Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Brendan McManus said: “Lessons Learned” – A New Type of Venture Capital Pitch [link] #startup #advice [.] I am a young entrepreneur here, absolutely dying to hear the talk. Your results may vary.

Venture Capital 234

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 234

Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

Customer Development 127

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 127

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

She had so much insight to share that we broke the interview into two parts, 1) Corporate Venture Capital and more broadly, 2) How the Fortune 500 Can Buy, Invest and Partner with the Innovation Economy (coming soon). . Entrepreneurs today expect more than just capital from their investors.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

A version of this article first appeared in the Harvard Business Review. Most entrepreneurs today don’t remember the Dot-Com bubble of 1995 or the Dot-Com crash that followed in 2000. Then the cycle repeats with a new set of technologies. After the crash, venture capital was scarce to non-existent. And it may work.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

This post describes how following the traditional product development can lead to a “startup death spiral.&# In the next posts that follow, I’ll describe how this model’s failures led to the Customer Development Model – offering a new way to approach startup sales and marketing activities.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 232

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. One out of ten of Americans are out of work.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 24, 2010

The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. This doesn’t mean just more technology stuff, though we’ll get that. Over the last half a century, Silicon Valley has grown into the leading technology and innovation cluster for the United States and the world.

Silicon Valley 335

Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital Software Review 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors.

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 233

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. 50% the fault of a Nokia management that didn’t see it coming, while 50% was due to brilliant Apple execution.) Ultimately, Nokia’s difficulties will turn out to be good news for Finnish entrepreneurs.

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Finland Naming Russia Government 330

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 3, 2009

This is part of my ongoing series of posts and I need to file this one under both Raising Venture Capital and Startup Advice. There were tons of young entrepreneurs showing their latest Web 2.0 That died with waterfall software development. Usually in a tech / software startup 70-80% of your costs will be people.

Business Plan 334

Business Plan AJAX Venture Capital Technical Review 334

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Convergent Technologies When I was in my 20’s I worked at Convergent Technologies , a company that was proud to be known as the “Marine Corps of Silicon Valley.” If I had been older, wiser, or more honest with myself, I would have understood that my wife and family should have been the most important thing in my life.

Entrepreneur 290

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 290

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory. The collapse of the IPO market and dysfunctional math in the venture capital community has stacked the odds against you. Not that I blame you! Not so bad.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

Steve Blank

APRIL 19, 2010

The question is whether you are born with innate entrepreneurial talent or whether you can be taught to operate like an entrepreneur. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, Jason Calacanis , founder of Mahlo.com, and Mark Suster of GRP Partners, have all weighed in on the nature side – you’re born being an entrepreneur or your not.

Silicon Valley 232

Silicon Valley Venture Capital China New York 232

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Entrepreneur-in-Residence After SuperMac I had been approached by one of our venture investors to be an entrepreneur in residence (EIR), a Silicon Valley phrase which says one thing but means another. Depending on the size of the venture firm they may have one to three EIR’s who stay an average of a year or so.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

Greycroft is Alan’s venture capital firm that recently raised its second fund ($130 million) with offices in both New York and LA. We’re here for Greycroft’s CEO Summit – a gathering of the CEO’s of their portfolio companies with guest speakers covering topics including how to build your team, PR, customer development, etc.

PR 279

PR Technical Review Portfolio Customer Development 279

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. When I went through their financials as part of my due diligence I realized that if they ditched their low margin disk drive products, it wouldn’t take much to make them a profitable company.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 161

Hearpreneur

JULY 30, 2016

Female entrepreneurs and business owners are no longer taken with a grain of salt. Female entrepreneurs continue to make strides in business despite the pay gap, discrimination, and gender politics which play out on both large and small stages. In 2015, businesses owned by women brought in more than $1.5 trillion in sales.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur CTO Hire 48

The Next Web

MAY 4, 2013

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Stefano Bernardi, who is on the founding team of Betable , where he heads Customer Development. Previously, he worked in venture capital in Europe. One of the last entrepreneurs I met on a funding trip, ended up raising a $6M round in Italy. Reference Checks.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco Europe Technical Review Due Diligence 159

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

And throughout my career as an entrepreneur I kept asking questions of my VC investors and friends; Where did entrepreneurship come from? Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. How did Silicon Valley start?

Silicon Valley 294

Silicon Valley RSS San Francisco Technical Review 294

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Ernest Hemingway One of an entrepreneur’s greatest strengths is their relentless pursuit of a goal. Watching others try to solve problems reminded me why entrepreneurs are different. Once he was on board, I sat down with him on a weekly basis to review our progress with our list of software vendors. This was my fault.

Silicon Valley 331

Silicon Valley Software Review RSS Technical Review 331

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.) This mantra of talking to customers and iterating the product is the basis of the Lean Startup Methodology that Eric Ries has been evangelizing and I’ve been teaching at U.C. I was an idiot.

Silicon Valley 200

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 200

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

You’ve got a great idea and domain expertise, but limited money and insufficient technology resources. Should you co-found your company with a software development shop? portfolio operator VCs, e.g., Andreessen Horowitz, ff Venture Capital, First Round Capital, Google Ventures.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

David Teten

MARCH 28, 2012

Best Practices in Venture Capital Portfolio Company Value Creation. Even the best VCs and entrepreneurs have a painfully high failure rate. Lowering that failure rate would be highly impactful on venture capitalist returns, if we could figure out how to do it. Entrepreneurs please click here.

Portfolio 144

Portfolio Private Equity Venture Capital Early Stage 144

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

Below, you will find a list of books recommended by serial entrepreneur David S. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Once you’ve outlined your plan in bullet points, lists, and tables, you can schedule times to review and revise on a monthly basis.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

Venture Capital Cafe > Startup Resources (Updated Mar 2013). VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Every startup faces multiple choices and decisions when it comes to technology. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Girls in Tech.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. See part one for the first time it happened. This time it was serious. Are These Your Slides?

Silicon Valley 248

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 248

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 12, 2009

Follow the Leader At the conference I attended a bunch of technical sessions, and got lost when the speaker got past, “My name is xxx.” Ardent 3: Supercomputer Porn « Steve Blank (tags: customer-development product-management startup) [.]

Silicon Valley 163

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 163

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

Lessons learned from female founders and women entrepreneurs. Published on: July 13, 2011 Posted By Angie Tags: Elizabeth Knopf , Finding A Co-Founder , FounderDating , Sorced , Technical Co-Founder , Tips & Tricks. Consequently, I either needed a tech co-founder or to pay someone to develop the product.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

competitive analyses, channel and customer collateral (white papers, data sheets, product reviews), customer surveys, and market requirements documents. And our Director of Technical Marketing was superb at understanding customer needs and communicating them to engineering. It will cost you your job.”

Silicon Valley 268

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 268

Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Meanwhile our company was pouring an enormous amount of dollars into building tools and video compression technology, while also hiring a lot of high-priced Hollywood talent like art directors, and script and story editors. Was my response to stop development of the games? Bring in some outside professionals to review our progress?

Silicon Valley 221

Silicon Valley RSS Video San Diego 221

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

We had thought really hard about “ market type ” and decided to reposition the company from a technology provider to a solutions provider. Inside the covers of these publications our customers had said that it was the product reviews that most influenced their buying decisions.

Silicon Valley 126

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 126

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Zilog Zilog was my first Silicon Valley company where you could utter the customer’s name in public. Zilog produced one of the first 8-bit microprocessors , the Z-80 (competing at the time with Intel’s 8080 , Motorola 6800, and MOS Technology 6502.) The bill had come due.

Silicon Valley 195

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 195

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Dinner in a Strange Land When I was in my mid 20′s working at ESL, I was sent overseas to a customer site where the customers were our three-letter intelligence agencies. Their national technical means of verification made the world a safer place and hastened the end of the Soviet Union and the Cold War.)

Silicon Valley 206

Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 206

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. It’s harder to remember that we have no perpetual rights to them, they aren’t our due, but they’re gifts. Our friends who run the state park surrounding our ranch will join all of us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Silicon Valley 149

Silicon Valley Turkey United States RSS 149

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

automatic links to generated images Rietveld - asynchronous code reviews on changesets Tech*if*er0*urs – blog on roadmap for learning rails Best free programming books Project Management Basecamp - web-based project management and collaboration tool. WebSequenceDiagrams - sketch sequence diagrams.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

To give you a better idea of what entrepreneurs in this industry are thinking about during each phase of the startup process, I interviewed SaaS entrepreneurs from all over the world, including our own COO Noah Parsons. Practical Market Research Resources for Entrepreneurs. How to Write a Business Plan in Under an Hour.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

In my last post I described my approach to one of the three classes I teach at Stanford in the engineering school: Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship. After Stanford, Ann joined Mike Maples’ Venture Capital firm Floodgate as a partner. Ann and I recruited VC’s and entrepreneurs to be mentors for each team.

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Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 235