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You Negotiate Commodities, But You Seize Opportunities

Steve Blank

Advisory Board. At one of our initial board meetings we had agreed on the general principle of an advisory board and put together an overall stock budget to compensate advisors. Over the next week we exchanged emails over advisory board stock. He was having too much fun at Sun and turned me down.).

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Ardent War Story 5: The Best Marketers Are Engineers

Steve Blank

I would discover that there was a more effective alternative in building a marketing department than hiring traditional marketers with MBA’s. I set up an advisory board as a vehicle to get these industry experts engaged with the company and product.

Engineer 205
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Ardent 1: Supercomputers Get Personal

Steve Blank

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. I’ve convinced the team you’d be perfect, come join us as the VP of Marketing.” We were on the University of North Carolina campus to meet with Fred Brooks and Henry Fuchs.