Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

The key was the realization that start-ups are not simply smaller versions of large companies, which execute/ exploit known business models, and whose customers, problems, and necessary product features are all “knowns.” In sharp contrast, start-ups operate in “search/ explore ” mode, seeking a repeatable and profitable business model.

Incubator 402

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 402

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

Transportation partners play an enormous role in the supply chain as they bring products into distribution centers and sometimes directly to customers. Develop Relationships with Supply Chain Partners. Develop relationships with each of your supply chain partners and make communication a top priority.

Management 145

Management Forecast Los Angeles San Francisco 145

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

These hypotheses span the gamut from who’s the customer(s), to what’s the value proposition (product/service features), pricing, distribution channel, and demand creation (customer acquisition, activation, retention, etc.). They are: value proposition, product/service the company offers (along with its benefits to customers).

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. However, they don’t help you figure out where to start the search for your new business.

Lean 333

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 333

Steve Blank

APRIL 4, 2011

But it was their market size survey that had the team (and us) even more concerned; last weeks “hot” market of biomed researchers looked like it was only $30m market, and the total available reference manager market was another $80M.The question was, even if they got the product right, were there enough customers to make it a business?

Customer 234

Customer Business Model Nebraska Cloud 234

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

These explosions in company size and scale created a demand for professional managers. Founders of startups (and new ventures inside existing companies) are searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. Searching, unlike execution, is not a predictable pattern. experiential.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

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 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2020

They operated this way because their existing business models didn’t allow them to initially profit from those opportunities – so they ignored them – and continued to chase higher profitability in more-demanding segments. Reading The Innovator’s Dilemma was a revelation. When I finished, I must have had 25 pages of notes.

Lean 428

Lean Business Model Government Agile 428

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

You need to know the day-in-the-life of the customer. If you’re constantly correlating data and searching for patterns, all intelligence if properly integrated will give you insight. press and use it to generate end user demand and then drive that demand into our sales channel. We don’t need to know all this stuff.”

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.) There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.)

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com , highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book. They learn from the results of each test, refine the hypothesis, and test again—all in search of a repeatable, scalable, and profitable business model.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Startups that are searching for a business model need to keep score differently than large companies that are executing a known business model. A startup is a search for a repeatable and scalable business model. As a founder you are testing a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who are the customers/users?

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Wait a minute, what about the rest of Customer Development ? Aren’t you going to validate your hypotheses by first getting some customers?”. Now I was confused, and I asked, “Well what do you guys believe – Customer Development or launch on a schedule?” Filed under: Ardent , Customer Development.

Customer Development 307

Customer Development Singapore Channel PR 307

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Your startup is essentially an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. How do we create end user demand? Winston Churchill.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

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. Thats why eBay advertises on search engines, and Facebook doesnt. This has led to exponential growth.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco CPA SEM CTO Hire 167

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2010

One of the toughest problems for entrepreneurs is to keep score as they search for their business model. One of the key concepts of Customer Development is writing down your initial hypotheses (guesses) of all the parts of your business model, then updating them with the facts you find outside the building. Keeping Score.

Customer Development 211

Customer Development Business Model Early Stage Channel 211

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2010

Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. A Startup is a Search For A Business Model. As I’ve described in previous posts ; a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Intellectual Property 226

Intellectual Property Business Model Customer Development Distribution 226

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

Bettina said, “We want to drive customer demand into our channel.” Well all the agencies we interview tell us they can survey our customers and come up with our positioning and then help us target the right blogs, influencers and press. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Marketing , Teaching.

PR 314

PR China Lean Channel 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2013

It’s OK because in an era where you can much more rapidly prototype and build products it is far more beneficial to launch your first version, get initial customer traction and then talk to your customer base to understand how well it meets their needs. They now know they have a problem!

Sales 393

Sales Startup Framework Search 393

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

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Somewhere in the dim past of the company, it too was a startup searching for a business model.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

K9 Ventures

AUGUST 13, 2010

In fact, at the time (1996-1997) we offered both a downloadable product, that our customers could install on their own servers, and a “hosted-offering”, which came to be known as “On-Demand”, then the “ASP” (Application Service Provider) model, and today we call it “SaaS” (Software as a Service). being the dominant one at the time).

Revenue 72

Revenue Developer Java Customer Development 72

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. A “ scalable startup” takes an innovative idea and searches for a scalable and repeatable business model that will turn it into a high growth, profitable company. One founder quit and joined Google.)

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. That’s simply a failure of a startup board’s fiduciary responsibility. The Wrong Discussion s.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2013

Bettina said, “We want to drive customer demand into our channel.” Well all the agencies we interview tell us they can survey our customers and come up with our positioning and then help us target the right blogs, influencers and press. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Marketing , Teaching.

PR 206

PR China Lean Channel 206

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 6, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? What is customer development? Using AdWords to assess demand for your new online. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Getting educated about advertising, agencies, and. .

Agile 76

Agile San Francisco Software Review Continuous Deployment 76

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Reinventing the board meeting may offer venture-backed startups a more efficient, productive way to direct and measure their search for a profitable business model. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. That’s simply a failure of a startup board’s fiduciary responsibility. The Wrong Discussion s.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Thanks to Suns amazing PR blitz, there was tremendous demand for experts on Java, and I did my best to convince people that I was one of that mythical breed. Eric, I landed upon your blog when I was searching for the path to CTO a couple of months back and I have been a frequent to the site since then. Would love to get in touch.

San Francisco 155

San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

But the bubble mantra of get “big fast” and “first mover advantage” demanded tens of millions more to create a “brand.” Customer Development , Agile Engineering and the Lean methodology enforced a process of incremental and iterative development. That requires building a company using Agile and Customer Development.

Internet 334

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 334

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2010

By getting out of the building on a team project, the class helped students viscerally understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. Students formed teams, came up with a business idea then talked to customers, vendors and sales channel partners to validate their business model.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley Business Model Customer Development Engineer 126

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 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Customers kept demanding that we add this or that IM feature, and we were routinely refusing. We were afraid that this was just the tip of the iceberg, and that once we “gave in&# to these five demands there would be five more, ad infinitum. Every time you listen to customers, you fear diluting your vision.

Advisory Board 151

Advisory Board Customer San Francisco Lean 151

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 17, 2008

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? What is customer development? Using AdWords to assess demand for your new online. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R. Getting educated about advertising, agencies, and. .

San Francisco 88

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 88

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 228

Cloud Intellectual Property Lean Customer Development 228

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

By delegating and training, we create a corps of leaders who could step in to provide CTO-like services on demand. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Was it an important or irrelevant fact that most of our web code was procedural and not object-oriented?

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168