Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Filed under: SuperMac | Tagged: Early Stage Startup , Steve Blank « There’s a Pattern Here SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions Reside Within – So Get the Hell Outside the Building » Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Nothing I couldn’t fix. I took the job.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

I think Customer Development (iterative model) helps by putting a strong thought in the mind (at a very early stage) that you could be wrong unless the customer agrees; this helps the mind to be more receptive. The Customer Development Manifesto: The Startup Death Spiral (part 3) (steveblank.com) [.]

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Reply Dan Hodgins , on November 13, 2009 at 1:12 am Said: Hi Steve, Just listened to your “Retooling Early Stage Development&# for about the 10th time tonight as I was cleaning my room. Reply Javier Rincón , on July 13, 2010 at 2:10 am Said: Very insighful post. This is my new favorite post on your blog.

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Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times Ardent would be my third technology company as a VP of Marketing (Convergent Technologies and MIPS Computers were the other two.) It was my ex boss from Convergent Technologies, “Steve we’ve all just resigned from Convergent and we’re starting a new company.

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile our company was pouring an enormous amount of dollars into building tools and video compression technology, while also hiring a lot of high-priced Hollywood talent like art directors, and script and story editors. Successful pinball companies didn’t hire Hollywood talent. The mistake isn’t having a vision and taking risks.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

My boss, the CEO, had just come from a string of successes at Convergent Technologies, Intel and Digital Equipment, names that at that time carried a lot of weight. Reply My take on Customer Development and the Lean Startup | Recess Mobile Blog , on January 9, 2010 at 5:39 am Said: [.] most important part of customer development?

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

This could be useful information for those that want to get involved with a early stage start-up and want to evaluate it but not necessarily for funding. These questions I know will be on top of the list that VC’s will ask.&# What are all the important questions that a VC will or should ask?

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Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Zilog produced one of the first 8-bit microprocessors , the Z-80 (competing at the time with Intel’s 8080 , Motorola 6800, and MOS Technology 6502.) Burnout can turn productive employees into emotional zombies and destroy careers. Zilog Zilog was my first Silicon Valley company where you could utter the customer’s name in public.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

One can even make the case that getting Market Type right is the most valuable thing a marketer can do to add value and affect success in an early stage venture. Reply Marco , on October 7, 2010 at 1:38 pm Said: Hi Steve, thanks for the awesome post, but, what was question #4? Keep teaching! Order Here.

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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x). For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x). For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

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Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

As Peter began to speak extemporaneously our mouths slowly fell open as he described the video game market, its size, its demographics, the state of the technology, and the state of games. He took us through a day (and a night) of a hardcore gamer and told us about the new class of CD-ROM based game machines about to hit the market.

Silicon Valley 120

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Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I Hate Business Plan Competitions Yet this same conversation reminded me why every time students at Berkeley or Stanford tell me they’ve entered a technology business plan competition, I question whether they are wasting their time. You’ll learn a lot. Jon Reply Latest business plans news - That’s version ?

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

We’ve managed startups like this forever; there is no other way to manage them.”

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Partnership Opportunities At any show you are attending there has to be tons of opportunity for business to business relationships you hadn’t thought about. Go to trade shows like it matters.

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Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Every generation of new technology seems to find a willing audience in naïve journalists and eager readers. We were larger than life, but as one potential investor told us, “You guys are all hat and no cattle.”

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Haystack

JANUARY 12, 2020

As valuations have gone up early, the cost of ownership has also risen, and in an early-stage fund where the loss ratio is likely to be much higher, high ownership has been increasingly important to these funds. 4/ Social Forces – As seed stage funds grow and mature, the GPs grow and mature too.

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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

One thing that jumps out quickly is that TVPI between 2004-2010 (avg 2.6x) has underperformed 2011-2017 (avg 3.0x). For context, seed-stage pre-money valuations are up 24% from H1 2020 to H1 2021. Early-stage valuations are up 70%, and late-stage valuations are up 103% (source Pitchbook ). Source: AngelList.

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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.

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YoungUpstarts

DECEMBER 5, 2013

Today, while most of the money remains in the hands of the richest 1% of Americans, technology has unleashed the capabilities of ordinary Americans to take matters into their own hands, crafting their own livelihoods – creating, in effect, a Bottom Up economic revolution. Technology as the Great Enabler. Trends Have Been Happening.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

And even more importantly, was there any way to reduce risk in early stage ventures? This product development diagram had become part of the DNA of Silicon Valley. So much so that after I started teaching I’d ask, “Can anybody recognize this model of startups? Is there any way to predict success or failure?

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Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

Customer Development This strategy of starting on faith, and quickly turning them into facts is the core of the Customer Development process.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2009

But what I remind them is that great grades and successful founders/technology entrepreneurs have at best a zero correlation (and anecdotal evidence suggests that the correlation may actually be negative.) There’s a big difference between being an employee at a great technology company and having the guts to start one. I love Google.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Reply steveblank , on March 8, 2010 at 4:29 pm Said: Thanks! steve Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print! Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 22, 2009

Getting Out of the Building Wasn’t Entertainment – Discovery and Validation Now that I was the master of the “facts” about customer needs in these specialized vertical markets , and with my team of vertical marketers , I thought I had achieved absolution and redemption. But there was one fatal flaw.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2009

It’s not something I’ve heard often from those in the technology sphere. Every potential startup founder should think about their level of comfort operating in chaos and uncertainty. It may not be for you. If you can do that you may find a clearer playing field. I’m interested in why you think this is a good idea?

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

That’s why early stage companies aren’t run by accountants with spreadsheets. Reply Quora , on October 20, 2010 at 7:22 pm Said: What is the most effective way to get the word out about a new product?… Reply steveblank , on August 21, 2009 at 10:20 pm Said: David, No advice is applicable in all cases.

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Cracking the Code

SEPTEMBER 20, 2016

As it takes around 10 years for a SaaS company to reach maturity, the explosion we are seeing at the early stage has not yet translated into a significant number of exits. To date, there have been only four major European SaaS exits (all IPOs), including QlikTech in 2010, Wix in 2013, Zendesk in 2014 and Mimecast in 2015.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Yet the processes that early-stage companies were using were identical to that of large corporations. Reply llathieyre , on June 6, 2010 at 6:57 am Said: same here. Reply founders, beware « Adisababa’s Weblog , on January 20, 2010 at 10:05 am Said: [.] It is the path that is hidden in plain sight.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

The Customer Development model delineates all the customer-related activities in the early stage of a company into their own processes and groups them into four easy-to-understand steps: Customer Discovery , Customer Validation , Customer Creation , and Company Building. — giffconstable.com , on January 31, 2010 at 10:28 pm Said: [.]

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Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

In previous companies I could talk about technology details and how the product features could solve a customers problem. Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley was an Oxymoron A key premise of our new company was that our video compression and authoring technology would revolutionize how games were made and played.

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Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Did this help them to understand your company/product Part 2 of the memo, to be posted tomorrow: using a trade show to generate leads. Plus tips on overall trade show strategy.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , SuperMac | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup « Killing Innovation with Corner Cases and Consensus The Secret History of Silicon Valley Part VI: Every World War II Movie was Wrong » 7 Responses David , on April 23, 2009 at 8:58 am Said: Excellent!

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries. It was adopted by the consumer packaged goods industry in the 1950s and spread to the technology business in the last quarter of the twentieth century.

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