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SuperMac War Story 4: Repositioning SuperMac – “Market Type” at.

Steve Blank

Technically our positioning was correct, and with an infinite marketing budget (my back of the envelope calculations said $60M) and time, we might have made this technical fact ( QuickDraw acceleration) something a customer understood and cared about. What part of this blog should I read if I am also reading the book?

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Victoria’s Secret’s success came from a deep understanding of customers

The Equity Kicker

In 1982 Victoria’s Secret was a four store chain headed for bankruptcy. Interestingly, much of the insight that made the business work is the sort of insight that comes from customer development. Customer development only emerged as a thing in the last 5-10 years, so in one sense they were ahead of their time.

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Durant Versus Sloan – Part 1

Steve Blank

Durant Versus Sloan – Part 1 « Steve Blank steveblank.com/2009/10/01/durant-versus-sloan-part-1 – view page – cached + Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) + Can You Trust Any VC’s Under 40?

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The Curse of a New Building « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

Lets Fix Everything that Was Broken At SuperMac we were excited to finally get out of the crummy tiltup we had occupied since the company emerged from bankruptcy. That’s when things went south. Now with cash in hand, we wanted to fix everything that seemed broken and annoying about our office environment. A VERY nice office.

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No Business Plan Survives First Contact With A Customer – The 5.2 billion dollar mistake.

Steve Blank

But nine months after the first call was made in 1998, Iridium was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Today, the successor company serves some 300,000 customers in a series of niche markets including American soldiers calling home from war zones, oil rig managers, and big game hunters. No Business Plan survives first contact with a customer.

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supermac War Story 7: Rabbits Out of the Hat - Product Line Extensions

Steve Blank

The results spoke for themselves: Not one black-market board ever appeared, and the press was satisfied with our “customer value and product family” explanation. In three and a half years SuperMac’s market share went from 11% to 68%, as we went from bankruptcy to $150 million in sales.

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Piercing the Corporate Veil of Sweat Equity

grasshopperherder.com

BTW: putting your staff into a separate corporate entity and then forcing bankruptcy is a time honored way of getting rid of undesirable employees without having to pay their severance packages.). Top 3 Ways to Fail at Customer Development. Personas for Customer Development. Customer Development (27).