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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
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
This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. I recently wrote a post on how to Deal with your Elephants in the Room during your VC meetings. Elephants being big issues that the VC will be thinking whether you bring it to his/her attention or not. 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
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t. MORE
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
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
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
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
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
Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully. 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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In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. Unemployment continues to rise – Unemployment as of September 2009 is 9.7% MORE
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
Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. MORE
This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder. 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
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. It’s very tempting. It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company. MORE
Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day. MORE
This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants &# then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking. 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
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
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
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
Only Hire A+ People Who Punch Above Their Weight Class. This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find. I’m not one of those. MORE
In the last post I beat you to death about ditching your business plan but failed to provide an alternative. MORE
I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. Bu when you start to worry that the world is ending (as it seemed it was in late 2008 / early 2009) you tend to get worried about large burn rates. MORE
"You need a business plan" is the mantra of MBA types. As they say , businesses don't plan to fail, they fail to plan! Who could argue with such a clever turn of phrase? Let's do some quotes: "Without a business plan, how will you know whether you can make a profit?" ( source ). "A 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 “Start-up Lessons”. Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50. 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
2009 has been the worst year for M&A in a decade. Projected IPOs for 2009 are an embarrassing 10 total deals, down from 86 just 2 years ago (it was 265 in the go-go years of 99-00) but at least up from 6 in 2008. MORE
I sometimes think that certain advice is BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) and doesn’t warrant mentioning. But then people’s actions tell me otherwise. MORE
If you’re thinking about raising VC and have not yet started the process, you’ve probably already missed the boat for 2009. This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. MORE
This is part of my Startup Advice series. Before I started my first company in 1999 I worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). 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
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. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity. 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
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
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself. 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
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
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.
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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.
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
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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: [.]
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 7, 2009
Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences. This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice. With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 22, 2009
Only Hire A+ People Who Punch Above Their Weight Class. This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find. I’m not one of those.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 16, 2009
This is part of my Startup Advice series. Before I started my first company in 1999 I worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 7, 2009
If you’re thinking about raising VC and have not yet started the process, you’ve probably already missed the boat for 2009. This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital.
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.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 4, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company. Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience. I know I didn’t.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
This is part of my series with Advice on Raising Venture Capital. I recently wrote a post on how to Deal with your Elephants in the Room during your VC meetings. Elephants being big issues that the VC will be thinking whether you bring it to his/her attention or not.
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. Reply YA , on June 14, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Interesting. on June 29, 2009 at 3:56 pm Said: [.]
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 16, 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. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 11, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. Many startup companies hire advisory boards. It’s very tempting. It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 13, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons”. Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50.
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.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 18, 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.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 19, 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.
A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks
DECEMBER 14, 2009
"You need a business plan" is the mantra of MBA types. As they say , businesses don't plan to fail, they fail to plan! Who could argue with such a clever turn of phrase? Let's do some quotes: "Without a business plan, how will you know whether you can make a profit?" ( source ). "A
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 17, 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.
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
OCTOBER 1, 2009
In the first post in this three part series I described why I believe the VC market froze between September 2008 – April 2009. Unemployment continues to rise – Unemployment as of September 2009 is 9.7%
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 15, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. This is a story of one of the risks of venture capital. When you’re an early-stage startup that hasn’t raised any institutional money you end up doing almost every job function of the company yourself.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 21, 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.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 25, 2009
Beware of VC Seagulls, who shit on you and then fly away (or worse yet leave you with Red Herrings). This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice. I write this post as a warning to pick your VC’s carefully.
Both Sides of the Table
SEPTEMBER 29, 2009
I would argue that the shut-down of September 2009 was equally severe yet there are signs that this “VC Ice Age” has begun to thaw. Bu when you start to worry that the world is ending (as it seemed it was in late 2008 / early 2009) you tend to get worried about large burn rates.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 29, 2009
Handling PR with VCs. This is part of my series on How to Raise VC but could equally be filed under Startup Advice more generally. I recently got a phone call from an entrepreneur whom I respect and who runs a company that I hope will do great things one day.
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 9, 2009
This is part of my series on Raising Venture Capital. There’s an old saying that if I’m talking with you and I start the conversation by saying, “whatever you do, DO NOT think about Elephants &# then you can’t help but thinking about elephants while we’re speaking.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 1, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series on Startup Advice. I was reading one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs, VentureHacks, this weekend and noticed that they are running a long piece on how to pick a co-founder.
Both Sides of the Table
OCTOBER 21, 2009
2009 has been the worst year for M&A in a decade. Projected IPOs for 2009 are an embarrassing 10 total deals, down from 86 just 2 years ago (it was 265 in the go-go years of 99-00) but at least up from 6 in 2008.
Both Sides of the Table
DECEMBER 9, 2009
I sometimes think that certain advice is BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) and doesn’t warrant mentioning. But then people’s actions tell me otherwise.
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