big stories in the startup and investing ecosystem of 2018, written in ascending order of importance and magnitude…. 6/ Venture Capital In Expansion Phase.

Technical Review 165

Technical Review Venture Capital Russia China 165

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Why they were looking to me to run marketing wasn’t clear. The company was the laughing stock of the Mac market. The two other players in the add-on graphics business, Radius and RasterOps, had a combined 90% market share. The first step was to recruit a new management team. They sold to a set of customers I knew nothing about.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 161

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

My first job in Silicon Valley: I was hired as a lab technician at ESL to support the training department. It makes you appreciate that the Silicon Valley technology-centric culture-bubble has little to do with the majority of Americans.) You’re Hired, You’re Fired. Driving across the U.S. I was stunned.

Agile 263

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 263

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

Over time you start to figure out who you customers are and how to sell to them or how to get them to adopt your products if you’re a consumer-oriented startup. And I’ve also been convinced that it can be quite useful to have another startup company CEO on your board. how to market our products and company.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

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. Working for a startup is a unique experience and it’s not for everyone.

Early Stage 146

Early Stage Los Angeles Silicon Valley Cofounder 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Was SuperMac attempting to introduce radically new products and create a new market ? Was the company attempting to be a low cost provider by introducing cheaper products to an existing market? Was the company attempting to introduce faster and better products to an existing market? No, not really.

Silicon Valley 153

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS California 153

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Their presentation looked like this: Market/Opportunity Lessons Learned Slide 1 Lessons Learned Slide 2 Lessons Learned Slide 3 Why We’re Here Telling the Cafepress Customer Discovery and Customer Validation story allowed Fred and Maheesh to take the VC’s on their journey year by year.

Venture Capital 234

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 234

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

This is classic “Innovator’s Dilemma” market conditions. The media world now has its own leader running the largest YouTube multi-channel network startup. Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley and Who Will Win. Los Angeles Tech Market Analysis' The future of the Internet is video. New Online Video Trends.

Video 320

Video Los Angeles Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 320

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. So what’s wrong the product development model?

Customer Development 243

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 243

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

What Markets? My job was to figure out what markets Ardent should target, who were the key customers in these markets and what applications these customers had to have. See the previous Ardent posts for context.) A supercomputer could be a 100x faster.

Silicon Valley 163

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 163

The Equity Kicker

MAY 9, 2016

The bit I liked the most described the role of Stanford in getting Silicon Valley going in the late 1950s. Inspire entrepreneurialism – highlight the positive effects of startups and make ‘founder’ a popular career choice. The UK government’s support has been important for our startup ecosystem.

Silicon Valley 60

Silicon Valley Venture Capital eCommerce Startup 60

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. Peter described the first company in which “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” and we were enthralled.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

Cofounder 229

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 229

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. Reply John Muldoon , on July 9, 2009 at 1:52 pm Said: This was really fabulous to watch.

Customer Development 127

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 127

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Reducing Risk – Simulation versus Customer Development If you remember the first part of this discussion, startups face two types of risk; invention risk and/or customer/market risk. In either type of startup you want to put in place processes in place to reduce risk.

Vertical 135

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 135

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.) No internet, no blogs, no books on startups, no entrepreneurship departments in universities, etc. It took lots of trial and error, learning by experience and resilience through multiple failures.

Silicon Valley 200

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 200

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. Modern Corporation Marketing. auto market. car market. Durant took his money from his carriage company and bought a struggling automobile startup called Buick.

Michigan 291

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 291

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

Entrepreneur Finder ( www.EntrepreneurFinder.com ) is a free interactive resource for entrepreneurs, skilled professionals, students and investors to find each other and designed to help startup companies grow. A startup looking for investment, mentorship, or specific talent to help grow your company?

Finder 232

Finder Entrepreneur Accredited Investor Silicon Valley 232

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. But part of his life that that doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry is that Bill Perry used Silicon Valley to help end the cold war.

Silicon Valley 190

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 190

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. I knew everything about our operating system, hardware and applications – and I was going to prove it.

Technology 142

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 142

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times Ardent would be my third technology company as a VP of Marketing (Convergent Technologies and MIPS Computers were the other two.)

North Carolina 129

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 129

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

The company was founded to build games with embedded video to bring Hollywood stories, characters, and narratives to a market where “shoot and die” twitch games were in vogue. So I hired a VP of Marketing from Sega, one of the video game platforms on which our games would run.

Silicon Valley 221

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 221

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brendan McManus, [Startup Digest]. Startup Digest] said: Thanksgiving Day [link] [via @sgblank] [.] Just a reflection on my family and hopes for our children.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 149

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Hitting “burnout” changed the trajectory of both ends of my career in Silicon Valley. Zilog Zilog was my first Silicon Valley company where you could utter the customer’s name in public. But it can also force you to hit the pause button and perhaps take a moment to reevaluate your life and your choices.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 195

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

I first met Evangelos Simoudis when he ran IBM’s Business Intelligence Solutions Division and then as CEO of his first startup Customer Analytics. During the last three years he’s worked with over 100 companies, many of which established Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley. each with its own profit and loss responsibility.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year. has a large enough market that most U.S. ———-.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Pattern Recognition One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that you are constantly running a pattern recognition algorithm against a continual collection of customer and market data. For me this was one of the joys of entrepreneurship – constant learning and new insights.

Customer 214

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 214