Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Ironically one of the things that’s holding back the Finnish cluster is Tekes , the government organization for financing research, development and innovation in Finland.

Finland 329

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 329

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

clinical utility, customer, quality of data, reimbursement, what parts of the product are valuable, roles of CRO’s , and partners, etc.,) you make substantive changes to one or more parts of your initial business model, and this new data affects your biological and clinical hypotheses. They cannot be done by proxies.

Lean 277

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 277

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. However in practice most companies treated the Three Horizons like they are simply incremental execution of the same business model.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

This isn’t just about having a eureka moment; it’s about understanding the problem you’re solving and why it matters to your potential customers. Take the time to research your market, identify your target audience, and refine your idea until it’s both good and compelling.

Intellectual Property 138

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 138

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. It took the idea of Customer Development and made it accessible to a whole new audience. Market segments drive your business model.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. business models. Of course “copy” is too strong a word. I can’t imagine a U.S.

China 329

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 329

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Are there customers for what you are building? How many are there?

Customer Development 270

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 270

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Similarly, customer introductions are invaluable in the early days, but become less valuable once a company has a fully-formed go to market function.”. Customer Development. Fundraising.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. His enthusiastic response was, “This will revolutionize marketing departments!”

Silicon Valley 261

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 261

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. business models. Of course “copy” is too strong a word. I can’t imagine a U.S.

China 221

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 221

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Why Are They Referring New Customers Completely Unprompted? One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. For example, Birchbox has built an entire business model around sending 4-5 monthly samples for grooming & lifestyle products you may not have known about before.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

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 ?

Search 327

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 327

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

These resulting business models made them look incredibly profitable. Second, the leaders of these companies tended to be those who excelled at finance, supply chain or production. They knew how to execute the current business model. Risk capital has provided financing for new ideas in the form of startups.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Every large company, whether it can articulate it or not, is executing a proven business model (s).

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. Starting a business is too risky. Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification. Our revenue model was wrong.

Cofounder 147

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 147

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

But to do it, you need to actually have a sustainable business model. Starting a business is too risky. Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification. Our revenue model was wrong.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Class III devices are generally the highest risk devices and must be approved by the FDA before they are marketed. Class III medical devices that are high risk or novel devices for which no “predicate device” exist require clinical trials of the medical device a PMA (Pre-Market Approval). Business Model Issues.

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 304

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

In order to ensure a successful business, it is important that entrepreneurs make smart and calculated business decisions. Such as ensuring their companies are properly insured, that they have a separate current account for business finances and that they are up to date with the legalities of their business.

Startup 117

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 117

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Their objective is to get users, orders, customers, etc.

Wiki 319

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 319

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A Business Model. Ok, but what is a business model ? A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. Yet most entrepreneurs and their VC’s make startups use financial models and spreadsheets that actually hinder their success. Managing the Business. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 308

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 308

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed 5-person teams, came up with a business idea then got out of the building to validate their business model. What is a business model?

Intellectual Property 265

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 265

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They envisioned that their tiny startup was to going to be a $100 million/year company by creating an entirely new market – selling virtual goods. They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. Size of the target market.

Hockey Stick 304

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 304

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. 1) It’s an obligation that came with the check.

Silicon Valley 301

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 301

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 126

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 126

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Yet boards of large companies exist to monitor efficient strategy and execution of a known business model. 1) It’s an obligation that came with the check.

Silicon Valley 274

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 274

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Most of the startups they invested in either died by running out of money before they found a scalable business model or ended up in the “land of the living dead” by never growing (failing to Pivot.).

Venture Capital 307

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 307

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

The role of a founding CEO in a startup searching for a business model is radically different than a CEO building and growing a company. Do they “get&# Customer Development ? Some VC’s invest solely on technology breakthroughs and assume they’ll find a market later.). Your potential business model?

Founder 232

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 232

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. Not because they have a conversion problem but because they never really nail the product or how to market it.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

It wasn’t pure research, but rather a culture of taking sufficient risks to get to market. In 1960’s and ‘70’s few MBA’s would give up a lucrative career in management, finance or Wall Street to join a bunch of technical lunatics. So the engineers taught themselves how to become marketers, sales people and CEO’s.

Engineer 314

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 314

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

. ———– The National Institutes of Health recognizes that Life Science/Health Care commercialization has two components: the science/technology, and the business model. The Lean Launchpad® for Life Sciences (the I-Corps @ NIH ) uses the Lean Startup Model to discover and validate the business model.

San Diego 268

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 268

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2010

By getting out of the building on a team project, the class helped students viscerally understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed teams, came up with a business idea then talked to customers, vendors and sales channel partners to validate their business model.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley Business Model Customer Development Engineer 128

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

What matters is proving the viability of the company’s business model, what investors call “traction.&# Of course this is not at all true of many profitable small businesses, but they are not what I mean by startups.) Most importantly, they have lots of data about the unit economics of their business.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 23, 2012

OneBox.com — On $60m invested, sold for $850m 18 months after launch to J2 just before market crash — score! The pattern: Build up a business, create impressive shareholder value, then it fails. It’s not about the financing path, it’s about what you’ve decided to build. Support.com — On 2.5m

IPO 240

IPO Flash Bootstrapping Private Equity 240

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

One of the quickest ways to sort innovation ideas is to use the McKinsey Three Horizons Model. Horizon 1 ideas provide continuous innovation to a company’s existing business model and core capabilities. Horizon 2 ideas extend a company’s existing business model and core capabilities to new customers, markets or targets.

Incubator 320

Incubator Curation Engineer Government 320