Steve Blank

MARCH 12, 2014

Therefore we needed them to think and learn about two parts of a startup; 1) ideation - how to create new ideas and 2) customer development – how do they test the validity of their idea (is it the right product, customer, channel, pricing, etc.). Customer Discovery in the Real World.

Lean 334

Lean Customer Development Startup Silicon Valley 334

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

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 11, 2014

” Sean is somebody widely respected in Silicon Valley (although he now lives in SoCal) for having helped many early-stage companies go through major growth periods by quantitatively testing features with audiences to help diagnose what led to growth. I recommend hiring or appointing a growth hacker.” Doesn’t.

Technical Review 384

Technical Review Hockey Stick SEM Channel 384

Steve Blank

JUNE 6, 2016

Innovation outposts in Silicon Valley allow big companies to sense and respond to rapid changes in technology. Srivastava leads Verizon’s innovation outpost (their Silicon Valley R&D center) in Palo Alto focusing on building products and services powered by big data and analytics. Want to be a guest on the show?

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Analytics 120

YoungUpstarts

JULY 1, 2018

In the past, many small travel companies have had to manually accept payments or use expensive payment services with limited features, which is more stressful and time-consuming for both the company and the customer. This is why customers used to go to bigger travel agencies with online payment gateways to book their trips.

Software Review 100

Software Review Software Technical Review Silicon Valley 100

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Growth hacking is a practice that aims to acquire as many customers as possible while spending as little money as possible. Where campaigns to build brand awareness and generate top-of-funnel sales drive traditional marketing, data across the entire customer lifecycle drives growth hacking in marketing. What is growth hacking?

Retention 113

Retention Marketing Acquisition Channel 113

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 11, 2010

The Customer Development process is the way startups quickly iterate and test each element of their business model , reducing customer and market risk. The first step of Customer Development is called Customer Discovery. outside the building and test them in front of customers. At least that’s the theory.

Burn Rate 248

Burn Rate Silicon Valley Marketing Boston 248

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

As part of our Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and for the National Science Foundation, students build a startup in 8 weeks using Business Model Design + Customer Development. Heck, in Silicon Valley even the waiters can do it.). Get customers to the site. Test the “problem” with customer data.

Lean 333

Lean Web Coder Business Model 333

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 15, 2023

The simple answer is that with all the staging of TV lights and billionaire investors, it’s nothing like Silicon Valley. Skip the background story and customer pitch, which every investor has heard all too often. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons.

Entrepreneur 279

Entrepreneur Due Diligence Angel Investor Silicon Valley 279

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 1, 2014

is a venture capitalist investing in Silicon Valley and Singapore. Some examples include: Organize a local market research campaign (best for services that involve connecting businesses with customers). The most expensive developers are usually around the Silicon Valley or the East Coast. Eddy Lee, Ph.D,

Web 160

Web Silicon Valley Salary Demand 160

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

They sold their product through the computer retail channel, something I knew nothing about. They sold to a set of customers I knew nothing about. After talking to its resellers and customers I realized that SuperMac was the only company that could be described as “fifth in a group of three.” Nothing I couldn’t fix.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

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. He continued: “I’d like to convince my boss so our company can be your first customer.”

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 225

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

Funding challenges and other issues founders face in the early days of starting up were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Traditional video had very high costs of distribution due to limited time slots of broadcast TV (we only had enough spectrum to support 3-4 channels). The number of channels grew with cable & satellite TV but we still have limitations that makes distributing content high. And production is where Hollywood beats Silicon Valley.

Video 339

Video Technical Review Distribution Aggregator 339

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

The functions of an early-stage board are pretty obvious and well understood: Providing introductions to customers, biz dev partners, recruits, the press, other investors, etc. Over time you start to figure out who you customers are and how to sell to them or how to get them to adopt your products if you’re a consumer-oriented startup.

Technical Review 325

Technical Review Early Stage Software Review Los Angeles 325

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2023

Every business organization, large or small, has a variety of individual and team member types that factor into your ability to innovate and change the business to meet evolving customer needs and competition. He brings over 25 years of experience with Silicon Valley leadership companies in highlighting winners and losers.

Silicon Valley 240

Silicon Valley Lean Leadership Analytics 240

Steve Blank

MAY 13, 2015

My guests this week on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on SiriusXM Channel 111 were: Kathryn Gould co-founder of Foundation Capital. As one of the first women VC’s in Silicon Valley she founded Foundation in 1995, and went on to be selected for the Midas List based on her investments.

Channel 120

Channel Silicon Valley Cofounder Venture Capital 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Five Easy Pieces – The Marketing Mission After a few months of talking to customers , talking to our channel and working with sales we defined the marketing Mission (our job) was to: Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin. Two paragraphs, Five bullets. It didn’t take more.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 259

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 9, 2011

And the third was a discussion on Silicon Valley: The Next Decade. In my experience, wealth managers often refer experts to their clients and Ankit could position his service through that channel. Lead Generation & Qualification With a Channel Partner. To train a channel, understanding the use cases is crucial.

Silicon Valley 113

Silicon Valley New Jersey Entrepreneur Massachusetts 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2020

The simple answer is that with all the staging of TV lights and billionaire investors, it’s nothing like Silicon Valley. Skip the background story and customer pitch, which every investor has heard all too often. Yet the process is eerily realistic, and every entrepreneur can glean some important lessons.

Due Diligence 317

Due Diligence Angel Investor Silicon Valley Green 317

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. I remember after a month or two of talking to 14-22 year old male gamers (our potential target market,) I realized that for the first time in my career I had no emotional connection to my customers or channel partners.

Silicon Valley 139

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

ReadWriteStart

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

First is that there are, perhaps, a thousand people in the world of entrepreneurship who know what they are doing when it comes to dealing with issues like financing, positioning, market sizing, customer validation, customer acquisition and other seemingly obvious topics that all entrepreneurs need to deal with. Rangrut.com.

Silicon Valley 114

Silicon Valley Technical Review Startup Early Stage 114

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. Yore launching to the customers you’ve already discovered and validated your ideas. . …

Detroit 120

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year. But other critical hypotheses such as activities, resources, partners, channels needed testing offshore. With 317 million people the U.S. It doesn’t.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

The “strategy” of learning who SuperMac’s customers were, what solutions they needed and what our repositioning would be was a three month effort. it was the speed of the applications that customers were using to get their work done. So I was going to give our customers metrics neither they or anyone else had ever seen before.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Austin Startup

MARCH 15, 2017

By the time Silicon Valley white privilege culture, tech magazines that promote only white faces, Ethereum/Bitcoin fanboys, sellout black tech wannabees and globalists promoting their blockchain consortium get a hold of this article, it’s already too late and the game already ended a while ago.

Technical Review 54

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review XML 54

The Next Web

DECEMBER 12, 2013

Modi also says startups should invest internally to inspire employees to have empathy for each other and for their customers. So many commerce startups get it wrong – focusing on customers before community.”. It’s easy, especially in Silicon Valley, to get hung up on all the whizbang new technologies available to developers.

Mobile 136

Mobile Silicon Valley Viral Technical Review 136

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

And I got to experience a type of customer buying behavior I had never seen before – the Novelty Effect. People who aren’t current customers of our graphics boards will get to know our company and brand. All we had to do was tell customers they could get video into their computer – and not promise anything else.

Video 164

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 164

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2015

My guests this past week on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Pete Newell , managing partner of BMNT Partners. The focus of our first segment is how Silicon Valley and the U.S. military and are now helping government agencies operate with the speed and urgency of Silicon Valley.

Channel 120

Channel Japan Bosnia Silicon Valley 120

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 16, 2011

Freshdesk First, Girish Mathrubootham from Chennai, India, pitched Freshdesk , a SaaS company that provides small and medium businesses with on-demand customer support software that offers multi-channel social support. Freshdesk introduces itself as a kind of Salesforce.com for customer support so to speak.

India 123

India Bootstrapping Non-Compete Entrepreneur 123

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance I always had been curious about how Silicon Valley, a place I had lived and worked in, came to be. How did Silicon Valley start?

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 270

Ben's Blog

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In the old days (before the Internet), no technology products were free, because distribution costs made it impossible to offer anything without some commitment from the end customer. Meet the new enterprise customer. He’s a lot like the old enterprise customer. Meet The New Enterprise Customer. Final Thoughts.

Customer 78

Customer Technical Review Silicon Valley Internet 78

Up and Running

OCTOBER 4, 2017

If their solution can potentially meet customer needs, startups should create a minimal viable product (MVP) that captures their idea and brings it to market as quickly as possible. Reputation will be as important as ever in 2018—only now, it’s more about your brand identity spread through digital channels.

Startup 115

Startup Estonia Poland Silicon Valley 115

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

To do a solid holiday season he will need to balance the inventory and marketing budgets, and getting stuck in a complex situation with inventory being stuffed in the retail channels with bad terms will be a kiss of death. I will connect the company to a few larger companies that may be good OEM channels for them. JCLABoutique.com.

India 114

India Silicon Valley Incubator Bootstrapping 114

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

I don’t have an MBA and I don’t live in Silicon Valley. Customer References. That likelihood goes down if you are not in Silicon Valley or Boston. What kind of people make great customers for him? Angel investors come from a variety of ages, backgrounds, and professions. I’m not your average angel.

Angel Investor 159

Angel Investor Technical Review Software Review Accredited Investor 159

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. Strong pre-show promotion will let your customers and prospects know about your exhibit.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128