Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

It was designed to bring together many of the new approaches to building a successful startup – customer development, agile development, business model generation and pivots. While I had managed to persuade two great VC’s to teach the class with me ( Jon Feiber and Ann Miura-ko ), what if I was wasting their time?

Lean 298

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 298

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. You might as well bring your lucky rabbits foot to the VC meeting. Just as a refresher.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Feld Thoughts

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

Here’s the punchline: if you run your company as if you have closed a VC equity financing round even though you actually closed a convertible debt round, you’ll be in much better shape when it comes time to raise your Series A financing. Early customer development talks are going great which keeps the team really excited.

Burn Rate 152

Burn Rate Equity Software Review Early Stage 152

Steve Blank

JULY 24, 2012

In my first meeting with the Onyx I was a bit nonplussed when the management team started trickling into their boardroom. I Know A Great Customer. And along with that first customer hypothesis I had the brilliant hypothesis that my channel partner should be Onyx. Do you have it your demo room showing it to potential customers?”

Seattle 259

Seattle Cofounder Engineer Sales 259

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. As a result, the standard product development model is not only useless, it is dangerous. make-or-break.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Once you have assembled the right core team, I recommend prioritizing as follows: First, meet with your portfolio company management. As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Customer Development. – What are your fundraising goals?

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Management 101. The motivations are the same – profit – driven by entrepreneurs and venture finance. But the differences are worth noting – it’s a young ecosystem, so startup management tools are nearly non-existent. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. Perhaps it’s the weather.

China 323

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 323

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

Whether it’s managing your supply chain or automating customer service, look for ways to optimise every aspect of your operations. PDF to Word conversion tools can be a lifesaver for managing documents efficiently. It’s not just about a logo or a tagline; it’s the experience you promise your customers.

Intellectual Property 130

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 130

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

This Stanford class will introduce management tools for entrepreneurs. We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Finally, you’ll see how agile development can help you rapidly iterate your product to build something customers will use and buy.

Wiki 311

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 311

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

They communicated this to product management who looked at all of the internal requirements we had generated (e.g. some came from our customer service, some were to improve performance / scalability from tech ops, some were bug fixes, etc.) and product management worked with me to decide what to build & when.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Management 101. The motivations are the same – profit – driven by entrepreneurs and venture finance. But the differences are worth noting – it’s a young ecosystem, so startup management tools are nearly non-existent. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. Perhaps it’s the weather.

China 215

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 215

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

AUGUST 15, 2016

Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. We tried to boil the ocean in the most literal sense. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Cofounder 142

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 142

Steve Blank

AUGUST 15, 2016

Prior to founding Carely , Michael Eidsaune earned his MBA in finance and spent several years in investment management, eventually earning his level 1 CFA certification. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. We tried to boil the ocean in the most literal sense. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: Market Type (part 4) Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) » 16 Responses Jon Ziskind , on September 14, 2009 at 9:19 am Said: Steve – Great post and really great advice.

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Up and Running

MAY 18, 2016

You’ll learn more about what destroys startups, how to use the Customer Development method to succeed, how to use the Business Model Canvas, how to identify and keep your customers, and how to drive profits. Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy. B y Cindy Alvarez.

Startup 80

Startup Venture Capital Angel Investor Lean 80

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

Our small training department had been without a manager for months and finding a replacement didn’t seem to be high on the VP of Sales list. Then it hit me – no one else wanted to be manager – what was the worst that could happen? What’s the Worst that Can Happen? All I had to do was ask.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2014

These groups are adapting or adopting the practices of startups and accelerators – disruption and innovation rather than direct competition, customer development versus more product features, agility and speed versus lowest cost. Product management tools like Stage-Gate ® emerged to systematically manage Waterfall product development.

IRR 335

IRR Startup Business Model Agile 335

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

It can be influenced by something seemingly small such as how information is managed by the business. In general, successful startups do three major things: They understand who their customers are, what they want and clearly define the product or service Unique Selling Point(USP). By customer development.

Startup 113

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

In Customer Development the goal of a minimum feature set is to pare the features of the first product release to the minimum necessary for early customers. The finance system didn’t talk to the sales system which didn’t know the manufacturing system even existed. All the Data and Not a Drop to Think.

San Francisco 228

San Francisco Database Advisory Board Silicon Valley 228

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2018

From my years of experience working with many entrepreneurs, including technology companies, finance and real-estate, product and coaching, I have found that there are 4 main categories of business meetings that occur when building a business. Customer Development. Everyone makes this mistake – even me!).

Stealth 198

Stealth Partner Developer Networking 198

Steve Blank

JULY 15, 2010

This changed their interest from managing your board for their liquidity to managing the board for all shareholders. Some of the old-line venture firms have changed their strategy, but some are still locked into last decade’s model while the partners are living off of their management fees and go through cargo cult like rituals.

Venture Capital 297

Venture Capital IPO Liquidity Event Entrepreneur 297

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Managing the Business. How do we finance the company, etc. An early indication that you’ve found the right business model is when you believe the cost of getting customers will be less than the revenues the customers will generate. 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

JANUARY 4, 2010

It means someone who organizes, manages, and assumes the risks of a business. They grow their business via profits or traditional bank financing. Their primary goal is a predictable revenue stream for the owner, with reasonable risk and reasonable effort and without the need to bring in world-class engineers and managers.

Hockey Stick 276

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 276

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

Lean Startup Circle Boston – Meetup dedicated to the lean startup and customer development methodology. Not Boston focused, but definitely follow his reports of PE and VC financings and the state of the venture market. @danprimack. BitSight - Risk Management (backed by Flybridge and Menlo). Jonathan Marino – PE Hub.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 23, 2009

If you never have, you can create your own using Google Finance. If you never have, you can create your own using Google Finance. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Amazing lean startup resources Is Entrepreneurship a Management Science?

Metrics 167

Metrics San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

They are gaining valuable customer data. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. For more on how this plays into the process of scaling up, see the Customer Creation stage of the customer development model.) They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

In 1960’s and ‘70’s few MBA’s would give up a lucrative career in management, finance or Wall Street to join a bunch of technical lunatics. Yet because of the Golden Rule, the VC’s got to set how startups were built and managed (those who have the gold set the rules.). there were almost no MBA’s.

Engineer 305

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

Do they “get&# Customer Development ? They understand that now’s not the time to hire a senior VP of Sales to start to scale the sales force or to look for a finance department to create income statements that say zero each month. Do They Get Customer Development? Have they heard about Customer Development ?

Founder 231

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan Foundation , the Sloan School of Management at MIT , the Sloan program at Stanford , and the Sloan/Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York. Sloan realized that the traditional centralized management structures (like General Motors had in 1920) were poor fits for the management of GM’s already diverse product lines.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Prior, he was a senior manager at Genentech in operations and project management. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 28, 2016

Steven Cohn , founder and CEO of Validately , which helps user researchers, product managers and others validate demand or usability for prototypes and live sites. Prior, he was a senior manager at Genentech in operations and project management. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Cofounder Seed Capital Texas 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

understand who their core and tertiary customers are, and the sales and marketing process required for initial clinical sales and downstream commercialization. identify financing vehicles before you need them. This user/customer-centered approach is a huge step in the right direction in the life science/health care commercialization.

San Diego 261

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 261

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2016

Prior to his public service, Javier spent 20+ years in investing, management, entrepreneurial and public policy, starting as a strategy consultant at McKinsey and Booz, Allen and at Abbott Laboratories. So essentially, the government invests in both (research), and (development).” Steve : How about the organization itself?

Small Business Administration 120

Small Business Administration SBIR United States Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

3) An experienced board brings an extensive network of customers, partners, help in recruiting, follow-on financing, etc. There are no standards for what each side (board versus management) does. From a founder’s point of view there are three reasons for board meetings. 1) It’s an obligation that came with the check.

Silicon Valley 290

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 290

www.instigatorblog.com

MARCH 2, 2010

The Importance of Advisory Boards for Startup CEOs Tweet When a startup receives financing it will need to setup a Board of Directors. What many first-time CEOs might not realize is that they may need to setup an Advisory Board as a condition of receiving financing. Mark Macleod spells it out beautifully in his post on Advisory Boards.

Advisory Board 40

Advisory Board Startup Cofounder Equity 40

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 26, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, April 26, 2009 Product development leverage Leverage has once again become a dirty word in the world of finance, and rightly so. But I want to talk about a different kind of leverage, the kind that you can get in product development. It has to be found and managed. Yeah, weve got that.

Product Development 88

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 88