INDUSTRY INSIGHTS YOUR PEERS ARE READING
This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. Nearly all of the mistakes I made at my first company I fixed by the time of my second company. MORE
Ben Reply Dmitriy Kruglyak , on March 20, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Steve, I look forward to a similar backstory on E.piphany marketing! Reply Dave Goulden , on March 20, 2009 at 11:03 pm Said: Thanks for sharing these great stories. Reply Asad , on March 24, 2009 at 6:55 pm Said: I just came to this article from Hacker News(It’s not what you think, its a YCombinator comp). MORE
This is part of my Startup Advice series. I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X&# or not. I usually pull the old trick of answering a question with a question. MORE
One of our internal mantras at TechStars is to “publish your data.” We encourage every team to do this starting very early in their life. To this day, I still get daily performance reports (I refer to them as TPS reports) from many of the companies that have gone through the program. Last week, David Cohen published all of the historical TechStars data. 39 companies have gone through the program to date (30 through Boulder and 9 through Boston). MORE
The “Good” Student » 14 Responses Shane Rogers , on April 6, 2009 at 1:37 pm Said: The names of ‘secret’ customers is funny. Reply Bill , on April 7, 2009 at 12:09 pm Said: Interesting how much influence the military has had on our technology industry. MORE
I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.). I promised that I would do a follow-up post with some thoughts out of the presentation and providing links. MORE
Reply Jesse Farmer , on April 7, 2009 at 8:53 am Said: Customers don’t ask for your transcript. Martin , on April 7, 2009 at 9:40 am Said: There’s a wide spectrum between A student and dropout. Midas Oracle.NET , on August 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm Said: [.] MORE
Reply steveblank , on October 8, 2009 at 1:42 pm Said: Matt, The issue isn’t how you “frame it.&# If you don’t have facts or domain expertise to add, and your business card has the word(s) “marketing&# or “business development,&# realize you have brought no value to the table steve Michael Langford , on October 8, 2009 at 1:54 pm Said: The correct response is: Yes, I’m 24, but I learned manners by the time I was 9. MORE
I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. I always take a very different approach in early conversations. MORE
Midas Oracle.ORG , on September 17, 2009 at 7:05 am Said: [.] Masse on September 17, 2009 — Leave a Comment “Not in planning meetings, not in writing multiple pages of nicely formatted Marketing Require… [.] on September 28, 2009 at 11:55 am Said: [.] MORE
Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Posted on March 29, 2009 by steveblank This is post II of how I came to write “ The Secret History of Silicon Valley “ 1974. Reply Calvin Chin , on April 3, 2009 at 4:21 pm Said: Great war stories, Steve. MORE
Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. We Hired the CFO. Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup. MORE
Martin , on March 23, 2009 at 5:10 pm Said: A beautiful example of consilience. Reply Christine , on July 23, 2009 at 11:51 am Said: and how, Mr. Martin. Patrick , on March 23, 2009 at 5:19 pm Said: Great story. MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Rocket Science Games | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup « Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product Burnout » 7 Responses Steve , on July 16, 2009 at 9:10 am Said: Steve, This is an excellent post. MORE
I'm beginning my final preparation for my presentation at eLearn 2009. As I did for my keynote at ASTD TechKnowledge in January, I'm using what I described in Twitter Conference Ideas. Particularly I'm using TweetLater to plan out my presentation and hopefully provide value to participants and people who are not attending but who might be interested in what I'm presenting. MORE
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This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should. MORE
The 2009 CompStudy website has lots of little gems like this one. MORE
This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In MORE
I wonder if 2009 is the year that some wireless startups breakthrough. What is different in 2009 versus 1996 is that we do have a user base, we have some awesome devices that are cheap, powerful, and easy to use, and we have all you can eat service plans with unlimited data. The post Is 2009 the year of mobile computing? MORE
Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. Top for January 16, 2009 - January 31, 2009 Posts Are You Selling Online Yet? This hot list is based on various social signals of what people are writing about, reading, bookmarking, searching, etc. You can go to the Hot List post to see what was hot then. MORE
Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp, Sept 2009) View more documents from Dave McClure. A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. MORE
Reply Jonathan Payne , on May 20, 2009 at 8:43 pm Said: fascinating. Reply Candy B , on May 18, 2009 at 8:58 am Said: Your THEORY is well founded! Reply Amy , on May 18, 2009 at 9:15 am Said: I think it’s a little muddy with cause vs effect. MORE
This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0 craze. There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 wares. MORE
In the last post I beat you to death about ditching your business plan but failed to provide an alternative. MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves Elephants Can Dance – Reinventing HP » 67 Responses Michael Curry 2.0 , on June 18, 2009 at 6:08 am Said: Steve- Many thanks for your last two posts. thanks Reply Ben Yoskovitz , on June 18, 2009 at 7:13 am Said: Steve – Great post. on June 18, 2009 at 10:38 am Said: [.] MORE
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. Reply YA , on June 14, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Interesting. on June 29, 2009 at 3:56 pm Said: [.] MORE
This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading. MORE
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. MORE
scott Reply Daily Links #54 | CloudKnow , on April 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm Said: [.] Reply Jamie Varon - techVenture , on April 23, 2009 at 3:05 pm Said: Great post! Reply Natalie Laurel , on May 7, 2009 at 10:56 pm Said: Alex Miroshnichenko of Virsto sent this link to me. MORE
Reply Top Posts « WordPress.com , on April 14, 2009 at 5:12 pm Said: [.] Reply Kaan , on April 16, 2009 at 12:23 am Said: Wow, this is really amazing! Reply Jax , on July 21, 2009 at 3:38 am Said: Awesome story. MORE
Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 8:22 am Said: Quick fixed. Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 2:27 pm Said: [link] Jose Diaz-Gonzalez , on October 19, 2009 at 11:25 am Said: I wholeheartedly agree with your advice. MORE
This is part of my Startup Advice series of posts. I heard Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital say these words at a conference in London nearly 10 years ago. I jotted the words down (I normally pay little attention to anything said at conferences. MORE
Martin , on April 10, 2009 at 9:27 am Said: A post that would delight F.A. link] Reply craig sparer , on April 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: So true. > Reply Prakash S , on April 10, 2009 at 10:26 pm Said: Steve, Have you seen Mike Cassidy’s excellent talk, “Speed as THE primary business strategy&# ? link] Reply steveblank11 , on April 10, 2009 at 10:32 pm Said: Prakash, Thanks for the link. com) , on May 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm Said: [.] MORE
» 25 Responses Mark Soper , on November 30, 2009 at 6:55 am Said: Steve, I’m working on a consumer internet product concept at the customer discovery phase. Reply Brent , on December 18, 2009 at 8:50 pm Said: Mark, you hit the nail on the head. steve Greg , on November 30, 2009 at 7:17 am Said: If you were to go back in time and do real Customer Development with these customers, what would that look like? MORE
Reply Joe , on November 23, 2009 at 4:39 pm Said: This is an awesome post and I really appreciate the availability of the slides as well as the video. Reply Customer Development is Not a Focus Group « Steve Blank , on November 30, 2009 at 6:02 am Said: [.] MORE
Reply Bill Allred , on May 1, 2009 at 10:46 am Said: This is a really common pitfall. Reply Niall Smart , on May 2, 2009 at 12:20 am Said: Great story – your point about snazzy design vs. actual impact is still relevant in the context of spending money on outsourced web graphic design. MORE
Reply jordancooper , on November 12, 2009 at 8:08 am Said: Steve, sorry to do this in your comment forum, but I don’t see an email or contact. Reply Rishi , on November 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm Said: Thanks for sharing those slides. MORE
Reply Nivi , on November 16, 2009 at 9:47 am Said: Great stuff. Reply steveblank , on November 16, 2009 at 10:59 am Said: Nivi, Thanks for the thoughtful comments. steve Nivi , on November 16, 2009 at 12:38 pm Said: Thanks kindly for your reply. MORE
On October 2nd 2009 I will be participating in an event called The Feast Kitchen where startups will get to present their ideas for social good. These are companies (some non-profit some for profit) trying to make the world a better place. MORE
Reply Richard Jordan , on November 5, 2009 at 3:36 pm Said: Steve, best article yet. Reply links for 2009-11-05 « Blarney Fellow , on November 5, 2009 at 4:16 pm Said: [.] Reply Knowtu » links for 2009-11-05 , on November 5, 2009 at 5:11 pm Said: [.] MORE
Somehow I allowed myself to get talked into doing the Pecha Kucha at the 2009 Business of Software conference in San Francisco (seriously though, I want to thank Jeff Atwood for convincing me to go through with it). MORE
I’ve mentioned this survey several times before, but this time I bring news of the 2009 survey opening to participants. I think the 2009 data will be very interesting as it will reflect the effects of the overall economy as well as provide global comparisons. MORE
Martin , on November 9, 2009 at 6:41 am Said: Hmm… Not to get too meta here… But if the point of this post is to teach us how to distinguish motion from action (even partly), I didn’t get much help. Esteban , on November 12, 2009 at 10:37 am Said: Distinguishing them is quite easy, at least if you take the relentless part to heart. Reply Brad the Wordpress Consultant , on November 9, 2009 at 11:21 am Said: Awesome article. MORE
2009 Related Topics SoCal CTO
OCTOBER 26, 2009
I'm beginning my final preparation for my presentation at eLearn 2009. As I did for my keynote at ASTD TechKnowledge in January, I'm using what I described in Twitter Conference Ideas. Particularly I'm using TweetLater to plan out my presentation and hopefully provide value to participants and people who are not attending but who might be interested in what I'm presenting.
SoCal CTO
FEBRUARY 4, 2009
Last month we Launched Los Angeles Tech and in the announcement we provide the Hot List for the first half of January 2009. Top for January 16, 2009 - January 31, 2009 Posts Are You Selling Online Yet? This hot list is based on various social signals of what people are writing about, reading, bookmarking, searching, etc. You can go to the Hot List post to see what was hot then.
Altgate
APRIL 26, 2009
I’ve mentioned this survey several times before, but this time I bring news of the 2009 survey opening to participants. I think the 2009 data will be very interesting as it will reflect the effects of the overall economy as well as provide global comparisons.
Steve Blank
MARCH 28, 2009
Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Posted on March 29, 2009 by steveblank This is post II of how I came to write “ The Secret History of Silicon Valley “ 1974. Reply Calvin Chin , on April 3, 2009 at 4:21 pm Said: Great war stories, Steve.
Steve Blank
APRIL 7, 2009
Reply Jesse Farmer , on April 7, 2009 at 8:53 am Said: Customers don’t ask for your transcript. Martin , on April 7, 2009 at 9:40 am Said: There’s a wide spectrum between A student and dropout. Midas Oracle.NET , on August 30, 2009 at 11:53 pm Said: [.]
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 21, 2009
Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers. We Hired the CFO. Last week as a favor to a friend, I sat in on a board meeting of a fairly successful 3½ year-old startup.
Steve Blank
APRIL 6, 2009
The “Good” Student » 14 Responses Shane Rogers , on April 6, 2009 at 1:37 pm Said: The names of ‘secret’ customers is funny. Reply Bill , on April 7, 2009 at 12:09 pm Said: Interesting how much influence the military has had on our technology industry.
Feld Thoughts
MARCH 15, 2010
One of our internal mantras at TechStars is to “publish your data.” We encourage every team to do this starting very early in their life. To this day, I still get daily performance reports (I refer to them as TPS reports) from many of the companies that have gone through the program. Last week, David Cohen published all of the historical TechStars data. 39 companies have gone through the program to date (30 through Boulder and 9 through Boston).
Steve Blank
MAY 18, 2009
Reply Jonathan Payne , on May 20, 2009 at 8:43 pm Said: fascinating. Reply Candy B , on May 18, 2009 at 8:58 am Said: Your THEORY is well founded! Reply Amy , on May 18, 2009 at 9:15 am Said: I think it’s a little muddy with cause vs effect.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
Reply Richard Jordan , on November 5, 2009 at 3:36 pm Said: Steve, best article yet. Reply links for 2009-11-05 « Blarney Fellow , on November 5, 2009 at 4:16 pm Said: [.] Reply Knowtu » links for 2009-11-05 , on November 5, 2009 at 5:11 pm Said: [.]
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 4, 2009
This is part of my Startup Advice series. I often have career discussions with entrepreneurs – both young and more mature – whether they should join company “X&# or not. I usually pull the old trick of answering a question with a question.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In
Steve Blank
APRIL 20, 2009
scott Reply Daily Links #54 | CloudKnow , on April 20, 2009 at 11:42 pm Said: [.] Reply Jamie Varon - techVenture , on April 23, 2009 at 3:05 pm Said: Great post! Reply Natalie Laurel , on May 7, 2009 at 10:56 pm Said: Alex Miroshnichenko of Virsto sent this link to me.
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.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 9, 2009
Martin , on November 9, 2009 at 6:41 am Said: Hmm… Not to get too meta here… But if the point of this post is to teach us how to distinguish motion from action (even partly), I didn’t get much help. Esteban , on November 12, 2009 at 10:37 am Said: Distinguishing them is quite easy, at least if you take the relentless part to heart. Reply Brad the Wordpress Consultant , on November 9, 2009 at 11:21 am Said: Awesome article.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 17, 2009
Midas Oracle.ORG , on September 17, 2009 at 7:05 am Said: [.] Masse on September 17, 2009 — Leave a Comment “Not in planning meetings, not in writing multiple pages of nicely formatted Marketing Require… [.] on September 28, 2009 at 11:55 am Said: [.]
Steve Blank
MARCH 19, 2009
Ben Reply Dmitriy Kruglyak , on March 20, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Steve, I look forward to a similar backstory on E.piphany marketing! Reply Dave Goulden , on March 20, 2009 at 11:03 pm Said: Thanks for sharing these great stories. Reply Asad , on March 24, 2009 at 6:55 pm Said: I just came to this article from Hacker News(It’s not what you think, its a YCombinator comp).
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Reply Joe , on November 23, 2009 at 4:39 pm Said: This is an awesome post and I really appreciate the availability of the slides as well as the video. Reply Customer Development is Not a Focus Group « Steve Blank , on November 30, 2009 at 6:02 am Said: [.]
Steve Blank
APRIL 30, 2009
Reply Bill Allred , on May 1, 2009 at 10:46 am Said: This is a really common pitfall. Reply Niall Smart , on May 2, 2009 at 12:20 am Said: Great story – your point about snazzy design vs. actual impact is still relevant in the context of spending money on outsourced web graphic design.
Steve Blank
JUNE 18, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves Elephants Can Dance – Reinventing HP » 67 Responses Michael Curry 2.0 , on June 18, 2009 at 6:08 am Said: Steve- Many thanks for your last two posts. thanks Reply Ben Yoskovitz , on June 18, 2009 at 7:13 am Said: Steve – Great post. on June 18, 2009 at 10:38 am Said: [.]
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 16, 2009
This post is part of my series “ Startup Lessons &#. Elephants, Deer and Rabbits – Some thoughts on start-up segmentation. Nearly all of the mistakes I made at my first company I fixed by the time of my second company.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 16, 2009
Reply Nivi , on November 16, 2009 at 9:47 am Said: Great stuff. Reply steveblank , on November 16, 2009 at 10:59 am Said: Nivi, Thanks for the thoughtful comments. steve Nivi , on November 16, 2009 at 12:38 pm Said: Thanks kindly for your reply.
SoCal CTO
OCTOBER 8, 2009
Startup Metrics for Pirates (SeedCamp, Sept 2009) View more documents from Dave McClure. A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs.
Steve Blank
MARCH 22, 2009
Martin , on March 23, 2009 at 5:10 pm Said: A beautiful example of consilience. Reply Christine , on July 23, 2009 at 11:51 am Said: and how, Mr. Martin. Patrick , on March 23, 2009 at 5:19 pm Said: Great story.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Reply jordancooper , on November 12, 2009 at 8:08 am Said: Steve, sorry to do this in your comment forum, but I don’t see an email or contact. Reply Rishi , on November 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm Said: Thanks for sharing those slides.
Software By Rob
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Somehow I allowed myself to get talked into doing the Pecha Kucha at the 2009 Business of Software conference in San Francisco (seriously though, I want to thank Jeff Atwood for convincing me to go through with it).
BeyondVC
JANUARY 12, 2009
I wonder if 2009 is the year that some wireless startups breakthrough. What is different in 2009 versus 1996 is that we do have a user base, we have some awesome devices that are cheap, powerful, and easy to use, and we have all you can eat service plans with unlimited data. The post Is 2009 the year of mobile computing?
Steve Blank
APRIL 13, 2009
Reply Top Posts « WordPress.com , on April 14, 2009 at 5:12 pm Said: [.] Reply Kaan , on April 16, 2009 at 12:23 am Said: Wow, this is really amazing! Reply Jax , on July 21, 2009 at 3:38 am Said: Awesome story.
Steve Blank
APRIL 10, 2009
Martin , on April 10, 2009 at 9:27 am Said: A post that would delight F.A. link] Reply craig sparer , on April 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: So true. > Reply Prakash S , on April 10, 2009 at 10:26 pm Said: Steve, Have you seen Mike Cassidy’s excellent talk, “Speed as THE primary business strategy&# ? link] Reply steveblank11 , on April 10, 2009 at 10:32 pm Said: Prakash, Thanks for the link. com) , on May 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm Said: [.]
SoCal CTO
OCTOBER 19, 2009
I did a presentation about the use of Social Media to a great group of people who mostly are different kinds of service professionals (attorneys, accountants, consultants, etc.). I promised that I would do a follow-up post with some thoughts out of the presentation and providing links.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 19, 2009
Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 8:22 am Said: Quick fixed. Reply steveblank , on October 19, 2009 at 2:27 pm Said: [link] Jose Diaz-Gonzalez , on October 19, 2009 at 11:25 am Said: I wholeheartedly agree with your advice.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 14, 2009
This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. If you haven’t spent time over there you should.
Eric Friedman
SEPTEMBER 22, 2009
On October 2nd 2009 I will be participating in an event called The Feast Kitchen where startups will get to present their ideas for social good. These are companies (some non-profit some for profit) trying to make the world a better place.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 30, 2009
» 25 Responses Mark Soper , on November 30, 2009 at 6:55 am Said: Steve, I’m working on a consumer internet product concept at the customer discovery phase. Reply Brent , on December 18, 2009 at 8:50 pm Said: Mark, you hit the nail on the head. steve Greg , on November 30, 2009 at 7:17 am Said: If you were to go back in time and do real Customer Development with these customers, what would that look like?
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 3, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. I remember going to an Under the Radar conference in 2006 in the heat of the Web 2.0 craze. There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 wares.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 8, 2009
Reply steveblank , on October 8, 2009 at 1:42 pm Said: Matt, The issue isn’t how you “frame it.&# If you don’t have facts or domain expertise to add, and your business card has the word(s) “marketing&# or “business development,&# realize you have brought no value to the table steve Michael Langford , on October 8, 2009 at 1:54 pm Said: The correct response is: Yes, I’m 24, but I learned manners by the time I was 9.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 5, 2009
This is part of my Startup Advice series of posts. I heard Bruce Dunlevie of Benchmark Capital say these words at a conference in London nearly 10 years ago. I jotted the words down (I normally pay little attention to anything said at conferences.
SoCal CTO
DECEMBER 9, 2009
I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. I always take a very different approach in early conversations.
Altgate
NOVEMBER 30, 2009
The 2009 CompStudy website has lots of little gems like this one.
Steve Blank
JULY 16, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Rocket Science Games | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup « Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product Burnout » 7 Responses Steve , on July 16, 2009 at 9:10 am Said: Steve, This is an excellent post.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 7, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons.&#. I was reading Chris Dixon’s blog tonight. He writes with a great perspective and is well worth reading.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 21, 2009
In the last post I beat you to death about ditching your business plan but failed to provide an alternative.
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