Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition.

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

SVPG

OCTOBER 14, 2014

” We were big practitioners of what we now call Customer Development, and our customer was typically the IT organization of large companies. I remember being immediately struck by how different we designed and built technology, versus how our customers did. In any case, the Internet happened. 5) Funding.

Product 91

Product Technical Review Engineer CTO Hire 91

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Tell Me How to Find You But having benchmarks in hand that showed us as the winner did us no good unless all our potential customers could see them. Our first thought was to spread the news ourselves, perhaps in a press release or a “white paper,” (remember this was pre-Internet.) We were constantly creating metrics [.]

Silicon Valley 127

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 127

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

Instead, buyers are checking out product and service information in their own way, often through the Internet, their social network, or just plain word-of-mouth or customer reviews. In circumstances like this, most firms call their legal departments and start issuing cease and desist demands. But LEGO took a smarter approach.

Marketing 234

Marketing Software Review Technical Review Social Network 234

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

If there was any doubt among the teams about the value of what they’re learning, Blinken put it to rest with a compelling overview of how so many of today’s complex global problems – from stopping Ebola to monitoring cease-fires and improving food security – demand innovative, tech-based solutions. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

If there was any doubt among the teams about the value of what they’re learning, Blinken put it to rest with a compelling overview of how so many of today’s complex global problems – from stopping Ebola to monitoring cease-fires and improving food security – demand innovative, tech-based solutions. Christos Makridis, a Ph.D

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Although Catalyst folded with the dot-com crash, Ries continued his entrepreneurial career as a Senior Software Engineer at There.com, leading efforts in agile software development and user-generated content. I got my start programming on an old IBM XT; it was thanks to MUDs that I first discovered the internet. So much for timing.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" I always assumed I wouldnt manage anybody. Being a manager didnt sound fun - deep down, who really wants to be held accountable for other peoples actions? So I wound up learning the discipline of managing other people.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

Facing continuous disruption from globalization, China, the Internet, the diminished power of brands, changing workforce, etc., It describes the product/service, who is it for, what channel sells/deliver it, how demand is created, how does the company make money, etc. existing enterprises are establishing corporate innovation groups.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2008

Customer development. For those interested in getting started with agile or customer development, I thought Id include a few links. For customer development, start with Steves book The Four Steps to the Epiphany or take a look at his recent Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Lecture.

Lean 102

Lean San Francisco Agile Continuous Deployment 102

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? What is customer development? Using AdWords to assess demand for your new online. So launches become an emergent property of the system.

Agile 76

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

What those sites have in common (despite their very different audiences) is that something is causing their customers to become addicted to their product, and so no matter how they acquire a new customer, they tend to keep them. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

A scalable startup typically requires external “risk&# capital to create market demand and scale. And the founders must have a reality distortion field to convince investors their vision is not a hallucination and to hire employees and acquire early customers. Not All Startups are Scalable. The Web and Startups.

Hockey Stick 299

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 299

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

And, as you can see in my previous post on “ The cardinal sin of community management &# the feedback could be all over the map. But we had some super-active customers who would act as editors, collecting feedback from all over the community and synthesizing it into a report of the top issues. It was absolutely worth it.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

A major angel group used Influitive , an advocate management tool, to track, activate and motivate their members. Meyler Capital is taking the analytical rigor of modern internet marketing and applying it to fund marketing. 4) Manage deal flow. Talent Relationship Management tools (e.g., 2) Raise capital. Pitchbot.vc

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

Id like to talk about a technique Ive used to help manage this growth without slowing down. Talking to potential customers and competitors customers. Managers in this area have to take a portfolio approach, promoting ideas that work and might make good candidates for further investment. What is customer development?

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

While that’s great when you showed up in your horse and buggy, the strategy-to-tactic-to implementation lag is painful at Internet speeds. There are no standards for what each side (board versus management) does. In the age of the Internet why do we need to get together in one room on a fixed schedule? The Wrong Structure.

Silicon Valley 297

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 297

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

While that’s great when you showed up in your horse and buggy, the strategy-to-tactic-to implementation lag is painful at Internet speeds. There are no standards for what each side (board versus management) does. In the age of the Internet why do we need to get together in one room on a fixed schedule? The Wrong Structure.

Silicon Valley 270

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 270

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2011

Week 3 of the class and our teams in our Stanford Lean LaunchPad class were hard at work using Customer Development to get out of the classroom and test the first key hypotheses of their business model: The Value Proposition. Next week each team test their Customer Segment hypotheses (who are their customers/users/decision makers, etc.)

Cloud 237

Cloud Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 237

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

Its even more critical in lean startups when they need to manage growth. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? What is customer development?

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

As a consumer internet company with millions of customers, it may seem to have little relevancy for an enterprise software company with only a handful of potential customers, or a computer security company whose customers demand a rigorous audit before accepting a new release. It’s really a lot of fun.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

For example, our goal could be: Create demand for our products and drive it into our sales channel. Create awareness of our company and brand for potential customers. Potential customers such as gamers who like to play specific types of games? Is could be print (newspapers/magazine), Internet (website, podcasts, etc.),

Marketing 316

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 316

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

As in many scalability decisions, we’d have been much better off investing in agility, so that we could change the architecture in response to actual customer demand, rather than trying to predict the future. Leverage product development with open source and third parties. July 29, 2009 6:57 AM Heiner Wolf said.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 260

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

It has to be found and managed. In that same spirit, here are some suggestions for tactics you can use to increase the leverage of your product development efforts: Free and open source software (and even hardware ). For example, I recently created a customer validation exercise around the Lean Startup Workshop.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

A few of the detailed case studies include: Tech legend Bill Gross building an MVP in 1999 to test demand for online car sales, which grew into CarsDirect.com. BetaBrand building apparel MVPs and testing them quickly with targeted customer communities. LitMotors approach to using Lean Startup to create a new vehicle category.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur Agile San Francisco 167

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

The other revels in the world as we all know it will be someday: limitless distribution enabled by new technologies, the importance of collaborative filters, and on-demand availability of all content for end-users. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

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 Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries. None of mine did.)

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

Because of the extreme unknowns inherent in startup situations, we are all blind – to the realities of what customers what, market dynamics, and competitive threats. Periodic or on-demand reports are one possibility, but we can do much better. Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2013

LSC: Tell us about the customer development you did for your book: Alistair: We''ve been thrilled at how Lean Analytics seemed to resonate with founders. The dominant channel by which we reach customers is the Internet, whether you''re a small local restaurant on Yelp or a global maker of tissue paper.

Analytics 167

Analytics Lean Widget Metrics 167

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology that helps startups optimize their chances for success while reducing risk. There are no standards for what each side (board versus management) does. Silicon Valley, New York). Here's how.

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 11, 2010

You can view previous entries: Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science? High-profile startup Friendster had first-mover advantage in the social networking space, but created openings for competitors when it could not scale to meet demand. You can view previous entries: Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 120

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

These traits of a software engineer are always in demand by a great number of companies. This isn’t because technical people are flakier or inherently less entrepreneurial; it’s because by definition they have a narrower set of highly in-demand skills. Business people have it tougher.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2016

Instead, Facebook is the most popular social channel for customer service questions and is used twice as often as Twitter, which is the second most-used social media site. If you don’t have social as part of your customer service strategy, your business is missing out.

Customer 100

Customer Singapore Advisory Board Asia 100

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 23, 2015

Knowing your customers is the single biggest driver of startup success, and there’s no substitute for getting out of the building to learn about their problems and needs. Like Matthew, Jason sees enormous value in talking with customers: The biggest thing I learned was just how much you don’t know. Get out of the building.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Colorado Customer Development 120

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

Whether the Advisory Board is something your investors (or Board of Directors) demand or not, you should set one up anyway. And the Board is responsible for a lot of company management type stuff, which advisers wouldn’t really touch. Why wouldn’t you? But the structure is much more formal. link] Mike Rakowski Nice post.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Many journalists and conference organizers attempt to fill this demand by giving successful entrepreneurs the opportunity to tell their stories: in magazines, on blogs, and on stage. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Case Study: Continuous deployment makes releases n.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean PR Metrics 167