Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept for starting and growing successful companies: Lean Planning™. Before I dive too deeply into the Lean Planning methodology, it makes sense to talk about its history and where it comes from. Lean Planning is born. At the time, we used Business Plan Pro and Basecamp for this.

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. 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. This is the pivot, a crucial tactical maneuver for the lean startup [.] Are These Your Slides?

Silicon Valley 253

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Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 30, 2009 Techstars brings The Lean Startup to Boulder Im very excited to announce a pair of events that will kick off a very busy fall speaking tour. The event will include a talk from Eric on The Lean Startup over dinner, followed by moderated table discussion and then final Q&A with Eric.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Law firm partners often have anger management issues, but the thing about anger is that it is not always wrong to be angry — if somebody is angry at you because you did something wrong, then that anger is valid. Customer development isn’t just for [.] understands and groks Customer Development.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. Customer Development) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions.&# Reply One difference between VCs and Entrepreneurs « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog , on April 20, 2009 at 7:06 am Said: [.]

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Oh, and we had no installed customer base. 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. I’ve been on the side of your potential partners, and I know that often too much ‘persistence’ is offputting.

Silicon Valley 331

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Yet two smart VC firms, Sigma and Matrix Partners, realized that somewhere in this mess there was value. And with all of that they had gone broke, out of business and into Chapter 11. Their guess was that they would find value in the high margin graphics business.

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile my partner was in heaven working with his newly hired group of game designers directing and producing our first games. No, not really, but my partner owns the studio and tells me it’s spectacular and everyone will love it. Go spend some time outside the building talking to potential distribution partners.

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Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, May 27, 2009 Austin: the Lean Startup tour continues Next week I head to Austin, TX for my first visit ever. The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

New strategic direction in companies with loyal customers have different consequences then when you had no customers Acquiring new customers are a lot more expensive that converting existing ones. Also, there are a variety of strategies for “easing out&# gracefully such as finding an outsourcing vendor or new partner.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Each VC firm/partner has a different spin on what to weigh more.) These types seem dangerous, yet are often the ones needed on board to get the fund to invest in the first place, seeing that the younger partners naturally have less pull during the Monday round-ups. I find the same still going on with a few firms and partners.&#

Silicon Valley 235

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

He was my role model at Convergent, mentor at Ardent and partner at E.piphany. Reply Karma in the Lean Startup Era , on January 28, 2010 at 5:26 pm Said: [.] Reply steveblank , on October 5, 2009 at 2:08 pm Said: Chris, Ben was the founding VP of Engineering at Ardent. Future posts will have some Ben stories.

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steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

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Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

If you were a “with it” VC you needed to have a “Content&# or “Multimedia&# company in your portfolio to impress your limited partners – educational software companies, game companies, or anything that could be described as content and/or Multimedia. Not all VCs are equal.

Silicon Valley 120

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Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

No one will say work less and go home and spend time with your partner and/or family. Filed under: Customer Development , ESL , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , ESL « Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores A Wilderness of Mirrors » 17 Responses Michael F.

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Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, January 2, 2010 Towards a new entrepreneurship When I started writing about the lean startup , my aspiration was to do more than just share a handful of tips and tricks that work for consumer internet startups. This belief led me to the lean startup, and to an amazing 2009.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 122

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

The positive effect of the tidal wave of press was as a door opener for us to raise money from corporate partners. Our VP of Business Development had no problems getting meetings and fund raising was easy. Not being able to hear negative customer input is an extremely bad idea.

Silicon Valley 122

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

As a result, the companies get a lot of exposure to VCs, investors, and partners in larger, more traditional startup hubs. And do your customer development. These quotes are, as is my custom, straight from twitter. And they expose the startups to a vast network of mentors, none of whom get paid for their involvement.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Ill exclude those non- lean startups who basically exist for the purpose of raising bigger and bigger sums of money. One last piece of advice: dont forget that potential partners are evaluating the strength of your pitch, not you.

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San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

And one would become my mentor and partner in later companies.) Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Am I a Founder? Reply Startup vs Home Life « Nickpoint , on September 9, 2010 at 8:19 am Said: [.] Go figure.

Entrepreneur 291

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

You might get a bunch of inbound emails from other press and partners, and all of these things can contribute to a feeling that you’re on your way to getting tons of traffic. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? The Lean Startup Intensive is tomorrow at Web 2.0.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

Stanford had a Customer Development loop going on inside their own lab. The discoveries in tube and circuit research suggested new electronic intelligence and countermeasure techniques and systems; in turn the needs of the Applied Lab pushed tube and circuit development.

Silicon Valley 155

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Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. Instead, we try to accelerate with respect to validated learning about customers. What about companies, like Siebel, that started with partner distribution first?

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Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Establish credibility with potential partners. You need to combine your product with others, and this requires partners like OEMs or system integrators. A marketing launch can help you get in the door with those partners, if youre having trouble getting their attention. Do some Customer Development instead.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. Or to some passionate customers.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. What didn’t? Go to trade shows like it matters.

Silicon Valley 136

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Each of these four currencies represents a way for a customer to “pay&# for services from a company. A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. Action : What partners will you need?

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Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

I got a powerful taste of datablindness recently, as I’ve started to work with various large companies as partners in setting up events, speeches, and other products to sell around the Lean Startup concept. There are lots of good reasons why I can’t have instantaneous access to this data, and each partner has their own.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

Business Plan vs. Business Model + Customer Development. It wasn’t until 2010 when Alexander Osterwalder published his book Business Model Generation that it became clear that this was the tool to organize startup hypotheses. But you can’t fake a business model/customer development presentation. XoomPark , BYU.

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Business Model Customer Development Utah Business Plan 267

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

This is one of the bedrock practices of any lean startup , and so its a common piece of advice I give out. At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Expo SF (May.

Software Review 94

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Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JULY 6, 2010

Instead of ghost stories they were the first to hear the ideas of what would become Customer Development. One of those students, Shawn Carolan , is now a partner at Menlo Ventures. If you’re doing Customer Development /Lean Startup, Shawn is a great guy to have as an investor. Fast forward to today.

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Venture Capital Agile Customer Development 201

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. You leave the comfort of your existing job, convince a few partners to join you and you jump off the bridge together. No building, no money, no customers, no market? Employ customer development.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

But it became clear that if IMVU was ever going to become a mainstream business, we had to effectively fire these early customers. Suffice to say that our partners, vendors, and most importantly regular mainstream customers all found the idea disturbing. The reasons were many and complex, so I won’t rehash them all here.

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rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

Tuesday, August 17, 2010. He argued that software engineers don’t finish what they start, and that you’re better off paying a technical person than partnering with one. 14 comments: Tuesday, August 17, 2010 dpickett says: Great post, man! Tuesday, August 17, 2010 e.p.c. Wednesday, August 18, 2010 Nick P.

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www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Team Configuration 500 Startups Guerilla Marketing Organizations Entrepreneurship Startup Founders & Entrepreneurs Startups Startup Incubators and Seed Programs Seedcamp Y Combinator TechStars Lean Startups What is the perfect startup team? Lakshman Prasad • Nov 16, 2010.

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