Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2015

My guests on Bay Area Ventures on Wharton Business Radio on Sirius XM Channel 111 were: Eric Ries , entrepreneur and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Lean Startup. Eric was the very first practitioner of my Customer Development methodology which became the core of the the Lean methodology. Taking My Class.

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Lean Technical Cofounder Silicon Valley Channel 120

Steve Blank

MAY 30, 2016

the teams spent the last two weeks learning what activities, resources and partners they would need to actually deliver their solution. Four decades ago my first job in Silicon Valley was with ESL, the first company to combine computers and signals intelligence. The founder of this 1964 Silicon Valley startup was Bill Perry.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley San Diego Technical Review Incubator 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 217

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 217

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. This helped the startups qualify for funding from banks and venture capital firms. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Investing in China Today.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

The previous post described the evolution of the Chinese Venture Capital system. I trained the Startup Weekend Next Beijing mentors and instructors, presented to several hundred entrepreneurs, and had a great fireside chat with Zhen Fund founding partner Xu Xiaoping in front of another roomful of entrepreneurs.

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Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 267

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Yet two smart VC firms, Sigma and Matrix Partners, realized that somewhere in this mess there was value. Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Order Here.

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Silicon Valley Software Review Technical Review RSS 146

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

If you’re a venture capitalist … you have limited partners that give you money to invest on their behalf, and you’re responsible for giving them outsize returns. As an entrepreneur, you’re always fighting that external war whether that’s with partners or with investors. Nayeem : (Nods.)

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Silicon Valley Ohio Columbus Entrepreneur 120

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

But he left to work on what he told me he came to do - crack the innovation code of Silicon Valley and share it with the rest of the world. Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Technical Cofounder 333

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 333

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. He continued: “I’d like to convince my boss so our company can be your first customer.”

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. Customer Development) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions.&# Reply One difference between VCs and Entrepreneurs « Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog , on April 20, 2009 at 7:06 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 300

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 300

Steve Blank

APRIL 12, 2013

This post is about the rise of Chinese venture capital and how it helped build the countries entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Rise of Chinese Venture Capital. This helped the startups qualify for funding from banks and venture capital firms. It went bankrupt in 1997.). Investing in China Today.

Venture Capital 163

Venture Capital China Offshore SBIR 163

Steve Blank

APRIL 13, 2013

The previous post described the evolution of the Chinese Venture Capital system. I trained the Startup Weekend Next Beijing mentors and instructors, presented to several hundred entrepreneurs, and had a great fireside chat with Zhen Fund founding partner Xu Xiaoping in front of another roomful of entrepreneurs.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley China Venture Capital Merger 159

Steve Blank

JANUARY 20, 2014

When Customer Development and the Lean Startup were just a sketch on the napkin, Dino Vendetti, a VC at Bay Partners, was one of the first venture capitalists I shared my ideas with. Over the years we brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Silicon Valley Transplants.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

New strategic direction in companies with loyal customers have different consequences then when you had no customers Acquiring new customers are a lot more expensive that converting existing ones. 5) The customer’s needs don’t match your long term direction. Fire might be a strong word. Order Here.

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 195

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

The culture and work ethic of Convergent had earned it the title “the Marine Corps of Silicon Valley”. He was my role model at Convergent, mentor at Ardent and partner at E.piphany. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. And so was his reputation for being verbally abusive to his direct reports.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. I remember after a month or two of talking to 14-22 year old male gamers (our potential target market,) I realized that for the first time in my career I had no emotional connection to my customers or channel partners.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Video 139

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. Product Development – Getting Funded as The Goal In a traditional product development model, entrepreneurs come up with an idea or concept, write a business plan and try to get funding to bring that idea to fruition.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JULY 25, 2011

Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley , was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. Why It’s “Silicon” Valley. It might be its most important.

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Engineer Silicon Valley United States Venture Capital 305

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 4, 2012

I had this discussion with Steve with the camera rolling and we talked about “ The Secret History of Silicon Valley ” as place that largely grew out of defense and government spending plus research labs around the Stanford campus. 4:30 How did you come up with the idea of customer development?

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Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

Having a teaching partner makes life a lot easier and the class improves. But it wasn’t until Ann Miura-Ko joined me as a teaching partner that this “teach the model not the plan” idea jelled. After Stanford, Ann joined Mike Maples’ Venture Capital firm Floodgate as a partner. Teaching Team.

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Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 226

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. I think you can blame Customer and Agile Development for a small part of it. Electron-based Venture Capital. Filed under: Customer Development , Venture Capital.

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Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 258

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

While one could argue that a trade show is just another demand creation activity akin to advertising or PR, trade shows are the closest eyeball-to-eyeball contact you’re company is going to have with customers, competitors and partners. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. What didn’t?

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Silicon Valley, New York). The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. Here’s how. Because We’ve Always Done It This Way.

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Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. This approach would shape Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). Filed under: Lean LaunchPad , Teaching , Venture Capital.

Engineer 278

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Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

Silicon Valley, New York). The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old. Rather than invent a new form of corporate governance, venture investors adopted the traditional board meeting structure from large corporations. Here’s how. Because We’ve Always Done It This Way.

Silicon Valley 258

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 258

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 30, 2014

However, one of the bottlenecks in actually doing Customer Discovery for medical devices/health care is testing how minimal viable products work in-context. Testing hypotheses with doctors, patients, payers, providers, purchasing departments, strategic partners is hard. It Takes a Village.

San Diego 261

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 261

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

Steve my name is Donald xx, and I’m the head of external affairs of the CIA’s venture capital firm and we’d like you to keynote our conference.” And you’d like me to do my talk on Customer Development and startups?” “No, we’re the other CIA.” And I could have sworn they all had the same badge.) I had just turned 20.

Silicon Valley 247

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Venture Capital 247

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. You leave the comfort of your existing job, convince a few partners to join you and you jump off the bridge together. No building, no money, no customers, no market? Employ customer development.

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Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Partners Booths While your booth may be small, some of your potential or existing partners may have much larger ones, in much more visible locations. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. For a small company this is like throwing your tradeshow money on the floor. Order Here. To Order Outside of the U.S.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

Hewlett’s partner Dave Packard wanted to get into the computer business.) And venture capital and entrepreneurship has made life even tougher for the modern corporation. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. It was priced at $22,000 – equivalent to about $140,000 in 2009 dollars.

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Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 164

ReadWriteStart

AUGUST 1, 2011

Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. This approach would shape Silicon Valley's entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). It provides private funds for untested and unproven technology and entrepreneurs.

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Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Lean 118

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

Silicon Valley, New York). Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur, educator, thought leader and creator of the rigorous "Customer Development" methodology that helps startups optimize their chances for success while reducing risk. The combination of Venture Capital and technology startups is only about 50 years old.

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Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

Oh, and we had no installed customer base. I had hired the VP of marketing from a potential software partner who was responsible to get all this 3 rd party software on our computer. I’ve been on the side of your potential partners, and I know that often too much ‘persistence’ is offputting.

Silicon Valley 324

Silicon Valley Software Review RSS Technical Review 324

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Examples are Hollywood for movies, Milan for fashion, New York for finance and today, Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurship. It has become China’s Silicon Valley. Most Venture Capitalists in China viewed the Innofund the same way most U.S. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 278

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 278

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. Peter described the first company in which “Hollywood meets Silicon Valley” and we were enthralled.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

MAY 16, 2016

This week teams figured out how to measure mission achievement and success, and our advanced lectures were on activities, resources and partners. Note that they plan a trip to San Diego to visit the customer. With a great assist from the State Departments innovation outpost in Silicon Valley.) See all the H4D posts here.

San Diego 142

San Diego Metrics Indonesia Silicon Valley 142

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Examples are Hollywood for movies, Milan for fashion, New York for finance and today, Silicon Valley for technology entrepreneurship. It has become China’s Silicon Valley. Most Venture Capitalists in China viewed the Innofund the same way most U.S. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital'

Programming 170

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 170