Steve Blank

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Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup

Steve Blank

A lot of entrepreneurs think that their startup is the next big thing when in reality they’re just building a small business. How can you tell if your startup has the potential to be the next Google, Intel or Facebook? A first order filter is whether the founders are aiming for a scalable startup. The Scalable Startup.

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SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent.

Steve Blank

If these sound like reasonable answers to you, and you are in a startup/small company, update your resume. Titles are not your job When I pressed my staff to explain why marketing did trade shows, or wrote press releases or penned data sheets, the best I could get was “why that’s our job.”

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How To Keep Your Company Alive – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act

Steve Blank

So here’s a five-day playbook to help CEOs of cash-flow negative startups, or ones about to go negative, assess the new normal and respond with speed and urgency. For companies burning cash, such as startups, how much cash do you have? For startups: source of VC money? Some VC’s are walking away from signed term sheets.

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“Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch

Steve Blank

But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and got an 8-digit term sheet that same afternoon. The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Here’s how they did it.

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Raising Money Using Customer Development

Steve Blank

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.”

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How to Raise Money – It’s a Journey Not An Event

Steve Blank

Not all startups need outside investment to grow. What most founders don’t realize is: Every stage of a startup requires a different set of metrics and milestones and founder skills. Here’s the first 2½ years of a startup journey. The Startup Investment Landscape. Still, there are some benchmarks to keep in mind.

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supermac War Story 7: Rabbits Out of the Hat - Product Line Extensions

Steve Blank

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Reply steveblank , on April 16, 2009 at 10:36 am Said: Jerry, As Domino’s and Amazon found out this week, social networks can quickly disseminate information faster than most traditional marketing organizations can react. Now In Print!