Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Customer/Market Risk Versus Invention Risk One day I was having lunch with a VC sharing what I learned from my students. Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. Markets with Customer/Market Risk are those where the unknown is whether customers will adopt the product.

Vertical 148

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 148

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

The Times Square Strategy discussion I had with Eric Ries , was still top of mind, so instead of my standard Customer Development lecture , I offered my thoughts on: the origin of Customer Development, where we are today, and where does Customer Development go, and how you can help get it there.

Customer Development 218

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 218

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. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 205

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 205

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

understand the core customers and the sales and marketing process required for initial clinical sales and downstream commercialization. gather data essential to customer partnerships/collaboration/purchases before doing the science. identify financing vehicles before you need them. They cannot be done by proxies.

Lean 273

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 273

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

It took me a decade to work my way up to VP of Marketing and then CEO. Filed under: Air Force , Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture. Designed tradeshow booths, spent long nights at shows setting them up, and long days inside them during the shows. It made me understand that they were doable, solvable and winnable.

Thailand 333

Thailand Engineer Customer Development SEO 333

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. Do they believe you have a big enough vision and market.

Customer Development 266

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 266

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

A business plan is the execution document that large companies write when planning product-line extensions where customer, market and product features are known. One of my favorites: “ Judging will include such factors as: Market opportunity, reward to risk, strategy, implementation plan, financing plan, etc.”)

Business Plan 316

Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 316

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Ironically one of the things that’s holding back the Finnish cluster is Tekes , the government organization for financing research, development and innovation in Finland.

Finland 327

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 327

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. The first class was an introduction to the concepts of business model design and customer development. The Adventure Begins.

Lean 303

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 303

YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 4, 2016

From manufacturing to sales to finance, the supply chain routinely fails to command the respect it deserve. Transportation partners play an enormous role in the supply chain as they bring products into distribution centers and sometimes directly to customers. Develop Relationships with Supply Chain Partners.

Management 145

Management Forecast Los Angeles San Francisco 145

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. The motivations are the same – profit – driven by entrepreneurs and venture finance.

China 326

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 326

Steve Blank

JULY 24, 2012

While I thought I was consulting, Onyx was actually trying to recruit me as their VP of Marketing. As other startups were quickly automating all the department of large corporations (SAP-manufacturing, Oracle-finance, Siebel and Onyx-Sales) our first thought was that our company was going to automate enterprise-marketing departments.

Seattle 262

Seattle Cofounder Engineer Sales 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

ConversionXL

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Why Are They Referring New Customers Completely Unprompted? One on one interviews, surveys, and other customer development techniques can help to reveal this. The reason for this gap was twofold: The majority of happy clients weren’t comfortable having conversations with their friends about finances. Conclusion.

Programming 107

Programming Marketing Analytics Portfolio 107

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 9, 2012

TLDR: Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits , authors of The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development are back with a new book called The Lean Entrepreneur. It took the idea of Customer Development and made it accessible to a whole new audience. Market segments drive your business model.

Entrepreneur 167

Entrepreneur Lean Southern California San Diego 167

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

This isn’t just about having a eureka moment; it’s about understanding the problem you’re solving and why it matters to your potential customers. Take the time to research your market, identify your target audience, and refine your idea until it’s both good and compelling.

Intellectual Property 158

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 158

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

As an agenda for each meeting, I suggest: – How can we most add value, in addition to helping with financing? Similarly, customer introductions are invaluable in the early days, but become less valuable once a company has a fully-formed go to market function.”. Customer Development. Fundraising.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

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. His enthusiastic response was, “This will revolutionize marketing departments!”

Silicon Valley 236

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 236

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Customer Development , Science and Industrial Policy. Fast forward to today.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

For the last 10 years China essentially closed its search, media and social network software market to foreign companies with the result that Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Dropbox, and 30,000 other websites were not accessible from China. The motivations are the same – profit – driven by entrepreneurs and venture finance.

China 218

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 218

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

To do this they have to accomplish five things; 1) get deal flow – via networking and legwork, they identify likely industries, companies and teams with the potential for rapid growth (less than 10 years), 2) evaluate those companies and teams on the basis of technology, market opportunity, and team.

Silicon Valley 225

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 225

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

It’s often a good idea for founders to find a way to build something and get some early market validation before raising outside capital. Is there founder/market fit? How far is the company from product/market fit? What evidence do we have that their proposed product will be close to product/market fit (PMF)?

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. At the same time neither banks nor local governments had the cash to finance startups on the scale the country needed. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.).

Venture Capital 275

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 275

The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

Such as ensuring their companies are properly insured, that they have a separate current account for business finances and that they are up to date with the legalities of their business. Build Products Without Considering the Market. In order for a startup to succeed, it needs to be solving an existing market problem.

Startup 156

Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 156

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2016

Second, the leaders of these companies tended to be those who excelled at finance, supply chain or production. But starting in the last quarter of that century and accelerating in this one, a new form of financing – risk capital (angel and venture capital) — emerged. Filed under: Corporate Innovation , Customer Development.

Architecture 227

Architecture IRR Balance Sheet Liquidity Event 227

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

I know that this all seems obvious now with the movements started by Steven Blank ( Four Steps of Epiphany ) with the whole Customer Development processes / Lean Startup movements also popularized by people like Eric Ries. Many people at a young startup are trying to manage their finances like the rest of their user base.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

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 324

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 324

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. Somewhere along the line, however, Michael and his co-founder stopped listening to customers. Here’s what happened: We got the product out; we got paying customers.

Cofounder 145

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 145

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

What’s Marketing? But the one group that had me stumped was something called “marketing.&# &# Explain it to me again,&# I’d ask. One day I heard there was an opening in the marketing department for a product marketing manager for the Z-8000 peripheral chips. In reality it would be another 20 years.)

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 13, 2011

I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology detailed in his book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany."

Finland 158

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 158

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 123

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 123

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

This was the China I grew up with – the one where private enterprise was a crime and marketing wasn’t a profession. But before startups could happen, China’s basic science, technology and finance infrastructure and ecosystem needed to be built. Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital.

China 319

China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 319

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. Somewhere along the line, however, Michael and his co-founder stopped listening to customers. Here’s what happened: We got the product out; we got paying customers.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Class III devices are generally the highest risk devices and must be approved by the FDA before they are marketed. Class III medical devices that are high risk or novel devices for which no “predicate device” exist require clinical trials of the medical device a PMA (Pre-Market Approval). Regulatory Issues.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 299

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. I feel like “conversion rate optimization” is in 2013 what “social media marketing” was in 2009. Not because they have a conversion problem but because they never really nail the product or how to market it.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

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 229

San Francisco Database Advisory Board Silicon Valley 229

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

By 1991, 70% of the Torch funded startups were getting bank financing for expansion and later stages of the new ventures, with local governments acting as guarantors. At the same time neither banks nor local governments had the cash to finance startups on the scale the country needed. Like the U.S. It went bankrupt in 1997.).

Venture Capital 167

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 167