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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. This is the only mistake I repeated twice and it is a mistake that I see many, many companies make. I know that this advice won’t apply to every possible startup – but I think it applies to many. MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto | Tagged: Customer Development « The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 2) Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) » 11 Responses Customer Development Manifesto « Raja Jasti’s Blog - Renaissance Thinking , on September 7, 2009 at 1:24 pm Said: [.] Reply links for 2009-09-07 « Blarney Fellow , on September 7, 2009 at 6:10 pm Said: [.] MORE
Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « The End of Innocence The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 1) » 21 Responses Kulveer Taggar , on August 27, 2009 at 11:18 am Said: Great post. Reply Knowtu » links for 2009-08-27 , on August 27, 2009 at 6:04 pm Said: [.] Ben , on August 28, 2009 at 10:09 am Said: This rings true. 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
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto | Tagged: Customer Development « The Leading Cause of Startup Death – Part 1: The Product Development Diagram The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 2) » 28 Responses Rob , on August 31, 2009 at 8:03 am Said: This is an amazing series of posts. Reply Greg Boutin , on August 31, 2009 at 12:33 pm Said: A very interesting contribution, Steve. 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. My reply is usually, “is it time for you to earn or to learn?&#. Let’s face it. MORE
This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons.&# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow [.]. 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. Martin , on April 7, 2009 at 4:46 pm Said: If the Soviets didn’t have a Bill Perry on their side we might have gotten an even better result. MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Steve Blank « Story Behind “The Secret History” Part III: The Most Important Company You Never Heard Of SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values » 25 Responses Zack , on April 7, 2009 at 8:04 am Said: Right, but Google isn’t looking to hire founders. 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… [.] Reply links for 2009-09-18 « Blarney Fellow , on September 18, 2009 at 6:09 pm Said: [.] Reply Alex , on September 21, 2009 at 5:03 am Said: Hi Steve, I’m a non-business person, working on an idea in the field of recruiting. MORE
Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. But what information to collect? Only 57 Questions. Yesterday I got an email from an ex-student lamenting that only 2% of their selected early testers responded to their on-line survey. The survey said in part: The survey has 57 questions, the last three of which are open ended, and should take about 20 minutes to complete. 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. on April 6, 2009 at 11:48 am Said: Funny, the start of your Air Force career was eerily similar to my dad’s. 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. Given all that could go wrong in this economy, they were doing well. 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 here: [link] Video: [link] Reply Justin Wickett , on March 23, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: Pretty impressive how much knowledge can be extracted from natural processes. Reply marty , on March 24, 2009 at 2:39 pm Said: Great stories!! 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. I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by. MORE
Martin , on June 29, 2009 at 8:26 am Said: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.&# – Woody Allen A version of your story about showing up for a job that didn’t exist happened to me when I reported for work at a lab in eastern Washington state years ago. Reply Shankar Saikia , on June 29, 2009 at 9:02 am Said: THANKS – MAKES ME FEEL BETTER 21 months ago I left an awesome job at Oracle in Silicon Valley and relocated to India to be an entrepreneur. 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. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences. If you haven’t read it, please do. It’s an important reminder. 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 In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. You are constantly faced with decisions and there is always incomplete information. This paralyzes most people. Not you. 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
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Curse of a New Building Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 » 33 Responses William , on May 18, 2009 at 5:44 am Said: Heh. 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! MORE
Reply chris , on May 13, 2009 at 6:38 am Said: That was magnificent. Reply TJIC from SmartFlix , on May 13, 2009 at 6:49 am Said: Gravity turned off – outstanding! Actually, I’ve got a better memory of spilling car polish on a Colonel’s nicely shined shoes… Reply Andrei Marinescu , on May 13, 2009 at 7:26 am Said: Great story, Steve. Reply Steve Blank Suspends Gravity: Context And Authority , on May 13, 2009 at 9:23 am Said: [.] MORE
This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. &# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow the basic advice here you can cause yourself much heartache down the line – even if your company ultimately becomes über successful. 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. Ajax was the new buzzword and many companies went overboard. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product. MORE
Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on December 7, 2009 at 6:06 am Said: [.] Reply Manfred Ekblad , on December 7, 2009 at 6:34 am Said: Good for you that you kept learning and developing your business instead of looking back with a nice twist on the end when you outsmarted the competitor. Reply Tim Inman , on December 7, 2009 at 7:04 am Said: Wow. 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. I believe that you should always hire people are are looking to “punch above their weight class,&# which means to hire people who want to be one league above where they are today. Don’t confuse this with the quality of the individual. MORE
Epitaph for an Entrepreneur » 43 Responses Michael Curry 2.0 , on June 15, 2009 at 5:27 am Said: You are rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers about entrepreneurship and start-ups. Reply Khuram , on June 15, 2009 at 7:59 am Said: Well, im not married, but certainly i’ve tried to be mindful of this whenever speaking to a suitor, and i was always so keen to build my business up before i got married, but lord knows how long that will take. 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. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I had to laugh a bit reading it. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners. 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. Reply Sean Murphy , on November 2, 2009 at 11:55 am Said: This is a common misunderstanding and one that bootstrappers trip over. 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 The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong « Steve Blank , on April 27, 2009 at 5:02 am Said: [.] 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. Reply The End of Innocence « Steve Blank , on August 24, 2009 at 6:02 am Said: [.] 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. Most of it is BS) and thought about them much over the years. I later learned that the quote was taken from somewhere else ( perhaps as early as the 13th century! ) but whoever is responsible I just want to help spread it. MORE
on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Greetings from Crete, Greece Reply Jerry Ji , on April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am Said: Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months. Reply Process for the Enterprise » Blog Archive » People, Staffing, and Steve Blank’s SuperMac Series , on April 17, 2009 at 11:40 am Said: [.] Reply How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks , on April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am Said: [.] 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
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto « Closure Thanksgiving Day » 7 Responses uberVU - social comments , on November 23, 2009 at 8:10 am Said: Social comments and analytics for this post… This post was mentioned on Twitter by karrisaarinen: RT @sgblank: Customer Development: Past, Present, Future: [link]. Reply Customer Development is Not a Focus Group « Steve Blank , on November 30, 2009 at 6:02 am Said: [.] MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto , Venture Capital « Relentless – The Difference Between Motion And Action Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development » 13 Responses Tweets that mention “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch « Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on November 12, 2009 at 6:56 am Said: [.] Reply Rishi , on November 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm Said: Thanks for sharing those slides. 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. Reply Miguel Cavalcanti , on May 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm Said: Hello Steve, great pst, tks for sharing your knowledge. 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: [.] Reply Murali Krishna Devarakonda , on November 5, 2009 at 7:44 pm Said: Isn’t it amazing that entrepreneurs need to be told to go after their customers? 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
@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Law Firm Wilson Sonsini Now Preparing Term Sheets For Free More on the “VC Math Problem&# → 2009 Startup Executive Compensation Survey Opens Posted on April 26, 2009 by fnazeeri [UPDATE] The 2009 CompStudy survey results are now published here. Don’t miss the opportunity to get the 2009 data… take the survey now! MORE
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Customer Development , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards » 9 Responses Morteza Tatlari , on April 29, 2009 at 1:05 pm Said: Concise and priceless; thanks. 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
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. on April 6, 2009 at 11:48 am Said: Funny, the start of your Air Force career was eerily similar to my dad’s.
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: [.]
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: [.]
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. Martin , on April 7, 2009 at 4:46 pm Said: If the Soviets didn’t have a Bill Perry on their side we might have gotten an even better result.
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. Given all that could go wrong in this economy, they were doing well.
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: [.]
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: [.] Reply Murali Krishna Devarakonda , on November 5, 2009 at 7:44 pm Said: Isn’t it amazing that entrepreneurs need to be told to go after their customers?
Steve Blank
APRIL 7, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Steve Blank « Story Behind “The Secret History” Part III: The Most Important Company You Never Heard Of SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values » 25 Responses Zack , on April 7, 2009 at 8:04 am Said: Right, but Google isn’t looking to hire founders.
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
JUNE 15, 2009
Epitaph for an Entrepreneur » 43 Responses Michael Curry 2.0 , on June 15, 2009 at 5:27 am Said: You are rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers about entrepreneurship and start-ups. Reply Khuram , on June 15, 2009 at 7:59 am Said: Well, im not married, but certainly i’ve tried to be mindful of this whenever speaking to a suitor, and i was always so keen to build my business up before i got married, but lord knows how long that will take.
Steve Blank
AUGUST 27, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « The End of Innocence The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 1) » 21 Responses Kulveer Taggar , on August 27, 2009 at 11:18 am Said: Great post. Reply Knowtu » links for 2009-08-27 , on August 27, 2009 at 6:04 pm Said: [.] Ben , on August 28, 2009 at 10:09 am Said: This rings true.
Steve Blank
MAY 18, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Curse of a New Building Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 » 33 Responses William , on May 18, 2009 at 5:44 am Said: Heh. 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!
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. Reply The End of Innocence « Steve Blank , on August 24, 2009 at 6:02 am Said: [.]
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 In case it’s not obvious it’s a play on the Nike slogan, “Just Do It.&# ) I believe that being successful as an entrepreneur requires you to get lots of things done. You are constantly faced with decisions and there is always incomplete information. This paralyzes most people. Not you.
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. My reply is usually, “is it time for you to earn or to learn?&#. Let’s face it.
Altgate
APRIL 26, 2009
@altgate Startups, Venture Capital & Everything In Between Skip to content Home Furqan Nazeeri (fn@altgate.com) ← Law Firm Wilson Sonsini Now Preparing Term Sheets For Free More on the “VC Math Problem&# → 2009 Startup Executive Compensation Survey Opens Posted on April 26, 2009 by fnazeeri [UPDATE] The 2009 CompStudy survey results are now published here. Don’t miss the opportunity to get the 2009 data… take the survey now!
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 Sean Murphy , on November 2, 2009 at 11:55 am Said: This is a common misunderstanding and one that bootstrappers trip over.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 7, 2009
Posted on December 7, 2009 by steveblank In my 21 years of startups, I had my ideas “stolen” twice. Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on December 7, 2009 at 6:06 am Said: [.] Reply Manfred Ekblad , on December 7, 2009 at 6:34 am Said: Good for you that you kept learning and developing your business instead of looking back with a nice twist on the end when you outsmarted the competitor. Reply Tim Inman , on December 7, 2009 at 7:04 am Said: Wow.
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 The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong « Steve Blank , on April 27, 2009 at 5:02 am Said: [.] Reply Natalie Laurel , on May 7, 2009 at 10:56 pm Said: Alex Miroshnichenko of Virsto sent this link to me.
Steve Blank
APRIL 9, 2009
on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Greetings from Crete, Greece Reply Jerry Ji , on April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am Said: Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months. Reply Process for the Enterprise » Blog Archive » People, Staffing, and Steve Blank’s SuperMac Series , on April 17, 2009 at 11:40 am Said: [.] Reply How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks , on April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am Said: [.]
Steve Blank
JUNE 29, 2009
Martin , on June 29, 2009 at 8:26 am Said: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.&# – Woody Allen A version of your story about showing up for a job that didn’t exist happened to me when I reported for work at a lab in eastern Washington state years ago. Reply Shankar Saikia , on June 29, 2009 at 9:02 am Said: THANKS – MAKES ME FEEL BETTER 21 months ago I left an awesome job at Oracle in Silicon Valley and relocated to India to be an entrepreneur.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto , Venture Capital « Relentless – The Difference Between Motion And Action Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development » 13 Responses Tweets that mention “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch « Steve Blank -- Topsy.com , on November 12, 2009 at 6:56 am Said: [.] Reply Rishi , on November 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm Said: Thanks for sharing those slides.
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… [.] Reply links for 2009-09-18 « Blarney Fellow , on September 18, 2009 at 6:09 pm Said: [.] Reply Alex , on September 21, 2009 at 5:03 am Said: Hi Steve, I’m a non-business person, working on an idea in the field of recruiting.
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. This is the only mistake I repeated twice and it is a mistake that I see many, many companies make. I know that this advice won’t apply to every possible startup – but I think it applies to many.
Steve Blank
AUGUST 31, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto | Tagged: Customer Development « The Leading Cause of Startup Death – Part 1: The Product Development Diagram The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 2) » 28 Responses Rob , on August 31, 2009 at 8:03 am Said: This is an amazing series of posts. Reply Greg Boutin , on August 31, 2009 at 12:33 pm Said: A very interesting contribution, Steve.
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. Reply Miguel Cavalcanti , on May 18, 2009 at 8:12 pm Said: Hello Steve, great pst, tks for sharing your knowledge.
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. More here: [link] Video: [link] Reply Justin Wickett , on March 23, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: Pretty impressive how much knowledge can be extracted from natural processes. Reply marty , on March 24, 2009 at 2:39 pm Said: Great stories!!
Steve Blank
MAY 13, 2009
Reply chris , on May 13, 2009 at 6:38 am Said: That was magnificent. Reply TJIC from SmartFlix , on May 13, 2009 at 6:49 am Said: Gravity turned off – outstanding! Actually, I’ve got a better memory of spilling car polish on a Colonel’s nicely shined shoes… Reply Andrei Marinescu , on May 13, 2009 at 7:26 am Said: Great story, Steve. Reply Steve Blank Suspends Gravity: Context And Authority , on May 13, 2009 at 9:23 am Said: [.]
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 17, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons.&# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow [.].
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 17, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. &# If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here. In the Beginning … This is a very important post to me because I find myself giving this advice all the time and if you don’t follow the basic advice here you can cause yourself much heartache down the line – even if your company ultimately becomes über successful.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 17, 2009
Gathering real-world feedback from customers is a core concept of Customer Development as well as the Lean Startup. But what information to collect? Only 57 Questions. Yesterday I got an email from an ex-student lamenting that only 2% of their selected early testers responded to their on-line survey. The survey said in part: The survey has 57 questions, the last three of which are open ended, and should take about 20 minutes to complete.
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. I wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by.
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. Ajax was the new buzzword and many companies went overboard. People mistook extra doses of Ajax for a successful product.
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. Most of it is BS) and thought about them much over the years. I later learned that the quote was taken from somewhere else ( perhaps as early as the 13th century! ) but whoever is responsible I just want to help spread it.
Steve Blank
APRIL 29, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Customer Development , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards » 9 Responses Morteza Tatlari , on April 29, 2009 at 1:05 pm Said: Concise and priceless; thanks.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 7, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto | Tagged: Customer Development « The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution (part 2) Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) » 11 Responses Customer Development Manifesto « Raja Jasti’s Blog - Renaissance Thinking , on September 7, 2009 at 1:24 pm Said: [.] Reply links for 2009-09-07 « Blarney Fellow , on September 7, 2009 at 6:10 pm Said: [.]
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. I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. I had to laugh a bit reading it. I just completed an exercise where I went out to hire a new associate for my VC firm, GRP Partners.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 23, 2009
Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto « Closure Thanksgiving Day » 7 Responses uberVU - social comments , on November 23, 2009 at 8:10 am Said: Social comments and analytics for this post… This post was mentioned on Twitter by karrisaarinen: RT @sgblank: Customer Development: Past, Present, Future: [link]. Reply Customer Development is Not a Focus Group « Steve Blank , on November 30, 2009 at 6:02 am 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. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences. If you haven’t read it, please do. It’s an important reminder.
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. I believe that you should always hire people are are looking to “punch above their weight class,&# which means to hire people who want to be one league above where they are today. Don’t confuse this with the quality of the individual.
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