Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

Do you really want to spent $100k building a product to discover through Customer Development that the market is too small? Let’s start with how much value you think you’ll create for your customer if they use your product in terms of hours saved, costs avoided, extra sales, better conversion rates or whatever.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

The application of agile development methodologies which dramatically reduce waste and unlock creativity in product development. See Customer Development Engineering for my first stab at articulating the theory involved) Ferocious customer-centric rapid iteration, as exemplified by the Customer Development process.

Lean 168

Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 168

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Reply steveblank , on March 28, 2009 at 7:27 am Said: Denis, Over time the blogs tagged under the “customer development&# category will build up a narrative of illustrative stories of how customer development evolved in practice. What part of this blog should I read if I am also reading the book?

Silicon Valley 141

Silicon Valley Marketing RSS Customer Development 141

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Customer Development. A well-developed model is Andreessen Horowitz’s Executive Briefing Center. A true industry luminary will help in deal flow & differentiation . Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe advertises that “60% of WCAS XII portfolio companies benefit from repeat management.” In-house, brand-name guru.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 320

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 320

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

You really have to be able to differentiate yourself when you’re sitting across the table selling someone an insurance policy. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. You can go anywhere and buy insurance, and you’re going to get a competitive price in most places.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Using this idea to differentiate themselves as the hot new Silicon Valley VCs, some of his former business school students made this phrase their rallying cry. Over the next ten years, while Ford focused on cost reductions, General Motors built a diverse and differentiated product line. The only problem is that it’s simply not true.

Silicon Valley 317

Silicon Valley Differentiation United States Customer Development 317

Steve Blank

JANUARY 6, 2014

There are no model years to differentiate a Tesla Model S built in 2012 from one built this year. If your subscription revenue model “fires” a portion of your customers, i t may enable new competitors. Companies need to clearly communicate customer entitlements to future features.

Continuous Deployment 329

Continuous Deployment Customer Agile Cloud 329

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

That goal hasn’t changed, but the playing field has: What I do today is what I really did in the old days, which is to make sure that the story is differentiated and compelling. In the end, it’s about how you tell the story, and the center of that story has to be a differentiated statement about your role and your relevance in the market.

Washington 285

Washington Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Cofounder 285

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

These new entrants disrupted their food categories by offering high quality proprietary recipes, outsourcing their manufacturing, and using their cash and resources on sales and marketing to build distribution and a differentiated brand. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching. Customer Development Teaching'

North America 120

North America Lean Customer Development Distribution 120

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

You know what to highlight to differentiate from competition. Or if you’re still in the ideation stage, it gives you the basis for customer development, both in finding potential customers to call and in what you’re verifying when you get them on the phone. You know what words to put on your homepage.

Distribution 267

Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful 267

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

But because paid traffic is fundamentally a bidding war, its important that you have a differentiated ability to monetize customers better than other people who are bidding for the same traffic. 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

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

In today’s language of Customer Development , RIM positioned the Blackberry as a segment of an existing market – pager users who needed two-way communication. In today’s language of Customer Development , a TiVo positioned as a segment of an existing market (VCR’s) was a no brainer. Except there was one problem.

Hockey Stick 271

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 271

Steve Blank

MARCH 1, 2010

In a Resegmented market , a competitive analysis starts with the hypothesis of “Here’s the problem we are solving for customers.” In a New market a competitive analysis starts with the hypothesis of “We are creating something that never existed before for customers.” Filed under: Customer Development , Market Types , Uncategorized.

Customer Development 259

Customer Development Metrics Differentiation Customer 259

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

6 initial conditions differentiate a scalable startup from a small business; Breadth of an entrepreneurs’ vision. Customer and Agile development to find the business model. Posted in Customer Development, Durant versus Sloan, Technology, Venture Capital. That’s just plain wrong. It’s simply a choice.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

ConversionXL

APRIL 21, 2014

.” When I look for key differentiators I’m looking for: A clear explanation of who the product is for. It’s A Customer Development Problem, Not A Conversion Problem. How it is different from all the alternatives out there. A real reason why I should purchase from you vs everyone else. Recommended Reading.

Differentiation 101

Differentiation Conversion Customer Development Audience 101

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2016

As a formal method, the Lean Startup consists of three parts: The Business Model Canvas – to frame hypotheses, Customer Development – to test those hypotheses in front of customers, and Agile Engineering – to build Minimum Viable Products to maximize learning. Change Customer Relationships to Buy-in/Support.

Business Model 120

Business Model Revenue Channel Community 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? Do They Get Customer Development? Have they heard about Customer Development ? Can they tell you what you should be doing in Customer Discovery and Customer Validation ? Is Your VC Founder Friendly? How do you figure out which VC firm is best for you?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

That goal hasn’t changed, but the playing field has: What I do today is what I really did in the old days, which is to make sure that the story is differentiated and compelling. In the end, it’s about how you tell the story, and the center of that story has to be a differentiated statement about your role and your relevance in the market.

Washington 120

Washington Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

For his doctoral work, his research focused on liver tissue engineering and stem cell differentiation. Sunny’s startup idea emerged from a diagnostic tool he’d developed in his lab to detect pathogens. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Sunny received his Ph.D.

Cofounder 190

Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 190

ConversionXL

JUNE 14, 2021

In this guide, you’ll learn how to differentiate your business and attract your ideal customers by creating a unique selling proposition. How do they differentiate from other competitors (including yourself) and handle objections? How do you stand out and solve their problems better than anybody else? Check out their about page.

Software Review 158

Software Review Audience Differentiation Framework 158

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

What differentiates them is their disciplined approach to determining when to spend money: after the fundamental elements of the business model have been empirically validated. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback. Myth: Lean Startups replace vision with data or customer feedback.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

For his doctoral work, his research focused on liver tissue engineering and stem cell differentiation. Sunny’s startup idea emerged from a diagnostic tool he’d developed in his lab to detect pathogens. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Sunny received his Ph.D.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 120

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

The agencies were all of differentiating ilk, and so they may or may not give us title. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. We could take title (ownership) too those inventions funded by that agency, but the rest of them we had to go and fight each time and say, we wanted to take title or not.

Government 120

Government Entrepreneur Intellectual Property New York 120

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 17, 2016

We are in the midst of great change and many businesses of all shapes and sizes are figuring out how they can implement the right social customer service strategy to meet the ever changing expectations of this increasingly powerful generation. Old school customer service rules haven’t changed.

Customer 100

Customer Singapore Advisory Board Asia 100

YoungUpstarts

MARCH 27, 2012

It may be product durability, the company’s reputation for customer service, or safety features. If you don’t value what you bring to the customer, they won’t value it either. Very few companies know how to effectively articulate what differentiates them, so price often becomes the tiebreaker.

Customer 145

Customer Differentiation Reputation Demand 145

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How to differentiate yourself in a crowded market (and when perhaps you shouldn’t try). How cofounders can collaborate without going crazy.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 22, 2009

Each has its own iterative process: customer development and agile development respectively. In a customer problem pivot, we try to solve a different problem for the same customer segment. When doing intense customer development, the problem team can attain a high level of empathy with potential customers.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Agile 167

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. Customer Development says having a vision, faith and a set of hypotheses are a normal part of the startup experience. The mistake isn’t having a vision and taking risks.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 27, 2009

Here the key is for your free customers to get value from the site that is greater than the costs they perceive by the fact that youre selling access to them. What differentiates this model from "free serves paid" is that the free users dont need to consciously do anything special to be valuable.

San Francisco 148

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 148

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 3: Brand and differentiate yourself. Whether you’re looking to stand out in an already-crowded marketplace, or to simply be a memorable company, figuring out how to brand and differentiate yourself is key. However, we have been able to differentiate [ourselves] and also excel by making enterprise software fun and enjoyable.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

It’s important to differentiate between ideas that have been or can be patented and ideas thought up late night in a dorm-room. Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture. Customer Development Family/Career/Culture' A couple of caveats about founders with “ideas.”

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Advisory Board Customer Development Leadership 335

Hippoland

JUNE 19, 2018

And I think there can many more schools that can be established with a differentiated approach to drive the cost of education down for young people. Minerva is doing some incredibly interesting things here, and what is amazing to me is that in just a short period of time, high school students are clamoring to go to Minerva.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco California Cost Software 48

Hippoland

JUNE 19, 2018

And I think there can many more schools that can be established with a differentiated approach to drive the cost of education down for young people. Minerva is doing some incredibly interesting things here, and what is amazing to me is that in just a short period of time, high school students are clamoring to go to Minerva.

San Francisco 48

San Francisco California Cost Software 48

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 11, 2009

Identity value - This is the strongest source of value of all, and its a little tricky to differentiate from the preceding two sources. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? This is the benefit you get from incorporating a product into your self-conception.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC 102

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. There will be keynote speakers as well as skills workshops covering marketing/differentiation, scaling for growth, mentoring, and negotiations/inter-personal leadership skills.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 21, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. How to differentiate yourself in a crowded market (and when perhaps you shouldn’t try). How cofounders can collaborate without going crazy.

Widget 204

Widget Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 204