Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend. Forget the Hypertext idea and come on back to California. I’ve convinced the team you’d be perfect, come join us as the VP of Marketing.”

North Carolina 131

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 131

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

And I understood engineering since I interacted with them almost daily. I also knew our customers. And finally, I had a great working relationship with our engineers who designed the chips. I’ve built my company using the Customer Development Model from Day One. In reality it would be another 20 years.)

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 28, 2009

Think of a plane the length of a 767 airliner (but with 30 foot longer wings and 8 engines rather than 2) whose only mission was to FedEx 70,000 pounds of nuclear weapons to the Soviet Union. Sure the rest of the stories diverge though… can’t really imagine a Soviet counterpart to the Customer Development method.

Silicon Valley 224

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Michigan 224

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

I packed up my life in Michigan and spent five days driving to California to start work. I made them a pretty good offer – hire me as a training instructor at the salary they were going to pay me as a lab technician. You’re Hired, You’re Fired. Driving across the U.S. is an adventure everyone ought to do. Sign me up.

Agile 265

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 265

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Interestingly enough, Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford Engineering was tied to all three companies. Many investors weren’t interested in working for a large company for a salary and bonus, and most hated the paperwork and salary limitations that the SBIC imposed. government would invest three (up to $300,000.)

Silicon Valley 129

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 129

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2009

My ideas about Customer Development started evolving around these concepts. Eric Ries’s astute observations about engineering and Lean Startups make the same point. However, I think if I had understood the basics of Customer Development I might have done 5-6 startups rather than 8 to get to retirement.

Entrepreneur 333

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley RSS Customer Development 333