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 authentic is this idea to the founder’s experience? I’ll dig into this a bit further… Founder/Market Fit.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

The reality is that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers. Cases and plans are useful for teaching managers of process, not founders. Founders of startups (and new ventures inside existing companies) are searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. experiential.

Lean 435

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 435

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Customer Development is all about gathering a list of what features customers want by talking to them, surveying them, or running “focus groups.” One of the specific requests from our chip architects was to find out whether customers would want the chip to have data stored as big-endian or little-endian.

Customer Development 280

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 280

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2020

Customer Development became one of the three parts of the Lean Startup as Eric Ries and Alexander Osterwalder provided the other two components (Agile Engineering and the business model canvas.) Therefore, for founders, entrepreneurship wasn’t a job, but a calling. Teaching a different kind of innovator.

Lean 429

Lean Business Model Government Agile 429

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

When I first read about the Investment Readiness Level (IRL) on Steve’s blog, I was excited by Steve’s attempt to bridge the capital-efficient Lean Startup process for founders with the capital-raising process for funders. But the ‘ah-hah!’ Since I began incorporating the Investment Readiness Level framework I’ve made three observations.

Sacramento 308

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 308

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

I teach potential founders a hands-on, experiential class called the Lean LaunchPad at Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia and Caltech. customer development. Some general customer development slides click here. The Founder’s Workbook. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 9, 2012

In fact, you could say that all that remains from my last book are the four steps of Customer Development. Integrates Alexander Osterwalders “Business Model Canvas” as the front-end and “scorecard” for the customer discovery process. Briefly, the new book.

Entrepreneur 291

Entrepreneur Lean Business Model Customer Development 291

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

They’re an asset to a startup if they understand that their job is to get the founder outside the building and in front of customers. They can be the scorekeepers in Customer Discovery and Validation as the company iterates and pivots the business model and refines the minimum feature set.

Silicon Valley 262

Silicon Valley Management San Francisco Product 262

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com , highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book. Founders, presuming they know their customers, assume they know all the features customers need. Filed under: Customer Development.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 2, 2008

Alas, they arent published in a dead-tree medium yet, so I cant say something like "they are the essential reference on my bookcase." Its to everyones advantage to let the world think the founders thought of everything. I say this as a founder: the contribution of founders is always overestimated. Even VCs do it.

San Francisco 125

San Francisco Software Review Technical Review Continuous Deployment 125

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. Communism being a bad science experiment) ESL’s founder Bill Perry was moving the chess pieces. By 1961 its customers now included our intelligence agencies. The “customers’” contracts funded the company.

Silicon Valley 176

Silicon Valley Stealth RSS California 176

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. This is a customer development problem. So What is Customer Development? The core idea behind customer development is that the assumptions you make about a target market are only guesses. Website Analysis.

Customer Development 60

Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing , SuperMac , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , SuperMac « Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions Gravity Will be Turned Off » 17 Responses EricS , on May 11, 2009 at 11:05 am Said: I loved my Spigot. It was fun watching it happen. com Michael Robertson.

Video 168

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 168

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

It should be even more important to the founders themselves, because it demonstrates that their business hypothesis is grounded in reality. These founders have not managed, to borrow a phrase from Steve Blank , to create a scalable and repeatable sales process. Get product into customers’ hands. More on that in a moment.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

Values – who and what founders and customers hold dear – were the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Ryan Smith. Lane Merrifield.

Cofounder 146

Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 146

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

Andy Mathieson, a founder and managing member at Fairview Capital , was particularly supportive. First, because the amateurs weren’t SEC-registered, the site had to refer to them with awkward terms like “geniuses.&# Andy Mathieson, a founder and managing member at Fairview Capital , was particularly supportive.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 6, 2015

Previously she was Co-Founder and CEO of SNAZZ, a cloud-based event management platform. What are some of the unique benefits and constraints from the point of view of a founder? . Corporate venture funds are often referred to as ‘strategic’ investors because of the unique benefits they bring to the table.

Venture Capital 60

Venture Capital Balance Sheet Technical Review Portfolio 60

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 31, 2010

Its in reverse-chronological order, so start with page 3 or just use Seans handy reference. When I first encountered customer development , it was considered pure lunacy by mainstream entrepreneurs and VCs. Its in reverse-chronological order, so start with page 3 or just use Seans handy reference.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 133

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

Values – who and what founders and customers hold dear – were the focus on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. Ryan Smith. Lane Merrifield.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2013

Today he is the co-founder and Chairman of Triporati, LaunchPad Central. My prior journeys were spearheaded by the founder of this school of teaching, Steve Blank. I think you will see the work of some talented and determined entrepreneurs who have honed their customer discovery and customer development skills to an impressive level.

Lean 284

Lean Cofounder Dividend Business Model 284

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

Leverage product development with open source and third parties. Financial leverage refers to investing that is supplemented by borrowed money. Similarly, product development leverage refers to situations in which our own work is fortified by the work of outsiders. Technical debt only refers to the latter.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" I am very impressed and will use this and a direct reference many times. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? I always assumed I wouldnt manage anybody.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

So, refer to your strategy: Are you trying to reach potential customers or potential investors and acquirers? This is often a tough concept for engineering founders who believe that if we just tell customers about the features that make their product faster, cheaper, etc. Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing.

Marketing 312

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 312

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

Two years ago I moved to Beijing, where, as the founder of SoHelpful.me, I take calls from all over the world, talking entrepreneurship and innovation with people in 30-minute intervals. Think, for example, about the way we talk about sales and customer development and the idea of ‘getting out of the building.’

Silicon Valley 168

Silicon Valley Lean Puerto Rico Japan 168

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

female founders. founder friday. Lessons learned from female founders and women entrepreneurs. Startup Quote: Wendy Tan White on Building a Successful Startup » FounderDating: How I Found My Co-Founder. Tweet By Elizabeth Knopf (Co-Founder & CEO, Sorced). Scoring Founder “Dates” On My Own.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

Startup Lessons Learned

MARCH 29, 2010

Each part of the program is organized around one phase of the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop and begins with a keynote address from a heavy hitter: Steve Blank on Customer Development, Randy Komisar on "Getting to Plan B" and - a third person, not-yet-announced-but-extremely-cool-trust-me. I think this is a fair question.

San Francisco 120

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2016

The show follows the journeys of founders who share what it takes to build a startup – from restaurants to rocket scientists, to online gifts to online groceries and more. — Hillary Hartley is co-founder and lead creative at 18F, a digital services agency inside the General Services Administration. Want to be a guest on the show?

Small Business Administration 120

Small Business Administration SBIR United States Entrepreneur 120

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 18, 2010

Lean, when used in the context of lean startup, refers to a process of building companies and products using lean manufacturing principles applied to innovation. That process involves rapid hypothesis testing, validated learning about customers , and a disciplined approach to product development.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment Startup 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

One is used by engineers to refer to the process of getting code fully integrated into production. Another is used by marketing to refer to what customers see. In traditional batch-and-queue development, these two concepts are linked. No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 20, 2008

The time, money and quality dimensions are referred to, in the project management world, as the triple constraints. Some people refer to scope as effectiveness, Units, availability or quality. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? October 22, 2008 4:48 PM Situmam said.

Software Review 164

Software Review Engineer Management Technical Review 164

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 15, 2017

Your superusers are those customers who show up a lot, send you support requests, submit the most comments in your brand’s community, speak at your events, serve as references, and send tons of new members your way. These valuable members do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Community 124

Community LLC Customer Developer 124

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 8, 2009

There are a lot of advantages to piloting, but the one that bears on datablindness is this: it’s extremely difficult to argue that your pilot program is a success without referring back to the expectations that got it funded in the first place. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

San Francisco 84

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 84

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

It was amazing to see the two founders, Fred Durham and Maheesh Jain, build a $100 million company from coffee cups and T-shirts. But Cafepress’s most memorable moment was when the founders used a “Lessons Learned” VC pitch to raise their second round of funding and got an 8-digit term sheet that same afternoon.

Venture Capital 216

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 216

Seeing Both Sides

JANUARY 28, 2012

Should they follow the Steve Blank, Customer Development Process school of product development or the Steve Jobs "vision" school? In ignoring his customers' top request, Houston was exerting a Steve Jobs-like, top-down vision in order to stick with the focus on simplicity. What's going on?

Houston 52

Houston Cofounder Founder Design 52

blog.startupsquare.com

APRIL 13, 2010

2 Comments Tags: Customer Development , lean startup , pivot , Strategy. Having gone through 51 iterations of my mockups and gathered as much as feedback as I could with our primitive alpha, I feel confident about our basic customer problem hypothesis. All of them refer to who you’re selling the product to.

Lean 40

Lean Startup Cofounder Architecture 40

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2021

Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures: The Business Model Canvas – to write down all the hypotheses about a new business; Customer Development – a process for testing those hypotheses outside the building; Agile Engineering – to rapidly build minimal viable products to test product/market fit.

Customer 421

Customer Marketing Lean Vertical 421

viniciusvacanti.com

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

September 27, 2010 | View Comments This is the third part of a series on becoming your own technical co-founder. In 2008, we couldn’t find a technical co-founder for Yipit. I’m writing about how I became our technical co-founder. Disclaimer: If you know a great technical co-founder that wants to work with you, join them.

Hiring 41

Hiring Cofounder Ruby Founder 41