Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

I’ve seen the Valley grow from Sunnyvale to Santa Clara to today where it stretches from San Jose to South of Market in San Francisco. I’ve watched the Valley go from Microwave Valley – to Defense Valley – to Silicon Valley to Internet Valley. So how did this happen? Where is it going?

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 17, 2017

Army’s Rapid Equipping Force on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan finding and deploying technology solutions against agile insurgents. He’s spent the last four years in Silicon Valley out of uniform continuing that work. In most industries, manufacturing is no longer a core competence of the U.S. Newell ran the U.S.

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Community Silicon Valley Technical Review Incubator 212

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 29, 2020

While Silicon Valley remains a hub of technological innovation, it is not the only hi-tech enclave where big ideas are brought to the fore in the commercial arena. Varada’s mission is clear: ‘… Bring agility to any data-driven business and enable ad hoc, interactive analytics on any data without friction.’

Cofounder 147

Cofounder Software Review Technical Cofounder 147

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

Over the last half a century, Silicon Valley has grown into the leading technology and innovation cluster for the United States and the world. In the past, the time to build a first product release was measured in months or even years as startups executed the founder’s vision of what customers wanted.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital Software Review 335

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.) Where Are the Customers? Product Development Diagram 1.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. We taught them the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. we couldn’t keep them in Silicon Valley for all 8 weeks, so we tried an experiment in teaching remotely.

Incubator 301

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 301

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Three to six months after first customer ship, if Sales starts missing its numbers, the board gets concerned.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Reading the NY Times article “ Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture, ” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. ” Fire, Ready, Aim.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 20, 2022

One of the things I learned from my years in Silicon Valley is that you must always focus on three steps ahead, as well as on what exists today. Now that all customer shopping and e-commerce via the Internet is worldwide, the old adage of business location, location, location, no longer should constrain your plans.

Silicon Valley 367

Silicon Valley Artificial Inteligence Global Agile 367

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2015

Eric was the very first practitioner of my Customer Development methodology which became the core of the the Lean methodology. Back in 2004 when Eric and his IMVU co-founder Will Harvey approached me about investing in IMVU, I agreed on one condition – they had to take my Customer Development class at UC Berkeley Haas Business School.

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Lean Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Channel 120

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, November 6, 2008 Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile I thought Id share an interesting post from someone with a decidedly anti-agile point of view. Steveys Blog Rants: Good Agile, Bad Agile : "Google is an exceptionally disciplined company, from a software-engineering perspective.

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Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

This class is built on conducting in-person of interviews with customers/ beneficiaries and stakeholders, but due to the pandemic, teams now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. How would customer interviews work via video? See here for an extended discussion of remote customer discovery.).

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Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

ReadWriteStart

MAY 30, 2022

In this article, you’ll learn how bootstrapping makes you a better business – a leaner, smarter, more agile company that can roll with the punches. One in particular from a famous VC in Silicon Valley. You’re lean, agile, and responsive to external changes, ready to test a new idea or head in a new direction.

Bootstrapping 147

Bootstrapping Startup Equity Silicon Valley 147

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

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. Given its inward focus, Berkeley has always been the neglected sibling in Silicon Valley entrepreneurship.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 21, 2020

It was whatever you can do to get away from the classic DOD stovepipe way of doing business to a much more agile software approach. Josh Marcuse and the Defense Innovation Board were instrumental in helping us see what those agile principles were and how we could get moving and go fast. Warfighters Need to Be Demanding Customers.

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Artificial Inteligence Technology Agile Architecture 246

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Since every situation is unique, there is no perfect solution to any engineering, customer or competitor problem, and you shouldn’t agonize over trying to find one. An example of a reversible decision could be adding a product feature, a new algorithm in the code, targeting a specific set of customers, etc.

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Here’s the course announcement from Professor Vergara (in English): Customer Development Course in Chile – Lean Launchpad. The objective of this course is that groups of students finish with a completed software product that has real customers and an identified market.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

He’s as good as any startup CEO in Silicon Valley. Working with him, I’ve been impressed to watch his small team embrace Customer Development (and Business Model Generation ) and search the world for the right product/market fit. The good news/bad news is that you’ll spend ½ your time on airplanes listening to customers.).

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Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 222

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 27, 2011

There are very few people in Silicon Valley who have such a precise grasp on what defines success of early-stage startup companies than Eric Ries. 42:20 Did agile development influence you? 57: 00 How do you rectify company mission and customer demand. 57: 00 How do you rectify company mission and customer demand.

Silicon Valley 301

Silicon Valley Lean Social Media PR 301

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. And most startup code and features end up on the floor as customers never really wanted them.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 9, 2022

This will facilitate the expansion of battery charging and support facilities, and ultimately create more customers and growth for the whole industry, including Tesla. Maintain the agility to quickly pivot or quit. Social media relationships fuel the scaling fire. Not everything will work.

Partner 328

Partner Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Cloud 328

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

Second, this class – which is built on the idea of interviewing customers/beneficiaries and stakeholders in person – now had to do all their customer discovery via a computer screen. How on earth would customer interviews work via video? At first this seemed to be a fatal stake through the heart of the class.

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 18, 2010

After I retired, I began teaching Customer Development , a theory of how to reduce early stage risk in entrepreneurial ventures. My blog also allowed me to indulge my interest in a few other subjects: The Secret History of Silicon Valley , thoughts on a career as an entrepreneur, observations about family and startups, etc.

Silicon Valley 202

Silicon Valley Customer Development IP Developer 202

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Agile – you may find the real opportunities for your company was somewhere else. Passionate – is the company/product/customers the most important thing in your life? This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile. Get customers first. How quickly will you recover? But it won’t be happening daily.

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Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 219

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 8, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Saturday, November 8, 2008 What is customer development? But too often when its time to think about customers, marketing, positioning, or PR, we delegate it to "marketroids" or "suits." Many of us are not accustomed to thinking about markets or customers in a disciplined way.

Customer Development 168

Customer Development Developer San Francisco Customer 168

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. By 1961 its customers now included our intelligence agencies.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 171

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Rather than a traditional VC pitch I suggested that they do something unconventional and tell the story of their journey in Customer Discovery and Validation. The heart of the Cafepress presentation is the “ Lessons Learned from our Customers ” section. Your “Customer Development Process&# has really resonated for me.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

Cray’s first customers were the U.S. At Ardent our hypothesis was that if we could build a desktop supercomputer powerful enough to run and display these numerical simulations there were enough customers to make this a big business. I concluded that my first job was to understand what Cray’s markets, customers and applications.

Silicon Valley 147

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 147

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

One of the most successful incubators is Y Combinator in Silicon Valley. Here is where you learn to listen and communicate with people and customers. Commitment, tenacity, and agility are key in this stage. You need to feel the passion of others in the same stage. The test – iterate and pivot, based on market feedback.

Entrepreneur 348

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Incubator Merger 348

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. How to map stakeholders and systems’ dynamics?

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Lean Chile Ukraine Spain 294

Up and Running

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Instead of encouraging entrepreneurs to focus on developing long and in-depth, static business plans, Tim advocated for a simpler approach: Define your business identity: What’s your value proposition to your customers? Determine your target market: You need to know and understand your customers.

Lean 147

Lean Silicon Valley Forecast Technical Review 147

Steve Blank

AUGUST 6, 2009

Funded by military contracts these 1950′s startups would help build Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture and environment. Terman was describing the valley’s already existing ecosystem for building vacuum tubes in 1950. Air Force also needed improvements in frequency agility to protect its cold war bombers.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley RSS Germany California 144

Steve Blank

AUGUST 10, 2009

Funded by military contracts, these 1950′s microwave tube startups would help build Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial culture and environment. Stanford’s Dean of Engineering, Fred Terman, encouraged scientists and engineers to set up companies to build these microwave tubes for the military.

Silicon Valley 155

Silicon Valley RSS SBIC California 155

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 14, 2020

This will facilitate the expansion of battery charging and support facilities, and ultimately create more customers and growth for the whole industry, including Tesla. Maintain the agility to quickly pivot or quit. Social media relationships fuel the scaling fire. Not everything will work.

Partner 310

Partner Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 310

Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

We can’t bring customers to this rundown building. However, I’ve seen this story repeated time and again, and not just in Silicon Valley. The Curse of a New Building At some point in my career as I began to ponder how/why startups morph from agile, “can do&# companies to [.] [.]

Silicon Valley 205

Silicon Valley RSS Lean Agile 205

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

customer development. agile engineering. Some general customer development slides click here. Startupplays.com, publisher of online entrepreneurs processes guides, drew from my Udacity course and The Startup Owner’s Manual to create a free step-by-step guide to understanding your customers and creating your value proposition.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335