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Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. Dancing Around the Question Union Square Ventures was kind enough to sponsor a meetup the night before my class.

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Vertical Markets 2: Customer/Market Risk versus Invention Risk.

Steve Blank

Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. The real risk in markets like Web 2.0 Customer/Market Risk Versus Invention Risk One day I was having lunch with a VC sharing what I learned from my students. is whether there is a customer and market for the product as spec’d.

Vertical 144
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Ardent War Story 5: The Best Marketers Are Engineers

Steve Blank

Other advisors provided marketing with industry-specific advice in our initial vertical markets (computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, finite element analysis, and petroleum engineering). Some of these advisors from the academic community would work with our of VP of Engineering and help us solve specific technical problems.

Engineer 198
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Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

Steve Blank

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

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The Customer Development Manifesto: The Startup Death Spiral (part.

Steve Blank

To support sales, Marketing tries to “make up a better story,” and the web site and/or product presentation slides start changing (sometimes weekly or even daily). Reply Customer Development – Not Just for Web Startups » Biotech by the Bay , on May 1, 2010 at 11:34 am Said: [.] The board raises a collective eyebrow.

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Touching the Hot Stove – Experiential versus Theoretical Learning.

Steve Blank

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. I have an idea for how to connect user social web conversations to 2-way search and contextual advertising.

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Am I a Founder? The Adventure of a Lifetime. « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

link] a few seconds ago from web [.] The Adventure of a Lifetime. But make sure it fits who you are. a comment » Yet another brilliant post from Steve Blank, this time about what it takes to found, co-found, or work in a startup at various stages of [.] If I succeed, it will be the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Now In Print!

Cofounder 219