Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. But part of his life that that doesn’t even merit a Wikipedia entry is that Bill Perry used Silicon Valley to help end the cold war.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Too often, CEOs and small business managers suffer from analysis paralysis. Reply Lots of low cost experiments « Open Ambition , on April 22, 2009 at 8:58 am Said: [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. It looks as though you and I have the same taste in layout, no? Order Here. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. Help them?!!

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David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

A friend of mine interviewed for a job with massively successful hedge fund manager Steven A. Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. – Thoughtful fund management. Investing is a completely different skillset from being a good manager.

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David Teten

JANUARY 9, 2018

A friend of mine interviewed for a job with massively successful hedge fund manager Steven A. Many VCs focus on specific verticals, usually based on the sector in which a VC initially made her reputation. – Thoughtful fund management. Investing is a completely different skillset from being a good manager.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Private Equity Silicon Valley Differentiation 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

This is the first of two posts about the rise of “risk capital” and how it came to be associated with what became Silicon Valley. ———————– Building Blocks of Entrepreneurship By the mid 1950’s the groundwork for a culture and environment of entrepreneurship were taking shape on the east and west coasts of the United States.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Every startup has some methodology for product development, launch and life-cycle management. Yet startup companies have traditionally used this model to manage and pace not only engineering but also non-engineering activities. customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) It’s a big idea.)

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

At first only the national laboratories and the largest companies could afford to buy supercomputers, (the Cray-1 cost ~$9 million) but over time scientists and researchers were also starting to use them. Ardent 3: Supercomputer Porn « Steve Blank (tags: customer-development product-management startup) [.] Order Here. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Your best bet is probably taking an existing market and serving a portion of it better than the competition, through lower cost or a different set of features. That’s no longer the case in Silicon Valley. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. End of theory.&# Keep teaching! Order Here.

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Customer Development Web Developer Customer 228

The Startup Magazine

JUNE 1, 2023

By Daniel Sokolovksy, Co-Founder and CEO, WARP and Troy Lester, Co-Founder and CRO, WARP The dissolution of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was more than just a bank collapse, it was a reality check for both startups and the VCs that fund them. That includes us. As an early-stage company that just closed our seed round at $8.1

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 8, 2009

Marketing is Heard From Engineering was discussing how sophisticated the graphics portion of our computer should be, debating cost and time-to-market tradeoffs of arcane details such as double-buffering, 24 versus 32-bits of color, alpha channels, etc. for knowing his audience and managing to it effectively. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 283

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Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip. I vividly remember the sales guy saying, “It’s only some kid in field service.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)

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ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

When WordStream began receiving complaints that the seven-day free trial of their PPC management software wasn’t long enough, the brand decided to A/B test 14-day and 30-day trials. Growth hacking is a term that emerged from the Silicon Valley tech community and the lean startup methodology. The results? Image source.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Instead they managed rep firms (independent sales companies that carried multiple, non-competing products) that called on computer resellers that sold to the customers. For the next three weeks I spent 8 hours a day calling customers and another 6 hours a day managing my new department. I’m sure the CEO thought I was crazy.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

When I asked our trade show manager she looked at me like I was the house idiot and said, “Steve, don’t you know that my job is to set up our trade show booth?” But my favorite was when the public relations manager said, “we’re here to write press releases and answer the phone in case the press calls.” It will cost you your job.”

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

These poor miserable people who insist in making money at the cost of others, deserve our compassion, not emulation The real success I believe is leading a happy life and to hopefully provide for your worldly needs and those of your dependents. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Convergent Technologies When I was in my 20’s I worked at Convergent Technologies , a company that was proud to be known as the “Marine Corps of Silicon Valley.” I learned a lot at Convergent, going from product marketing manager in a small startup to VP of Marketing of the Unix Division as it became a public company.

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Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

We hired an interior designer and a great facilities person to manage the process. However, I’ve seen this story repeated time and again, and not just in Silicon Valley. If the management team is thinking they’ve made it, the new building is just symptomatic of a company heading for a crash.

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

In less than a month they designed a low-cost video-capture board that plugged into the Mac and allowed you to connect a video camera and VCR. But the rest of the management team really skeptical. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Little did we know. Thanks for adding the real facts to the story.

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Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

It’s our hood alignment station,” the plant manager said proudly. One day, I was at the Ford Wixom auto assembly plant training my replacement and I was at met at the door by an irate plant manager. He welcomed us by screaming, “Do you know how much it costs every minute this line is down.&# were born in India.

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Version One Ventures

JANUARY 2, 2019

Each week we like share our thoughts on a range of topics from vertical markets to general startup advice and our reflections on investing. Changing the narrative on distributed teams in Silicon Valley”. Among our Silicon Valley-based portfolio companies, every company past “A” has a distributed team.

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Reid Hoffman

MARCH 2, 2021

Dara manages Uber’s fast-growing business in 63 countries around the world and leads a global team of more than 22,000 employees. The way that Travis had set up Uber was a kind of vertical stack, very loosely coupled efforts, and any GM was essentially the CEO of their own city. We had a management offsite plan. Culture evolves.”

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steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

signup, upgrade, trial pricing Zuora – online subscription management FeeFighters – find the cheapest credit card processors HealPay – Collections made easy Customer Support Tender – support, knowledgebase tool for your site GetSatisfaction - conversations between companies / customers.

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David Teten

AUGUST 19, 2019

Since 2017 we’ve managed $3 million in revenue-based financing, which helps cash-strapped technology companies grow. Repaid 12-36 months with ability to prepay at reduced cost. In a situation where Pied Piper’s revenue growth exceeds expectations, prepayment discounts are built into the structure, lowering the cost of capital.”.

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Start Up Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

A bit like Silicon Valley. And while we feel a bit uncomfortable, we still engage because the cost of non participation is currently higher than the price of privacy. Residents are collaborating to start, finance and manage public works projects and proving they can bootstrap a better job themselves.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. With that information in hand, Engineering estimates delivery dates and development costs. The irony is that few startups fit these criteria.

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Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan Foundation , the Sloan School of Management at MIT , the Sloan program at Stanford , and the Sloan/Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York. Sloan realized that the traditional centralized management structures (like General Motors had in 1920) were poor fits for the management of GM’s already diverse product lines.

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Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 179

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Resegmentation means these startups are trying to lure some of the current or potential customers away from incumbents by either offering a lower cost product, or by offering features that appealed to a specific niche or subset of the existing users. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

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Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 206

mashable.com

JULY 18, 2012

GLIIF, LLC is a Hot Silicon Valley Startup designed to disrupt QR Code usage in advertising. GLIIF’s initial offering includes a brand-able and blend-able custom encrypted image at a low cost of entry, pre re-direction marketing services and full analytics. And self serving promotion to David and his articles.

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ReadWriteStart

MAY 6, 2011

An incubatee with Indian Angel Network, Anirudh Motwani from New Delhi, India, discussed IndiaCollegeSearch , a vertical search engine to address the problem of finding detailed information about various colleges and institutions in India. At 1/12th the cost, 1M/1M provides far more value.". IndiaCollegeSearch.

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India Vertical Entrepreneur Connecticut 115

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

In the old days, the brand manager of a consumer packaged goods product had to spend energy inferring the effectiveness of their television ads through a combination of trailing indicators (like market share) or time-consuming market research. I’ve met a lot of gatekeepers in the past few months. Though technology tools and Web 2.0

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Since the Customer Development model assumes that most startups cycle through these first two steps at least twice, it allows a well-managed company to carefully estimate and frugally husband its cash. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. all while saying “we’ll make it up later.” It rarely happens that way.)

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 253

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Without a budget, costs can quickly spiral out of control (last minute impulse purchases to jazz up your booth, for example) and defeat your best laid plans. A rule of thumb is that your space costs represent about a quarter of your total show budget. Get yourself into the booth selection meetings and get to know the manager.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

I was asked to explain why a marketing program that cost $150,000 bucks literally generated nothing in revenue for the company. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. They hit each other with baseball bats until one of them dropped.) This first Zen moment happened at a SuperMac exec staff meeting. Order Here.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

As a private company you can decide that winning at all costs is your culture. You can decide that coming in first at all costs is your culture. Think through if you want to win at any cost. (I It’s the decisions that you make that might cost you an order, a sale or a higher stock price. .&# And we decided not to.

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abovethecrowd.com

NOVEMBER 14, 2017

Bill is a general partner at Benchmark, one of Silicon Valley’s really legendary venture capital firms. He is one of Silicon Valley’s legendary venture capitalists. I get my healthcare insurance through Vox Media, so I actually don’t know the cost of my healthcare, or the government-.

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