Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

Repeat, learning whether to iterate, pivot or restart until you have something that customers love. Waterfall Development. While it sounds simple , the Build Measure Learn approach to product development is a radical improvement over the traditional Waterfall model used throughout the 20 th century to build and ship products.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

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

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development. For example, recruiting writ large is useful at all stages of development. Customer Development. AskAnything.VC

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

SVPG

MARCH 17, 2011

Your company needs the strongest product team possible, and if you don’t develop your team and provide growth opportunities, there are other companies that will. ” This note discusses the technique that I use and advocate for providing a framework for ongoing skills assessment and development. his ability).

Developer 67

Developer Product Technical Review SCRUM 67

The Equity Kicker

MARCH 26, 2018

In our experience, structured customer development work is right up there amongst the most valuable things a founder can do in the early days of their startup. Once you have an idea that feels strong, it’s imperative to speak with customers about it. But good customer development is tough to do.

Customer 75

Customer Framework Differentiation Customer Development 75

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

I’ve watched new CEO’s brought into large existing consumer products companies to turn around a failing strategy. Their new strategy included a complete revamp and simplification of the product line. 5) The customer’s needs don’t match your long term direction. Fire might be a strong word.

Customer 195

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2018

by Dori Sella, author of “ Business Meetings that Work: 6 Steps to Increase Productivity “ Starting a business, whether it’s based on technology, a new marketing concept or a product is always exciting. Idea Validation and Development. Develop Partnerships. Customer Development.

Stealth 198

Stealth Partner Developer Networking 198

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2012

He turned his PhD thesis into a killer product, got it funded and now was CEO of a company of 30. It was great to watch him embrace the spirit and practice of customer development. He was constantly in front of customers, listening, selling, installing and learning. We’re building the wrong product!”

Founder 316

Founder Cofounder Advisory Board Burn Rate 316

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development.

Lean 177

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition 177

Steve Blank

AUGUST 29, 2016

To promote innovation inside the NGA, they’ve staffed an Enterprise Innovation Office (EIO) to coach, educate and advise the entire agency, from core leadership to the operational edges, with methods and concepts of validated learning through rapid experimentation and customer development.

Lean 177

Lean Silicon Valley Government Acquisition 177

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Now the company is in crisis mode because the rest of the organization (product development, marketing, etc.) Business Model Design and Customer Development Stack. The alternative to the traditional product introduction process is the Business Model Design and Customer Development Stack.

Burn Rate 247

Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 247

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 12, 2008

You might get a bunch of inbound emails from other press and partners, and all of these things can contribute to a feeling that you’re on your way to getting tons of traffic. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? It strokes your ego.

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Unless you’re fortunate to have one or more technical founders, you’ll quickly be faced with this simple question: Do we hack out a prototype somehow, find a developer or outsource the development? Un-knowledgeable - Since it’s just you and your partners, you might not be making the best choices.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 28, 2008

We pitch to potential partners, vendors, publishers, conferences, employees, and even lawyers. Its different from selling a product, because it is not part of our regular business practice, is not something that relates to our core competence, and tends not to happen in a repeatable and scalable way. 2comments: King of the Herd said.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 128

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

and how to price the product. for new product development that emphasize immediate returns. Talking to Bob I realized that at Acme Widgets (and in most large companies) the word “failure” was being used to describe two very different events: failure in execution of a known product in known market.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 30, 2009

I thought Id share a little bit of that, too: I’ve been interested in different approaches to software development going back to 1987 when – in my first company Feld Technologies – my partner Dave Jilk and I started talking about “semi-custom software development&# (way ahead of its time).

Lean 68

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 68

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 26, 2009

As a result, the companies get a lot of exposure to VCs, investors, and partners in larger, more traditional startup hubs. And do your customer development. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Some of the mentors are based in Boulder, but many are not.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Silicon Valley Startup Lean 113

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

I got a powerful taste of datablindness recently, as I’ve started to work with various large companies as partners in setting up events, speeches, and other products to sell around the Lean Startup concept. There are lots of good reasons why I can’t have instantaneous access to this data, and each partner has their own.

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. Vlad is also the CEO at DarwinApps , a software development shop.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 27, 2009

The Lean Startup is a practical approach for creating and managing a new breed of company that excels in low-cost experimentation, rapid iteration, and true customer insight. It uses principles of agile software development, open source and web 2.0, Thanks for an enjoyable evening. June 3, 2009 8:16 PM Tom Gimbel said.

Lean 60

Lean Austin San Francisco Continuous Deployment 60

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

How do they make these transitions without alienating and losing their existing customers, distribution channels and partners? Some of the teams even included some of their close partners. How to they use the new distribution channels competitors have adopted? This is a common mistake corporate innovation teams tend to make.

Framework 389

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 389

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

I do believe the only reason the developers were willing to work for some equity is because they became friends with us at Hackers and Founders, so that part worked. My business partner is still with the business, but I just didn't see a positive future without a strong technical co-founder. The timing just never worked out.

Cofounder 43

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Ruby 43

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 6, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 6, 2008 When NOT to listen to your users; when NOT to rely on split-tests There are three legs to the lean startup concept: agile product development , low-cost (fast to market) platforms , and rapid-iteration customer development. Or to some passionate customers.

San Francisco 128

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 128

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" Web Development Startups Solo Founders I am a creative guy with a startup idea. Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life? " => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. Rockstar v.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 1, 2009

I see that as a great way for my product to grow, but while Ive partnered with companies in my consulting business, its not something Im as familiar with now that Im on the product side. I question what numbers I would need to be considered respectable and/or worth a potential partners time. eric: briefly, you rock dude.

San Francisco 60

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 60

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Naturally, a big part of the go-to-market includes partnering with other players in the market. What went wrong?

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. List key partners and resources you will need, and then list your core team as well as their roles. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. Brand to clarify your vision.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Its goal is to take the original idea and search for a repeatable and scalable business model - first by finding product/market fit, then by testing all the parts of the business model (pricing, channel, acquisition/activation, partners, costs, etc.). They deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

There are often counter-intuitive changes in customer behavior that depend on little details. In fact, the curse of product development is that sometimes small things make a huge difference and sometimes huge things make no difference. When we’re optimizing, product development teams encounter similar situations.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 13, 2009

Establish credibility with potential partners. In some businesses, especially in certain industries like traditional enterprise software, you simply cannot bring a new product to market on your own. You need to combine your product with others, and this requires partners like OEMs or system integrators.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco PR Lean Early Stage 168

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2009

A great product enables customers, developers, partners, and even competitors to exchange their unique currencies in combinations that lead to financial success for the company that organizes them. We cultivated a passionate community that nurtured a skilled set of developers.

Customer 156

Customer San Francisco Viral Lean 156

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Sometimes, a great hacker has the potential to grow into the CTO of a company, and in those cases all you need is an outside mentor who can work with them to develop those skills. At the end of the day, the product development team of a startup (large or small) is a service organization. Does this sound familiar? Guess what?

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

What is the best advice you can give for finding a business partner? Don’t quickly choose any business partner. what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project?

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

MARCH 11, 2014

We started with the product about three years ago, development, a year later we released it. So let’s say about a year and a half, the product has been out for real. They have many, many man-years of development and customer development in them. Why not get a partner? Edwin: I know.

Technical Cofounder 220

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Review Management 220

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door. Inevitably, the excuses begin: I need to hire people to build the product. I don’t know any developers. In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. If no one ever uses your product, you have no value.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 20, 2012

and “Does our solution (a product, a website or an app) solve the problem in a compelling way?” Here’s how: Develop the Product for the Few, Not the Many. No startup can afford to build a product with every feature a mainstream customer needs all at once. MVPs for Web/Mobile Are Different.

Customer 119

Customer Advisory Board Engineer Cofounder 119

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 23, 2009

This is especially useful in situations, like most B2B businesses, where the total number of customers is likely to be small. This case study illustrates one company’s attempt to do customer development by testing their vision with customers before writing a single line of code. Read on and judge for yourself.

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144