Customer Development, Distribution and Restful

Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” It’s an impressive portfolio.

Customer Development

Customer Development Web Developer Customer

How To Find the Right Co-Founders?

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Activities” is where you define the most important things your company must do to make the rest of your business model work. Activities define the unique expertise your company needs to deliver the value proposition, customers, channels, customer relationships and/or revenue. Filed under: Customer Development.

Cofounder

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model

I-Corps @ NIH – Pivoting the Curriculum

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum.

Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source

Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus

Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

The key principles of customer development are: There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside. You can test your hypotheses with a series of experiments with potential customers. The rest of the canvas might be validated with pricelists, spreadsheets, etc. How can you test distribution/deployment?

Customer

Customer Business Model Restful Video

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 17: Tiffani Bell and Clay Hebert

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Detroit

Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder

Why Corporate Skunk Works Need to Die

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2014

In the 20 th century corporate skunk works were used to develop disruptive innovation separate from the rest of the company. Decades before we were able to articulate the value of “getting out of the building” and the Lean Startup, the value in having skunk works controlling their own distribution was starkly evident.

Channel

Channel Customer Development Distribution Restful

The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

By 1923, 2/3rds of the courses at Harvard were taught with the case method, and the pattern was set for business education for the rest of the 20th century. The reality is that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers. Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering).

Lean

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan

Born Global or Die Local – Building a Regional Startup Playbook

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year. startups ignore the rest of the world until they scale in their own country. Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development.

Global

Global Australia Silicon Valley China

Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Venture Capitalists on your board developed the expertise to get your firm public as soon as possible using whatever it took including hype, spin, expand, and grab market share because the sooner you got your billion dollar market cap, the sooner the VC firm could sell their shares and distribute their profits. So what’s left?

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital

When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

I remind my students that I’m teaching them a methodology they can use the rest of their careers, not running an incubator. Their sales had given them some real data on three potential distribution channels: direct to consumer, brick and mortar retail, retailers. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching.

North America

North America Lean Customer Development Distribution

Better for whom?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

But that means they’re no good for large, complex, distributed, multi-user projects. My PM tool is best for distributed, open projects with thousands of members but which still require central management. Surely your product is “better” than the rest… for someone.

Distribution

Distribution Differentiation Lean Restful

Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice

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.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean

Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice

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.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley Washington United Kingdom Lean

Marching through quicksand

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. What accounts for the difference?

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution

The Rise of the Lean VC – Consumer Internet Gets Its Own Investors

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

But these VC’s aren’t Lean because they fund startups with web-based distribution models. It’s because the startups are doing something very new that make them “Lean&# : These startups embrace customer and agile development that Eric Ries has been evangelizing. (BTW, Lean Angels.

Lean

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital

The Phantom Sales Forecast – Failing at Customer Validation

Steve Blank

JULY 22, 2010

Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch. Listening, I got the rest of the story. Do we have a workable sales and distribution channel? Filed under: Customer Development , Customer Development Manifesto.

Forecast

Forecast Sales Customer Customer Development

The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations

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. Customer Segments is changed to Beneficiaries.

Business Model

Business Model Revenue Channel Community

SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards « Steve Blank

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. Hopefully you and your co-founders are experts in one or two parts (agile development, SEO/SEM, etc.) But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales.

Sales

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas

Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed In a Large Corporation

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

They’ve found product/market fit (what products customers want to buy). They’ve learned the best distribution channel to get the product from their company to the customer. And both organizations – execution and innovation – need to understand that the success of the company rests on how well they can cooperate.

Widget

Widget Lean Business Model Metrics

Seth Godin: How often should you publish?

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Heres my favorite part: If youve got a team, part of the team should obsess about the backlist, honing it, editing it and promoting it, while the rest work to generate (as opposed to promote) the frontlist. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Lean DC

Durant Versus Sloan – Part 1

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.) Gary Hoover Reply Michael F.

Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development

Your Product Needs to be 10x Better than the Competition to Win. Here’s Why:

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 11, 2011

GoTo.com went on to ink huge distribution deals with Microsoft, AOL & Yahoo! Secondly, they had an owned & operated (O&O) website – Google.com – and Overture had shut down GoTo.com at the request of their very profitable and large distribution partners. Think YouTube vs. the rest.

Product

Product Tuvalu Dilution Incubator

Good enough never is (or is it?)

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

And the rest is history: Google Maps was a huge success. After all, how would Craig Newmark’s life (and the rest of ours, too) be different today if he had waited to build something with a high-quality design before starting his famous list? And the rest is history: Google Maps was a huge success. Ship it.&# Ship it.&#

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Software Review

Product design debt versus Technical debt

andrewchenblog.com

MARCH 10, 2010

Coupled with A/B testing, customer development, and thinking through business problems in a scientific, hypothesis-driven way, you end up with a powerful cocktail of techniques to build a modern startup in the most iterative way possible. I could care less about the rest. optimizing can be good but it can waste time.

Technical Review

Technical Review Design Las Vegas Product

Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

My two cents is that a business plan is the single place to collect your thinking about about your: business model, distribution channel, demand creation plan, financial assumptions, and customer and product development plan. And the rest of the advice on this blog is irrelevant. I now think that was a mistake.

Business Plan

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital

Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice - Discussion

news.ycombinator.com

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

What would have happened if, before Netflix had become established, one of the major rental store chains or perhaps a coalition of big movie studios had realised the potential of those new distribution models and the danger to the existing happy cash generators, and consequently thrown $100,000,000 into getting their own service off the ground?

Stealth

Stealth Technical Review Startup Software Review

The Steve Jobs method

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 1, 2009

Even if SJ has some unique "process" that enables him to come up with killer products (I suspect he is just wired differently from most people and probably has no real idea of how he does it to a point where it is teachable), that doesn't mean that the Lean Startup/Steve Blank's ideas etc have less of a value for the rest of us.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

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

Lean Business Model Balance Sheet Video

From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Only eBay was founded by a single individual – the rest were team efforts. I too am looking for someone to work with that knows the manufacturing and distribution end of a solid product. thanks to advice like yours, people like me spent that time developing rather than begging for money. How to have good startup? [.]

Technical Review

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review

Crazy! 189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

However, one of my co-founders doesn’t seem to be as motivated as the rest of us. 2) Co-Founders are the largest form of dilution (if you’re raising) 3) Everything around LeanStartup / Customer Development 4) Understand the micro economics of your business early. A few nuggets. 1) Hire A’s. A’s hire B’s, B’s hire C’s.

Technical Review

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review

Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?

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?" "I am a creative guy with a startup idea." However, I do spend a lot of time daydreaming.

Developer

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder

The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post)

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 22, 2010

Luckily for the rest of us, he was able to find his path to a green card, and now employs 24 Americans in West Lafayette, Indiana. 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. He started Passageways Inc.

San Francisco

San Francisco Indiana Lean Startup

Towards a new entrepreneurship

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. This is just like a startup to me, complete with distribution and product development challenges, ecosystem design and many, many customers.

San Francisco

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC

The cardinal sin of community management

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 11, 2009

I agree that listening and communicating is a key to success, but customer development can only do so much. As for the rest of the comments that have generally been blasting me for my use of the word troll, let me say the following: 1) I hear you. After all, devs are the majority part of your customers.

Community

Community Management Lean Software Review

StartUpRoar

Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

How To Find the Right Co-Founders?

Trending Sources

I-Corps @ NIH – Pivoting the Curriculum

Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus

Entrepreneurs are Everywhere Show No. 17: Tiffani Bell and Clay Hebert

Why Corporate Skunk Works Need to Die

The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

Born Global or Die Local – Building a Regional Startup Playbook

Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check

Better for whom?

Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice

Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice

Marching through quicksand

The Rise of the Lean VC – Consumer Internet Gets Its Own Investors

The Phantom Sales Forecast – Failing at Customer Validation

The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations

SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards « Steve Blank

Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed In a Large Corporation

Seth Godin: How often should you publish?

Durant Versus Sloan – Part 1

Your Product Needs to be 10x Better than the Competition to Win. Here’s Why:

Good enough never is (or is it?)

Product design debt versus Technical debt

Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions

Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice - Discussion

The Steve Jobs method

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

From Nothing To Something. How To Get There.

Crazy! 189 Answers To The Top Startup Questions On Your Mind

Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?

The new startup arms race (for Huffington Post)

Towards a new entrepreneurship

The cardinal sin of community management

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