Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

But for the last decade “innovation” in Chinese software meant something different than it did in Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs in Beijing were knowledgeable about Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship and the state of software and tools available for two reasons. Of course “copy” is too strong a word. Fear of Failure.

China 219

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 219

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Since I wasn’t an engineer, my contribution was around the team-building and fund raising. Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one.

Silicon Valley 204

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 204

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

. … (Still) We had no idea the complexity that would be involved from sourcing the manufacturer and how long it would take once you found that manufacturer to be able to engineer the product… It’s very different when you’re engineering a product to make 100 of parts. …. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

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. Why It’s “Silicon” Valley. ———-.

Engineer 311

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 311

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

There is a wealth of resources that are unique to this town and a vibrant community of hackers, product designers, business people, and investors at various stages in their career. Mobile Mondays : Boston chapter of the world’s largest Mobile professional community. Raizlabs – Mobile Development. Intrepid – Mobile development.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Dino and I kept in touch as he moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. What’s Different.

Silicon Valley 317

Silicon Valley Oregon Lean Venture Capital 317

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

Four decades ago my first job in Silicon Valley was with ESL, the first company to combine computers and signals intelligence. The founder of this 1964 Silicon Valley startup was Bill Perry. Second: I also gave the commencement speech at the NYU engineering school here. The Left side of the Canvas.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, September 11, 2009 The cardinal sin of community management Once you have a product launched, you will the face the joys – and the despair – of a community that grows up around it. Most normal customers – even among early adopters - do not pay attention to the trolls.

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Community Management Lean Software Review 158

crowdSPRING Blog

MARCH 15, 2013

The chart above shows age distribution within major social networks and online communities. Bad Customer Development Questions and How to Avoid My Mistakes – [link]. Money matters: why women founders struggle in Silicon Valley | The Verge – [link]. I bet you over-engineered your startup – [link].

Social Media 105

Social Media Small Business Design Media 105

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

One of the great things about being a retired entrepreneur is that I get to give back to the community that helped me. customer development. agile engineering. Some general customer development slides click here. Visitors Guide to Silicon Valley. Secret History of Silicon Valley.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

The students “get out of the building” and test their hypotheses in front of potential beneficiaries using the Customer Development methodology, all while building and updating their Minimal Viable Products. For the deputy secretary, such a dialogue in Silicon Valley is not a matter of charity, but necessity.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

The students “get out of the building” and test their hypotheses in front of potential beneficiaries using the Customer Development methodology, all while building and updating their Minimal Viable Products. For the deputy secretary, such a dialogue in Silicon Valley is not a matter of charity, but necessity.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 10, 2011

This week, the startup tribe from Harvard Business School is making their annual trek to Silicon Valley. It’s a common refrain around Silicon Valley to disparage the role of MBA’s in entrepreneurship. They’ll hear from a variety of experts and get to see many startups firsthand. I also frequently see the reverse.

Silicon Valley 167

Silicon Valley San Francisco Lean Investment Bankers 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

Its easy to take Silicon Valley for granted. Ive written a little bit about the origins of Silicon Valley because I think its important for us to understand how we got here in order to make sure we preserve what is best about our community. And do your customer development.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 10, 2012

Your most powerful growth engine is your existing customer. Two studies have shown that only about 10 percent of promoters actually refer profitable new customers. Some of the most creative technology coming out of Silicon Valley is designed to do exactly that. That’s right.

Customer 154

Customer Fractional CTO Canada Technical Review 154

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2017

Hacking for Defense is a battle-tested problem-solving methodology that runs at Silicon Valley speed. Few consider opportunities to make the world safer with the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community or other government agencies. Each of their slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey.

Silicon Valley 197

Silicon Valley Southern California Lean San Diego 197

Steve Blank

JUNE 7, 2019

Followed by an 8-minute slide presentation follow their customer discovery journey over the 10-weeks. 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. All the presentations are worth a watch. Team: Panacea.

Oakland 278

Oakland Lean SBIR Afghanistan 278

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2011

I spent a few days in March in Ann Arbor Michigan as a guest of Professor Thomas Zurbuchen , Associate Dean for Entrepreneurial Programs, and Doug Neal , Director of Center for Entrepreneurship in the Engineering School at the University of Michigan. The Engineering School has 5,600 undergrads and 3,000 graduate students.

Michigan 313

Michigan Silicon Valley Venture Capital Incubator 313

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2016

There are obviously lots of differences, but creating an environment in which those people thrive and can collaborate together, it’s a new type of community basically. Companies like MySpace and LinkedIn became some of our biggest customers. We tried to sell inside Silicon Valley, so these were all tech companies.

Cofounder 280

Cofounder Silicon Valley Entrepreneur EC2 280

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 3, 2016

There are obviously lots of differences, but creating an environment in which those people thrive and can collaborate together, it’s a new type of community basically. Companies like MySpace and LinkedIn became some of our biggest customers. We tried to sell inside Silicon Valley, so these were all tech companies.

Cofounder 280

Cofounder Silicon Valley Entrepreneur EC2 280

Steve Blank

JANUARY 26, 2016

Introducing Hacking for Defense – Connecting Silicon Valley Innovation Culture and Mindset to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community. Hacking for Defense is a new course at Stanford’s Engineering School in the Spring of 2016. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, CIA, NSA. Yet in the last decade the U.S.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Korea Agile Lean 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2018

federal science agencies and in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. From the point of view of someone managing an engineering, manufacturing or operations organization, new, unplanned and unscheduled innovations are a distraction and a drag on existing resources.

Programming 325

Programming Incubator Leadership Silicon Valley 325

Steve Blank

AUGUST 1, 2016

Based on those results we believe that we can do the same with Diplomacy so working with the State Department’s innovation cell in Silicon Valley we will prototype the Hacking for Diplomacy course at Stanford this fall. (see the final Hacking for Defense class presentations here ). Result: Hell yes. 15 more schools are in the pipeline.

Silicon Valley 130

Silicon Valley Southern California San Diego Lean 130

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2018

Each of their slide presentations follow their customer discovery journey. 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. The teams presented in front of several hundred people in person and online.

Southern California 185

Southern California San Diego Mississippi SBIR 185

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2013

As Eric puts it in the webcast, “I’ve met now the CEOs of some of the biggest companies in the world, and I still spend time with the CEOs of high-growth Silicon Valley companies from the garage on up, and what all those people have in common is that they are seeking out sources of sustainable growth….

Lean 167

Lean Silicon Valley Agile Cofounder 167

Steve Blank

AUGUST 1, 2016

Based on those results we believe that we can do the same with Diplomacy so working with the State Department’s innovation cell in Silicon Valley we will prototype the Hacking for Diplomacy course at Stanford this fall. (see the final Hacking for Defense class presentations here ). Result: Hell yes. 15 more schools are in the pipeline.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Southern California San Diego Lean 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. The startup develops its first positioning statement and uses this to explain the company and its benefits to venture capitalists.

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2009

Before leaving California, the engineers gave me a course in this specialized receiver design. We were combining Stanford Engineering theory with ESL design engineers and implementing it with chips so new we were debugging the silicon as we were debugging the entire system. Taking concepts that had been only abstract Ph.D

Silicon Valley 278

Silicon Valley RSS California Washington 278

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

It’s more reference material. Thus, these pages. I’ll add more as time goes on.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

After quitting my job and starting Sorced , I spent a few months validating my business concept by creating the product mockups and doing customer development. Consequently, I either needed a tech co-founder or to pay someone to develop the product. Given those criteria, where are the watering holes to find these engineers?

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. The scene is the siren song of the innovation community. The Ultimate Combination of Startup Business Development Methods - ArcticStartup , November 16, 2010 I've been a huge fan of Steven Blank's Customer Development methodology for a long time.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

I-Corps teaches scientists and engineers how to get their technical ideas out of the lab and into the marketplace using the Lean Startup processes. Today, innovation isn’t happening at the big defense contractors as much as it’s happening right here in Silicon Valley. I got my chief of staff from Silicon Valley.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Washington Government 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2009

Now we were faced with the fact that even though we were gaining market share daily, there was nothing coming out of Engineering. Instead of eight boards, Engineering was going to be able to deliver one new graphics board. One of the reasons I had joined the company was seeing these boards as hope for the future. What could we do?

Silicon Valley 145

Silicon Valley Product RSS Engineer 145

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Heres the short version: hire people from the online communities that develop free software. Beyond the quality of the candidates themselves, Ive noticed three big effects of hiring out of free software communities: You can hire an expert in your own code base. This is especially true in Silicon Valley.

Software Review 68

Software Review Software Hiring San Francisco 68

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 14, 2009

Take a look: This full-day Master Class focuses on how to build a startup from the ground up to focus on customers, markets, and speed of iteration. Im working on a future post where Ill share the details of how I used customer development to shape both the content and packaging of this event, so look for that soon. Let me know.

Lean 60

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 8, 2009

So heres my simple question: What do folks in Washington need to know about the global community of entrepreneurs? Much of what makes the USA, and Silicon Valley in particular, such a great place to start a company is the result of good government policy. One school of thought is something like: leave startups alone!

DC 90

DC Washington San Francisco SBIR 90

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

We’ve had a lot of success in bringing people into the community and welcoming them. . Everyone is involved in the innovation entrepreneurship community in some way now. There’s more interest on the business school students and engineer students than there’s ever been. It’s not threatening.

Artificial Inteligence 120

Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120