Steve Blank

JANUARY 2, 2014

Part 4: This Will Save us Years – Customer Discovery in Medical Devices. Part 5: Value proposition and customer segments in Life Sciences. Part 6: Distribution channels in Life Sciences. Part 8: When Customers Make You Smarter : Customer Discovery in Digital Health. Mira Medicine and Multiple Sclerosis.

Lean 240

Lean Algorithm Customer Development IP 240

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2019

The class was unique in that it was 1) team-based, 2) experiential, 3) lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering). When we started this class, the concept of Lean (business models, customer development, agile, pivots, mvp’s) was new to everyone. Class Velocity/Depth.

Lean 248

Lean Business Model Balance Sheet Video 248

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 25, 2022

How do they connect with a new generation of customers who had no brand loyalty? How to they use the new distribution channels competitors have adopted? How do they make these transitions without alienating and losing their existing customers, distribution channels and partners?

Framework 389

Framework Distribution Channel Leadership 389

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

The Rise of Business Schools – Management as an Occupation. These explosions in company size and scale created a demand for professional managers. Its purpose was to educate management on best practices to run existing companies. Here’s why and what we did about it. that took place in the last quarter of the 19th century.

Lean 433

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 433

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Friday, September 11, 2009 The cardinal sin of community management Once you have a product launched, you will the face the joys – and the despair – of a community that grows up around it. There are many articles by many experts ( myself included ) extolling the virtues of listening to customers.

Community 158

Community Management Lean Software Review 158

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Yet two smart VC firms, Sigma and Matrix Partners, realized that somewhere in this mess there was value. The first step was to recruit a new management team. They had an existing distribution channel and their dealers and customers thought they knew who the company was and what it stood for.

Silicon Valley 146

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For our students, that can mean anyone from a Syrian refugee trying to make contact with his family back home, to a supply chain manager for a major apparel brand who wants to make sure his contract factory in Bangladesh doesn’t use forced labor. They tested this updated MVP with refugees and made some surprising discoveries.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2016

For our students, that can mean anyone from a Syrian refugee trying to make contact with his family back home, to a supply chain manager for a major apparel brand who wants to make sure his contract factory in Bangladesh doesn’t use forced labor. They tested this updated MVP with refugees and made some surprising discoveries.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean 120

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile my partner was in heaven working with his newly hired group of game designers directing and producing our first games. No, not really, but my partner owns the studio and tells me it’s spectacular and everyone will love it. Go spend some time outside the building talking to potential distribution partners.

Silicon Valley 207

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 207

Version One Ventures

APRIL 20, 2021

The Filebase platform offers a browser-based dashboard and an S3-compatible API to deploy, access and manage data across several decentralized storage networks (they currently support the Sia Network and the Storj Network, with planned support for the Filecoin Network and the Arweave Network by the end of this year). It’s not simple.

API 102

API Portfolio Distribution Networking 102

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Each VC firm/partner has a different spin on what to weigh more.) These types seem dangerous, yet are often the ones needed on board to get the fund to invest in the first place, seeing that the younger partners naturally have less pull during the Monday round-ups. I find the same still going on with a few firms and partners.&#

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 15, 2010

In fact, their affiliate partners dissuaded them from doing so. They bought distribution and engineering talent. I like EdgeCast and spent time with the management team. My take was that this follows three trends: a) customer involvement in product design, b) mass customization [e.g. No big surprise.

Venture Capital 271

Venture Capital Affiliate Valuation San Francisco 271

Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2014

However, I will then argue that while these methods are necessary to managing new ventures inside a company, they are insufficient. The success of Documentum and Document Sciences, they felt, came largely from Xerox technology and customers, yet the startup companies XTV funded got all the credit.

Startup 327

Startup Business Model Lean Russia 327

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.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 28, 2017

The goal of the class is to expose students to the basics of the Lean Methodology – Business Model Design , Customer Development and Agile Engineering. The teams come back into the class and present what they found, and then they get out and talk to more customers. Repeat for 5 days. What was critical?

Lean 120

Lean Customer Development Business Model Agile 120

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. BitSight - Risk Management (backed by Flybridge and Menlo). Gridco Systems – Power Distribution Systems (backed by General Catalyst and Northbridge). Investors: Antonio Rodriguez – Matrix Partners, HP ( blog , @antrod).

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 2, 2010

The cost of creating new companies is falling rapidly, and access to markets, distribution, and information is within the reach of anyone with an internet connection. The reason is that the underlying theory that powers established business, the theory of general management, is increasingly inadequate for managing startups.

San Francisco 122

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 122

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. What didn’t? Go to trade shows like it matters.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures. They’ve found product/market fit (what products customers want to buy). Lessons Learned.

Widget 120

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Task Management. Project Management Tools. Subscription Payments / Management. Managing APIs. Customer Relationship Management. Contractor Management. Private beta invitations & management: Prefinery. Scanning / Document Management.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

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? How to listen to customers, and not just the loud.

Audience 119

Audience San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean 119

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. Then, what’s missing — clearly an engineer — and why do I want a partner? Prior to Sorced, Elizabeth worked in business development at SecondMarket.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Managing the Business. As a founder you are testing a series of hypotheses about all the pieces of the business model: Who are the customers/users? What’s the distribution channel? Who are our partners? If you are following Customer Development , the answer is easy. Here’s why.

Balance Sheet 298

Balance Sheet Startup Burn Rate Metrics 298

Steve Blank

MAY 3, 2011

This week they were testing their hypotheses about Partners. Partners are the external companies whose product or service combines with your Value Proposition to create a complete customer solution or “whole product&# to satisfy customers. They worked on understanding their partners. The Nine Teams Present.

South Dakota 217

South Dakota Business Model Lean United States 217

Steve Blank

MAY 16, 2016

Now with over 750 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.) This week teams figured out how to measure mission achievement and success, and our advanced lectures were on activities, resources and partners. They have to create incentives for middle management leaders to take on horizon three ideas.

San Diego 142

San Diego Metrics Indonesia Silicon Valley 142

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

You can argue that the DNA created by Microsoft's over emphasis on distribution (Steve) and development (Bill), has ultimately cost it $50bn or more in lost revenue, market share and market capitalization. Developers have worn the crown for the last 30 or more years in the technology industry - rightly.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

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. The importance of a domain name.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

What about companies, like Siebel, that started with partner distribution first? For more on how to figure out which question applies in which context, see Business ecology and the four customer currencies.) It’s the difference between asking “how should we best solve this problem for these customers?&#

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 11, 2013

Before this occurs, the sales process is a craft or an art - custom-made by the founder or evangelist sales VP. You dive deep into a customer development process, working closely with a few customers who feed you requirements and are willing to trial an imperfect product that is evolving quickly.

Sales 50

Sales Technical Review Software Review B2B 50

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Ampex’s first customer was Bing Crosby who wanted to record his radio programs for rebroadcast (and had exclusive distribution rights.) Meanwhile on the West Coast – “The Group” 1950’s When Ampex was raising its money, in 1952, an employee of Fireman’s Fund in San Francisco, Reid Dennis , managed to put $20,000 in the deal.

Silicon Valley 125

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 125

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 4, 2015

First up in our speaker spotlight series is an edited transcript of our Q&A with Rocio Perez-Ochoa , co-founder of Bidhaa Sasa , a non-profit working to distribute beneficial goods to rural communities in Kenya. Fix the distribution bottleneck in rural Kenya. “My The inspiration for Bidhaa Sasa?

Kenya 60

Kenya Lean Community Africa 60

Steve Blank

JANUARY 17, 2016

Clips from their interviews are below: Wayne Sutton is a partner and co-founder of BUILDUP VC , a Bay Area non-profit that connects, mentors, and educates underrepresented technology entrepreneurs. We pivoted the company toward what the market wanted, and what our users and customer wanted, but away from my initial vision and passion.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley North Carolina Cofounder Entrepreneur 120

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Good human resource management practice can see you motivate your staff to give their very best without necessarily turning them into intrapreneurs, because when all is said and done, most people looking and taking up jobs do so because the don't to get into the intricacies of company ownership. Thank you and great post bud.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

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. Oh, this is just a Photoshop file?

San Francisco 144

San Francisco Customer Wiki Lean 144

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

In Meebo’s case, for example, I was lucky enough to partner up with Elaine and Sandy. No looking for partnerships (who’s going to partner with you anyway?). Trust me, once you’ve launched and achieved traction, you’ll have your pick of mentors, VCs, partners and all the legal expenses you need. Partner up? No legal muck.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

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. The key is to ask the right people what they think – not your friends, parents or partner. The right people are potential customers – ask them if they have the problem. That like quickly choosing a wife.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. "Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?" There are no self-appointed rockstar developers which you want to partner with.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42