Expert insights. Personalized for you.
The pandemic has upended the business models of most startups and existing companies. As the economy reopens companies are finding that customers may have disappeared or that their spending behavior has changed. Suppliers are going out of business or requiring cash-up-front terms. Accounts receivables are stretching way out. Revenue models and forecasts are no longer valid. In sum, whatever business model you had at the beginning of the year may be obsolete. MORE
I was interviewed by Philip Bouchard , Executive Director of TrustedPeer Entrepreneurship Advisory , about how entrepreneurship education has changed, mission-driven entrepreneurship, and what we’ve learned about corporate innovation. Worth a read. Interview highlights: How is the way that universities teach entrepreneurship evolving? Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford. Innovation and entrepreneurship will become the liberal arts of the 21st century. MORE
“Winter is coming.”. This is the one blog post that I hope I’m completely wrong about. With the Covid-19 virus a worldwide pandemic, if you’re leading any startup or small business, you have to be asking yourself, “What’s Plan B? And what’s in my lifeboat?”. Here are a few thoughts about operating in uncertainty in a pandemic. Impact. MORE
Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. MORE
If you’re a busy startup founder, you’re likely delegating the task of scheduling key meetings about things you want/need to your admin. This is a mistake. That’s because the dialog you have in setting up the meeting is actually the first part of your meeting, not some clerical task. Treat it this way and you’re much more likely to achieve the objective you’re hoping to. Here’s why: A few weeks ago I got an email from a VC friend asking me to talk to a founder at one of his startups. MORE
I was honored to give the commencement speech at the University of California Santa Cruz, right down the road from the ranch. Rather than my usual talks about innovation and entrepreneurship I shared a few lessons learned after serving seven years as a public official on the California Coastal Commission. I told four stories about the conflict between money and power versus the common good. I was invited to give the talk by Professor Sue Carter, now the provost of the college. MORE
Our recent national security class at Stanford, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others have the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats. MORE
This article previously appeared in War On The Rocks. There was a time when much of U.S. academia was engaged in weapon systems research for the Defense Department and intelligence community. Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems. MORE
We just finished our 5th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. At the end of the quarter each of the eight teams give a final “Lessons Learned” presentation. Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the teams’ stories of a 10-week journey of hard-won learning and discovery. MORE
We just had our first week of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our eighth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our fifth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
With the theme “Build Back Better” Jerry Engel , Pete Newell , Steve Weinstein and I co-hosted nearly 500 Lean Educators from 63 countries and 235 universities online for a three-hour session to share what we’ve learned about educators on how we can help our communities rebound, adjust, and recover. MORE
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. It’s been updated with new information about the U.S. Paycheck Protection program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. What cashflow-negative companies must do to survive. We’re in uncharted territory with the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s increasingly looking grim. MORE
I’m teaching my first non-lean start up class in a decade at Stanford next week; Technology, Innovation and Modern War : Keeping America’s Edge in an Era of Great Power Competition. MORE
We just held our sixth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
Sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, my coffees with current and ex-students (entrepreneurs, as well as employees early in their careers) have gone virtual. Pre-pandemic these coffees were usually about what startup to join or how to find product/market fit. Though in the last month, even through Zoom I could sense they were struggling with a much weightier problem. The common theme in these calls were that many of them were finding this crisis to be an existential wakeup call. “My MORE
Over the weekend I got asked the best way to teach students the principles of Lean via Zoom. One of the key lessons from our Educators Conference is that when teaching online complex information needs to be delivered to students in small, easily processed parts. MORE
The Covid-19 virus is not politically correct. It discriminates against the old and the unhealthy. The biggest risk factor in dying from the virus is age. If you’re 60 to 70 years old, you’re 30 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than if you’re under 40. And if you’re over 80, you’re 180 times more likely. It’s not that the young don’t get sick or die, but the odds are dramatically different. MORE
SAVE THE DATE for the 3rd edition of Lean Innovation Educators Summit. December 16th, 10 – 1pm PST, 1 – 4pm EST , 6 – 9pm UTC. In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered online to discuss and share best practices for Lean education in the virtual environment. We learned a ton. MORE
We just had our first week of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
This class, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give our students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others has the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats. MORE
We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche. The world is a different place than it was 90 days ago. Countries traded saving lives by shutting down most of their economy. Tens of millions who had jobs are now unemployed worrying about their future. Business owners large and small are struggling to find their footing, wondering what will be the new normal when the recovery happens. For the majority of companies, the business models of the past will not return. MORE
We just held our ninth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our seventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our seventeenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate. MORE
We just held our third session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our tenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our sixteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
We just held our fourteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
With a terrific crew of instructors, TA’s, and mentors, we successfully concluded Session 1 of our Hacking 4 Recovery summer series – with 20 teams sharing their final presentations last night. Slides for these presentations are in this folder , and we will be editing and sharing videos of each presentation shortly. Alivia – Telemedicine service bringing healthcare to middle income people in Peru. AllAboard – Remote onboarding services to help organizations establish a sense of belonging. MORE
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. And these forces are completely reshaping both commerce and defense. MORE
We just held our eighteenth and final session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. MORE
Say not in grief he is no more – but live in thankfulness that he was. If you’re reading my blog, odds are you know who Clayton Christensen was. He passed away this week and it was a loss to us all. Everyone who writes about innovation stood on his shoulders. His insights transformed the language and the practice of innovation. Christensen changed the trajectory of my career and was the guide star for my work on innovation. I never got to say thank you. Eye Opening. MORE
We’re holding a series of 5-day online classes at Stanford where teams will learn how to develop new business models for an economy that’s getting back to work and on the road to recovery. Sign up at [link]. The post-pandemic world will be a very different place. The Covid-19 virus has upended traditional ways of doing business, travel, education, entertainment, healthcare, etc. How do these institutions reconfigure and reinvent themselves? What new businesses and services will emerge? MORE
With in-person classes canceled, we’re about to start our online versions of Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Oceans (and here ). The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of the building to talk to customers to do Customer Discovery when they can’t get out of the building? How do should startups do it? —-. Reminder: What’s the Point of Talking to Customers ? MORE
This article previously appeared in VentureBeat. I just had a coffee with Mei and Bill, two passionate students who are on fire about their new startup idea. It’s past the “napkin-sketch” stage with a rough minimum viable product and about 100 users. I thought they had a great insight about an application space others had previously tried to crack. But they needed to convince investors that they are Facebook not Friendster. MORE
In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered online to discuss and share best practices for Lean education in the virtual environment. We learned a ton. And we’re going to do it again. MORE
SAVE THE DATE for the Lean Innovation Educators Summit : Lessons from Teaching in the Pandemic. July 24, 10-noon Pacific, 1-3pm Eastern, 6-8pm London. As educators the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all. MORE
Steve Blank
JANUARY 14, 2021
Our recent national security class at Stanford, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others have the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats.
Steve Blank
JANUARY 6, 2021
Over the weekend I got asked the best way to teach students the principles of Lean via Zoom. One of the key lessons from our Educators Conference is that when teaching online complex information needs to be delivered to students in small, easily processed parts.
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Steve Blank
JANUARY 8, 2021
This class, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give our students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others has the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 28, 2020
With the theme “Build Back Better” Jerry Engel , Pete Newell , Steve Weinstein and I co-hosted nearly 500 Lean Educators from 63 countries and 235 universities online for a three-hour session to share what we’ve learned about educators on how we can help our communities rebound, adjust, and recover.
Speaker: Nick Noreña, Innovation Coach and Advisor, Kromatic
In this webinar, Nick Noreña will walk through an Innovation Ecosystem Model that he and his team at Kromatic have developed to help investors, heads of product, teachers, and executives understand how they can best support innovation in their own ecosystem. He'll also go over metrics we can use to measure the health of our ecosystems as we build more resources for innovators.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
We just had our first week of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 19, 2020
We just held our sixth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 14, 2020
SAVE THE DATE for the 3rd edition of Lean Innovation Educators Summit. December 16th, 10 – 1pm PST, 1 – 4pm EST , 6 – 9pm UTC. In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered online to discuss and share best practices for Lean education in the virtual environment. We learned a ton.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 6, 2020
We just held our third session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 26, 2020
We just held our eighth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 11, 2020
We just held our seventeenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 15, 2020
We just held our fifth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 21, 2020
We just held our eighteenth and final session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 17, 2020
In July 2020, 400+ educators gathered online to discuss and share best practices for Lean education in the virtual environment. We learned a ton. And we’re going to do it again.
Steve Blank
DECEMBER 9, 2020
We just held our sixteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 2, 2020
We just held our ninth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 13, 2020
We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 21, 2020
We just held our seventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 27, 2020
We just held our fourteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
JUNE 23, 2020
The pandemic has upended the business models of most startups and existing companies. As the economy reopens companies are finding that customers may have disappeared or that their spending behavior has changed. Suppliers are going out of business or requiring cash-up-front terms. Accounts receivables are stretching way out. Revenue models and forecasts are no longer valid. In sum, whatever business model you had at the beginning of the year may be obsolete.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 29, 2020
We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 24, 2020
We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 5, 2020
We just held our tenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
MAY 20, 2020
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche. The world is a different place than it was 90 days ago. Countries traded saving lives by shutting down most of their economy. Tens of millions who had jobs are now unemployed worrying about their future. Business owners large and small are struggling to find their footing, wondering what will be the new normal when the recovery happens. For the majority of companies, the business models of the past will not return.
Steve Blank
MAY 21, 2020
The Covid-19 virus is not politically correct. It discriminates against the old and the unhealthy. The biggest risk factor in dying from the virus is age. If you’re 60 to 70 years old, you’re 30 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than if you’re under 40. And if you’re over 80, you’re 180 times more likely. It’s not that the young don’t get sick or die, but the odds are dramatically different.
Steve Blank
MAY 18, 2020
We’re holding a series of 5-day online classes at Stanford where teams will learn how to develop new business models for an economy that’s getting back to work and on the road to recovery. Sign up at [link]. The post-pandemic world will be a very different place. The Covid-19 virus has upended traditional ways of doing business, travel, education, entertainment, healthcare, etc. How do these institutions reconfigure and reinvent themselves? What new businesses and services will emerge?
Steve Blank
JULY 14, 2020
With a terrific crew of instructors, TA’s, and mentors, we successfully concluded Session 1 of our Hacking 4 Recovery summer series – with 20 teams sharing their final presentations last night. Slides for these presentations are in this folder , and we will be editing and sharing videos of each presentation shortly. Alivia – Telemedicine service bringing healthcare to middle income people in Peru. AllAboard – Remote onboarding services to help organizations establish a sense of belonging.
Steve Blank
APRIL 27, 2020
Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate.
Steve Blank
APRIL 16, 2020
Sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, my coffees with current and ex-students (entrepreneurs, as well as employees early in their careers) have gone virtual. Pre-pandemic these coffees were usually about what startup to join or how to find product/market fit. Though in the last month, even through Zoom I could sense they were struggling with a much weightier problem. The common theme in these calls were that many of them were finding this crisis to be an existential wakeup call. “My
Steve Blank
APRIL 7, 2020
With in-person classes canceled, we’re about to start our online versions of Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Oceans (and here ). The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of the building to talk to customers to do Customer Discovery when they can’t get out of the building? How do should startups do it? —-. Reminder: What’s the Point of Talking to Customers ?
Steve Blank
APRIL 1, 2020
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. It’s been updated with new information about the U.S. Paycheck Protection program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. What cashflow-negative companies must do to survive. We’re in uncharted territory with the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s increasingly looking grim.
Steve Blank
MARCH 17, 2020
“Winter is coming.”. This is the one blog post that I hope I’m completely wrong about. With the Covid-19 virus a worldwide pandemic, if you’re leading any startup or small business, you have to be asking yourself, “What’s Plan B? And what’s in my lifeboat?”. Here are a few thoughts about operating in uncertainty in a pandemic. Impact.
Steve Blank
MARCH 4, 2020
If you’re a busy startup founder, you’re likely delegating the task of scheduling key meetings about things you want/need to your admin. This is a mistake. That’s because the dialog you have in setting up the meeting is actually the first part of your meeting, not some clerical task. Treat it this way and you’re much more likely to achieve the objective you’re hoping to. Here’s why: A few weeks ago I got an email from a VC friend asking me to talk to a founder at one of his startups.
Steve Blank
JANUARY 28, 2020
Say not in grief he is no more – but live in thankfulness that he was. If you’re reading my blog, odds are you know who Clayton Christensen was. He passed away this week and it was a loss to us all. Everyone who writes about innovation stood on his shoulders. His insights transformed the language and the practice of innovation. Christensen changed the trajectory of my career and was the guide star for my work on innovation. I never got to say thank you. Eye Opening.
Steve Blank
JUNE 12, 2020
We just finished our 5th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. At the end of the quarter each of the eight teams give a final “Lessons Learned” presentation. Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the teams’ stories of a 10-week journey of hard-won learning and discovery.
Steve Blank
NOVEMBER 12, 2019
This article previously appeared in War On The Rocks. There was a time when much of U.S. academia was engaged in weapon systems research for the Defense Department and intelligence community. Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 15, 2019
This article previously appeared in the Harvard Business Review. The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. And these forces are completely reshaping both commerce and defense.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 29, 2019
This article previously appeared in VentureBeat. I just had a coffee with Mei and Bill, two passionate students who are on fire about their new startup idea. It’s past the “napkin-sketch” stage with a rough minimum viable product and about 100 users. I thought they had a great insight about an application space others had previously tried to crack. But they needed to convince investors that they are Facebook not Friendster.
Steve Blank
SEPTEMBER 24, 2020
We just had our first week of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War.
Steve Blank
JULY 9, 2020
SAVE THE DATE for the Lean Innovation Educators Summit : Lessons from Teaching in the Pandemic. July 24, 10-noon Pacific, 1-3pm Eastern, 6-8pm London. As educators the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged us all.
Steve Blank
MAY 29, 2019
I was interviewed by Philip Bouchard , Executive Director of TrustedPeer Entrepreneurship Advisory , about how entrepreneurship education has changed, mission-driven entrepreneurship, and what we’ve learned about corporate innovation. Worth a read. Interview highlights: How is the way that universities teach entrepreneurship evolving? Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford. Innovation and entrepreneurship will become the liberal arts of the 21st century.
Steve Blank
MAY 7, 2019
Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models.
Steve Blank
JUNE 18, 2019
I was honored to give the commencement speech at the University of California Santa Cruz, right down the road from the ranch. Rather than my usual talks about innovation and entrepreneurship I shared a few lessons learned after serving seven years as a public official on the California Coastal Commission. I told four stories about the conflict between money and power versus the common good. I was invited to give the talk by Professor Sue Carter, now the provost of the college.
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