Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum. We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. The Lean LaunchPad is now being taught in over 100 universities. So why change something that worked so well?

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 281

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

In January, we introduced a new graduate course at Stanford called the " target="_blank">Lean LaunchPad. It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots. to get hard-earned information.

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

For decades this revered business magazine described management techniques that were developed in and were for large corporations – offering more efficient and creative ways to execute existing business models. Business-as-usual management techniques focused on efficiency and execution are no longer a credible response.

Technical Review 219

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 219

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

While all the teams used the Mission Model Canvas , (videos here ), Customer Development and Agile Engineering to build Minimal Viable Products, each of their journeys was unique. Hacking for Defense has its origins in the Lean LaunchPad class I first taught at Stanford in 2011. Goals for the Hacking for Defense Class.

Lean 385

Lean Security Asia SBIR 385

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how. Build-Measure-Learn.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2014

—— The Lean Startup process builds new ventures more efficiently. It has three parts: a business model canvas to frame hypotheses, customer development to get out of the building to test those hypotheses and agile engineering to build minimum viable products. Alexander Osterwalder wrote it.

Business Model 335

Business Model Design Customer Development Lean 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

The concepts in my Lean LaunchPad curriculum can be taught in a variety of classes–as an introduction to entrepreneurship all the way to a graduate level “ capstone class.”. Our Lean LaunchPad class requires student teams to get out of the building and talk to 10-15 customers a week while they’re building the product.

Lean 278

Lean Customer Development Business Model Email 278

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. The Rise of Business Schools – Management as an Occupation. The business school was invented in the first decade of the 20th century in response to a massive economic transformation in the U.S.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

You may have read my previous posts about the Lean LaunchPad class taught at Stanford , Berkeley, Columbia , Caltech and for the National Science Foundation. I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. We were putting the plan before the planning.

Lean 317

Lean Georgia Michigan Business Model 317

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

Entrenched Innovation Model Issues : Qualcomm’s existing innovation model – wireless products were created in the R&D lab and then handed over to existing business units for commercialization – was wildly successful in the existing wireless and mobile space. Venture Fest was not integral to their success.

Programming 265

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 265

Steve Blank

JUNE 12, 2020

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. Hacking for Defense has its origins in the Lean LaunchPad class I first taught at Stanford in 2011. Our goal was to teach both theory and practice.

Oakland 301

Oakland Asia Lean Video 301

The Next Web

DECEMBER 30, 2012

How do you monetize a unique business model based on users rather than selling an actual product? We have a very simple business model. We determined that we could best monetize the business by focusing on online marketing, particularly our pay-per-click services. Giving it away at Contently. “At

Business Model 133

Business Model Technical Review Advertising B2C 133

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

The Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship curriculum has caught fire. I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. 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.

Lean 286

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 286

Steve Blank

MAY 23, 2016

NYU Engineering Commencement Speech. Thank you for the opportunity to address you on your graduation from this esteemed engineering school. Established businesses execute business models while startups search for them. Over the last decade I’ve watched the Lean Startup approach to entrepreneurship take off.

Lean 221

Lean Technical Review Vietnam Engineer 221

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

We just finished the 6 th annual Lean LaunchPad class. For the last 6 years I’ve taught the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford and Berkeley. business plans are fine for large companies where there is an existing market, existing product and existing customers, but they are useless in a startup where most often none of these are known.

Lean 120

Lean Incubator Business Model Channel 120

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. Here’s the course announcement from Professor Vergara (in English): Customer Development Course in Chile – Lean Launchpad. Teaching in Chile. Valaparaiso houses.

Chile 235

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 235

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This week they were testing who the customer, user, payer for the product will be (and discovering if they have a multi-sided business model , one with both buyers and sellers.) This post is part four.

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

MARCH 14, 2012

Today, the second half of the Stanford Engineering Lean LaunchPad Class gave their final presentations. As often happens, this team came into class convinced that their market research proved that their business was providing credit to underbanked customers. Class is a mix of engineering students and MBA’s. Team MiCasa.

Lean 248

Lean Business Model Customer Development China 248

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. What really matters are the business model canvas diagrams in the body and appendix of each presentation. they’re going to make a company out of this class project, and they’re hiring engineers.).

Lean 279

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 279

Steve Blank

MARCH 7, 2012

Today, the first half of the Stanford Engineering Lean LaunchPad Class gave their final presentations. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since we taught the first 10 teams in the Stanford Lean LaunchPad class. We’ll teach over 175 NSF Innovation Corps teams in the Lean LaunchPad course in 2012. Team ColorWheels.

Lean 256

Lean Business Model Agile United States 256

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2012

We’ve taught our Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship class at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and the National Science Foundation in 8 week, 10 week and 12 week versions. We decided to find out what was the Minimum Viable Product for our Lean LaunchPad class. We were going to teach the Lean LaunchPad class in 5-days.

Lean 258

Lean Business Model Customer Development New York 258

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

The Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship curriculum has caught fire. I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. 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.

Lean 178

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 178

Steve Blank

MAY 9, 2017

Continuous innovation requires the imagination and courage to challenge the initial hypotheses of your current business model (channel, cost, customers, products, supply chain, etc.) Not kind of wrong but going out of business wrong. This would continue for months, as customers weren’t behaving as per the business plan.

Restful 222

Restful Silicon Valley Puerto Rico San Jose 222

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 226

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

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 278

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 278

Steve Blank

MARCH 15, 2011

Our new Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. Come up with ways to test each of the 9 business model canvas hypotheses. Their business was a robot lawn mower. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here. what’s the product?

Business Model 236

Business Model Nebraska Peru Germany 236

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 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the Business Model Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In other words, how can we adapt the Business Model Canvas when the metrics of success for an organization is not revenue?

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

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 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

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 329

Non-Compete Agile Business Model San Francisco 329

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2014

0:43: Business Plans versus Business Models. 1:46: The Differences: Accounting, Engineering & Sales. 6:07: Engineering: Waterfall Development in a Large Company vs. Minimum Viable Product in a Startup. Module 3, The Lean Method. 1:28: Using the Business Model Canvas.

Founder 327

Founder Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 327

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 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

I’ve introduced a new class at Stanford to teach engineers, scientists and other professionals how startups really get built. Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.).

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford. Steve Blank: When I first starting teaching, the capstone entrepreneurship class was how to write a business plan. But years ago, we had no alternative – how to write a business plan was it. And the Lean LaunchPad class I developed at Stanford was the first such class.

Incubator 331

Incubator Lean Programming Government 331

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

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. Hacking for Defense has its origins in the Lean LaunchPad class I first taught at Stanford in 2011. All the presentations are worth a watch. Team: Panacea.

Oakland 266

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 266

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

We still have some collective scar tissue: the idea conjures up the hordes of dot-com hopefuls that descended on VC’s and angel investors with little more than a business plan. Therefore, if you want to sell IMVU one day, you’ll need to abandon your business model, even though it’s generating a lot of revenue per customer.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Berkeley and NCIIA , Jerry Engel and I first offered the Lean LaunchPad Educators Class. The class was designed to teach educators (and the adjunct entrepreneurs that support them) the Lean LaunchPad approach (Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) for teaching entrepreneurship.

Delaware 297

Delaware Lean Entrepreneur Advisory Board 297