Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

By now you have many smart people around your board but probably people who don’t totally understand the nuances of your employees, customers, sales reps, marketing messages, technology challenges, competitors and strategic choices. when to build out our offices in Silicon Valley, New York & Los Angeles.

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Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

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. I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. It’s just a story about what happened to me.

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Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 232

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The greatest risk in startups —and hence the greatest cause of failure—is not the technology risk of developing a product but in the risk of developing customers and markets. Likewise, business program must educate marketers to deliver more actionable results (read: less fluffy) that can really drive all the technology work.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 241

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. So SuperMac engineering also developed video compression software, called Cinepak. The software was idiot proof. There was nothing for the consumer to do.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I’m a software engineer by trade, so I’m always interested in some better way to do things, whether they are in software or in business processes or organizations. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Would you mind sharing them? Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. Large companies were acquiring technology startups just to get in the game at the same absurd prices.

Silicon Valley 223

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 223

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

In previous companies I could talk about technology details and how the product features could solve a customers problem. There couldn’t have been a worse choice for CEO in Silicon Valley. This wasn’t just some random Silicon Valley fantasy. I was in a very, very different business.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

That’s no longer the case in Silicon Valley. For enterprise software, you taught us, the first step is to get ‘some’ customers to buy, and identify how much they’re willing to buy, not to measure how many are buying. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Keep teaching!

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 223

Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

But we knew something they didn’t; the total available market for color graphics boards was measurable by looking at an adjacent market, the color desktop publishing software market. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. I’ve learned so much! Thanks for sharing! Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

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Silicon Valley Customer RSS Philippines 136

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 130

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

We had thought really hard about “ market type ” and decided to reposition the company from a technology provider to a solutions provider. Since no benchmarks existed, we enlisted our engineering department in a serious software development effort and wrote our own. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. How does product development differ in communications hardware versus enterprise software, etc. Technology?

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

After looking at poor online labor marketplaces and expensive consulting firms, I decided there was a need for a high quality labor services driven by technology. We really wanted to build a network of top tier talent, similar to the caliber of talent that’s working in-house at top Silicon Valley tech companies.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Cofounder 40

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

If you’re in markets that still exhibit at them (semiconductors, communications, enterprise software, etc.,) Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. this may be a useful read. Order Here.

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 129

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

MBA or Domain Expert Years later when I was running marketing departments I came up with a heuristic that replicated my own hire: in a technology company it’s usually better to train a domain expert to become a marketer than to train an MBA to become a domain expert. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. How did Silicon Valley start?

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Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 279

YoungUpstarts

FEBRUARY 20, 2014

Internet commerce technology has unleashed the capabilities of ordinary Americans to take matters into their own hands and craft—often literally—their own livelihoods. They connect buyers and sellers in creative new verticals, helping merchants and non-profits interact with customers or donors. by Bill Clerico, CEO of WePay.

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Silicon Valley Non-Compete API Vertical 217

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

Pre-revenue software, internet, mobile and telecom deals. Atlanta Technology Angels. Band of Angels (Silicon Valley). Sand Hill Angels (Silicon Valley). Others were able to provide additional data for one or more business verticals. Pre-revenue life Science, biotech and medical device deals.

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Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation North Dakota 169

David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. Manuge continues, “Corl connects to a business’ bank accounts, accounting software, payment processors, and other digital services to collect 10,000+ historical data points that are analyzed in real-time.

Revenue 60

Revenue Technical Review Software Review Equity 60

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

It was adopted by the consumer packaged goods industry in the 1950s and spread to the technology business in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Reply alan commike , on August 28, 2009 at 12:44 am Said: Steve – How would customer development apply to non-software companies?

Silicon Valley 263

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 263

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

He was also born here and went to UT Austin before heading out to Silicon Valley for a stint. Follow Chelsea on Twitter @ChelseaMcC #Policy #SmartCities #EisenhowerFellow Cindy Lo was one of the first people I met in Austin in 1999 when I came to work at Trilogy Software.

Austin 110

Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 3, 2020

One of 50 finalists for SXSW Pitch 2020 , StrongSalt Co-Founder and CEO Ed Yu will pitch his company in the category of Enterprise and Smart Data Technology before a live audience and a panel of expert judges (12:30 to 1:30 pm Saturday, March 14). It’s in the heart of Silicon Valley, but against the traffic in the morning.

San Jose 75

San Jose Cofounder API Silicon Valley 75

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

For example, if you are selling enterprise software, getting 3-5 early customers may be enough in Customer Validation. Since “in a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions,&# the first software release is usually built on an unproven set of opinions, assumptions and [.] Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Customer Development 246

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 246

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. But the same technologies that make life difficult for traditional marketers also offer them unprecedented new opportunities.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

Then Abinasha Karana from Bangalore, India, presented 10screens , a product for translating software use cases into robust specs. The pitch was very difficult to understand and needs a tremendous amount of work still, but, conceivably, the product could be a useful one for business analysts to define software specifications.

India 115

India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

If you’re in markets that still exhibit at them (semiconductors, communications, enterprise software, medical devices, etc.,) Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. you know they’re expensive in time, dollars and resources. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Blog at WordPress.com.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 185

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

This required convincing software vendors to move their applications to our unique machine architecture. I had hired the VP of marketing from a potential software partner who was responsible to get all this 3 rd party software on our computer. His real job – the action – was to get the software moved onto our machine.

Silicon Valley 327

Silicon Valley Software Review RSS Technical Review 327

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto « The Secret History of Silicon Valley 12: The Rise of “Risk Capital” Part 2 Raising Money Using Customer Development » 8 Responses Jake Lumetta , on November 2, 2009 at 10:49 am Said: Great post. Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply.

Lean 250

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 250

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

I have one question remaining open: As Nivi was just pointing at, do you consider your market as a new market when the technology is disruptive enough to bring behavioral changes ? For example: Excel sheet => Desktop Software (bringing process automation) => SaaS (bringing the service layer). Order Here. Now In Print!

Customer Development 203

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 203

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 20, 2011

Next Sajeeva Bora with tekMunk Software Solutions discussed BizzGenie , a business software concept to help retailers manage the decision-making between "shop floors and top floors." He has run some experiments within the entrepreneurship training vertical, and has seen success when he has brought on known thought leaders.

Entrepreneur 114

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Vertical Massachusetts 114

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 16, 2016

Business processes span industries, both vertical and horizontal, and can include any type of business operation. Integration issues – process technology does not always integrate well with existing systems, causing communication gaps and malfunctions. Every year, companies lose 20 to 30 percent in revenue due to inefficiencies.

Silicon Valley 100

Silicon Valley Cofounder Software Review Technical Review 100

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Very little by way of technology has been applied to the problem thus far. Note: There are technology limitations, which were discussed to some extent at today's roundtable, and quite possibly, the solution is a somewhat manual one. We have discussed the topic of technology product companies from India on my blog for many years now.

Greece 116

Greece Entrepreneur India Silicon Valley 116

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

MAY 26, 2009

Verticals Are Different I began to realize that entrepreneurs (and their professors) act like every vertical market and industry has the same set of rules. The guidelines I had originally proposed to my students worked for enterprise software or Web 2.0 Just for discussion, the markets I chose were: Web 2.0,

Vertical 151

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 151

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.

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Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 251

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

Texas is the most promising technology investment opportunity in the United States and Capital Factory is going to turbocharge it. 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.

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Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2017

Even in the early Peachtree Software days, the decision to build our company in Atlanta was not made without some careful consideration. I knew there was a Friday night poker game in Silicon Valley where all the software pioneers were getting to know each other and helping shape the industry.

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Atlanta Albuquerque Incubator Austin 48