Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

I’ve spent the last week in Santiago, a guest of Professor Cristóbal García at the Catholic University of Chile as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program. Teaching in Chile. Valaparaiso houses. Entrepreneurship and innovation in what I call “Chilecon Valley” is being talked about continually here.

Chile 240

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 240

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

The eight teams spoke to over 945 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, warfighters, legal, security, customers, etc. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ) Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique.

Oakland 313

Oakland Asia Lean Video 313

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

In 1908 Harvard Business School filled that need by creating a graduate degree – the Master of Business Administration. When Harvard started the MBA program there were no graduate-level business textbooks. Entrepreneurship Becomes a Subject in Business Schools. There were no classes on how to start a business.

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, science and engineering at both Stanford and U.C. Starting in the 1950’s, Stanford’s engineering department became “outward facing” and developed a culture of spinouts and active faculty support and participation in the first wave of Silicon Valley startups. The Business Plan is Dead.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

The first, the notion of the “ ambidextrous organization ” from O’Reilly and Tushman , posits that companies that want to do continuous innovation need to execute their core business model while innovating in parallel. Horizon 1 activities support existing business models. Horizon 1 is the company’s core business.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2023

This meant the class was team-based, Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering) and experiential – where the students, rather than being presented with all of the essential information, must discover that information rapidly for themselves.

Lean 295

Lean Chile Ukraine Spain 295

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. From the point of view of scientists and engineers in a university lab, too often entrepreneurship in all its VC-driven glory – income statements, balance sheets, business plans, revenue models, 5-year forecasts, etc.

Engineer 284

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 284

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

In my last post I described my approach to one of the three classes I teach at Stanford in the engineering school: Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship. The key things I want students to take from the class are: Understand that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model.

Business Model 235

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Alexander Osterwalder invented the Business Model Canvas , co-founded strategyzer.com and was the lead author of Business Model Generation which sold a million copies in 30 languages. Big companies have great execution habits to manage and improve successful business models and value propositions.

Non-Compete 331

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 331

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. It might be its most important. ———-. Cold War Spin Outs.

Engineer 311

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 311

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

Tesla Tesla invented a successful business model for bringing compelling electric cars to the market. Lastly, Microsoft Office remains the most popular corporate productivity software program. Partly because our business revolves around Google, but mainly because of how innovative they are. Photo Credit: Dennis Lenard.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Entrepreneur Software Review SEO 124

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

But by taking advantage of open source, agile software, and iterative development, lean startups can operate with much less waste. I also owe a great debt to Kent Beck, whose Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change was my first introduction to this kind of thinking. The lean startup is an application of Lean Thinking.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing business plans when we should first be searching for business models. So what would a search process for a business model look like? That is until Alexander Osterwalder wrote Business Model Generation.

Lean 292

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 292

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

The first hint lies in its name; this is a product development model, not a marketing model, not a sales hiring model, not a customer acquisition model, not even a financing model (and we’ll also find that in most cases it’s even a poor model to use to develop a product.) Product Development Diagram 1.

Customer Development 244

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 244

Agile VC

OCTOBER 3, 2016

The way forward includes not only advanced vehicles themselves but also potentially shifts in road infrastructure, laws and regulations, and even business models for “mobility.” And this entire system was engineered for human-driven vehicles.

Technical Review 186

Technical Review Software Review Business Model Developer 186

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

My contribution has been, “Why don’t we design classes more closely modeled to what innovators and entrepreneurs actually do.” Today the capstone class is most often experiential, team-based, hands on, focused around the search for a repeatable and scalable business model. It wasn’t really part of the job as an educator.

Incubator 332

Incubator Lean Programming Government 332

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, September 22, 2008 The three drivers of growth for your business model. The AARRR model (hence pirates, get it?) He also has a discussion of how your choice of business model determines which of these metric areas you want to focus on. for Harvard Business Revie.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? Here’s an attempt to put this all in context.

Search 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2013

This month we’ve crossed ~ 300 teams in the first two years through the program. It’s a model for a government program that’s gotten the balance between public/private partnerships just right. The program pays scientists $50,000 to attend the program and takes no equity. in Science or Nature.

Lean 267

Lean Washington Incubator Agile 267

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

The eight teams spoke to over 820 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, warfighters, legal, security, customers, etc. All the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, but all of their journeys were unique.

Oakland 278

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 278

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing business plans when we should first be searching for business models. So what would a search process for a business model look like? That is until Alexander Osterwalder wrote Business Model Generation.

Lean 184

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 184

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering. If youre trying to design an architecture to maximize agility, how can that work if some people are working in TDD and others not? But since I spent a long time in a hybrid CTO/VP Engineering role, I still have this nagging question. They might do anything !

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 7, 2012

Today, the first half of the Stanford Engineering Lean LaunchPad Class gave their final presentations. The goal is for them is to observe this class, then host and teach the next round of 50 NSF Innovation Corps scientist/engineer teams in July. Here are the first five. It Feels Like 20 Years Ago Today. Team ColorWheels.

Lean 261

Lean Business Model Agile United States 261

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 13, 2016

Alexander Osterwalder invented the Business Model Canvas , co-founded strategyzer.com and was the lead author of Business Model Generation which sold a million copies in 30 languages. Big companies have great execution habits to manage and improve successful business models and value propositions.

Non-Compete 120

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

These resulting business models made them look incredibly profitable. They knew how to execute the current business model. ARM, a competitor, not only had a better, much lower power processor, but a better business model – they licensed their architecture to other companies that designed their own products.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Steve Blank

JULY 23, 2014

——– The I-Corps program started when the U.S. Their goal was to train University scientists and researchers to use Lean Startup methods (business model design, customer development and agile engineering) to commercialize their science. National Science Foundation adopted my Lean LaunchPad class.

Lean 288

Lean Minnesota Jordan Agile 288

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

The human tendency to moralize about debt affects engineers, too. I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Side-effects that reduce agility are the most damaging symptoms of technical debt.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2010

Last week I was having coffee with an ex engineering student of mine now on his second startup (and for a change it wasn’t a Web 2.0 You fit the perfect profile; you have an engineering background, work experience in two startups and you’ll be limited in your career growth without one.” MBA or Engineering Management ?

Engineer 295

Engineer Business Model Programming Finance 295

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 20, 2014

The Lean LaunchPad class teaches students how to build a Lean Startup using business model design, customer development and agile engineering. As part of the National Science Foundation I-Corps program, NYU was responsible for training our country’s top scientists – and they’ve taught 170 of them so far.

Lean 274

Lean New York City New York Customer Development 274

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy is a new course from the Management Science and Engineering department in Stanford’s Engineering school and Stanford’s International Policy Studies program that will be first offered in the Fall of 2016. Join a select cross-disciplinary class that takes real problems from the U.S. Lessons Learned.

Lean 165

Lean Government Agile Africa 165

Steve Blank

JUNE 2, 2011

A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. Reinventing the board meeting may allow venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. for a business model. Victor Hugo.

Silicon Valley 289

Silicon Valley Business Model Early Stage Venture Capital 289

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Their engineering teams didn’t have the expertise using off-the-shelf microprocessors (back then “real” computer companies designed their own instruction sets and operating systems.) Their engineers hated us. Engineers as Salesmen I thought (and still do) that this sales guy walked on water.

Technology 143

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 143

Steve Blank

AUGUST 4, 2016

Hacking for Diplomacy is a new course from the Management Science and Engineering department in Stanford’s Engineering school and Stanford’s International Policy Studies program that will be first offered in the Fall of 2016. Join a select cross-disciplinary class that takes real problems from the U.S. Lessons Learned.

Lean 120

Lean Government Agile Africa 120

Steve Blank

MAY 12, 2015

Here’s Edmund’s description of the I-Corps Lite program. SBIR/STTR Program and Startup Seed Funding. The Small Business Innovative Research ( SBIR ) and Small Business Technology Transfer ( STTR ) programs are startup seed funds created by Congress to encourage U.S. were funded by the SBIR program.

SBIR 120

SBIR Maryland Lean Seed Stage 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

I think this idea is particularly appealing to those of us from an engineering background. One way to conceive of our goal in an early-stage venture is to incrementally “fill in the blanks&# for the business model that we think will one day power our startup. for Harvard Business Revie.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

— I just watched a very smart company try to manage innovation by hiring a global consulting firm to offload engineering from “distractions.” This was a very large and established tech company; its engineering organization developed the core day-to-day capabilities of the organization. Engineering continually felt overwhelmed.

Incubator 317

Incubator Curation Engineer Government 317

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2010

Back in 2004, Jerry Engel the head of the Entreprenuership program at Haas Business School at U.C. Customer Development was a process to quickly search for a profitable business model when customer needs (features, pricing, channel, etc.) We needed to teach both Customer Development and Agile methodologies.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Lean Developer Customer 242