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. Even if they did, what if the assumption – that we had developed a better approach to teaching entrepreneurship – was simply mistaken?

Lean 303

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 303

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? Dan Kozikowski, Partner and Head of Platform, First Mark Capital , said to me, “Firms should match services to the stage-specific needs of companies. Customer Development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, April 14, 2009 Validated learning about customers Would you rather have $30,000 or $1 million in revenues for your startup? In an early-stage startup especially, revenue is not an important goal in and of itself. The problem stems from selling each customer a custom one-time product.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

There was no burden on those who proposed a new idea or technology to talk to customers, build minimal viable products, test hypotheses or understand the barriers to deployment. Who are the customers? Horizon 2 ideas extend a company’s existing business model and core capabilities to new customers, markets or targets.

Incubator 316

Incubator Curation Engineer Government 316

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

The first time a few brave corporate innovators tried to overlay the Lean tools and techniques that work in early-stage startups in an existing corporation, the result was chaos, confusion, frustration and ultimately, failure. Fast forward to today. We can adapt these startup tools for use inside the corporation.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

View from Seed

DECEMBER 8, 2015

We have a bias towards very early stage investing for a bunch of reasons, but it’s not easy. 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. I think this stage, more than others, is very dependent on the individual investor.

Product 120

Product Startup Early Stage Seed Capital 120

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. You might look at it and say, “In some ways, that team is overkill for an early-stage company. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Cofounder 145

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 145

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. You might look at it and say, “In some ways, that team is overkill for an early-stage company. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

Cofounder 120

Cofounder Entrepreneur Africa Sales Cycle 120

Steve Blank

JULY 1, 2014

a language corporate innovation groups can use to communicate to business units and finance. While it doesn’t eliminate great investor judgment, pattern recognition skills and mentoring, we’ve developed an Investment Readiness Level tool that fills in these missing pieces. Here’s John’s story.

Sacramento 311

Sacramento Framework Customer Development Lean 311

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2013

Recently, the financing of innovation in medical devices has collapsed even further with most Class III devices simply unfundable. Early stage Venture Capital for medical device startups has dried up. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Science and Industrial Policy , Teaching. Regulatory Issues.

Startup 299

Startup Venture Capital Lean IPO 299

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

In other words, the future of financing is continuous funding, not discrete. 0160; If I need $250,000 to get to 100 customers, or $1 million to get to X, and I can raise both amounts from either Angels or VCs, where do we turn? Customer Care Today. Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. To a Hammer Everything Looks Like a Nail In hindsight my failure was that I executed to my strength – telling a compelling story – without actually listening to customer feedback. It wasn’t that I didn’t know how to listen to customers.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2010

What startup stage do they typically invest in? Do they “get&# Customer Development ? What Startup Stage Do they Invest In? Certain VC’s like the new class of Super-Angels and small VC funds specialize in the early stage of a startup where you are searching for a business model. Lean Startups ?

Founder 232

Founder Vesting Later Stage Early Stage 232

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. identify financing vehicles before you need them. Incubators are designed for teams with an idea.

San Diego 264

San Diego North Carolina Chicago Lean 264

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, etc. You literally have to take your vision of the opportunity and against all rational odds assemble financing, and a team to help you execute. And that’s just to get started.

Founder 308

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 308

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. Why don’t we have standards for what metrics VC’s want to see from their early stage startup teams?

Silicon Valley 296

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 296

Steve Blank

JUNE 1, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early 1900’s. Why don’t we have standards for what metrics VC’s want to see from their early stage startup teams?

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Business Model Venture Capital Balance Sheet 269

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

A description of the problem you’re solving for your customers, and your solution to the problem, which is usually your product or service. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door. Also, make a bullet list of the marketing activities that will drive customers to your door.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

OCTOBER 24, 2011

Because then you’d miss out on: Whether it’s better experience to build a complete, tiny startup or to do more in-depth customer development for a meatier problem. So that means stuff like thinking about what a business model might be, it does mean customer development. So I have a question for you, Jason.

Cofounder 208

Cofounder Technical Review Software Review Differentiation 208

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

Rethinking “F@#$ You Money” - Tony Wright dot com , August 2, 2010 Now that I’ve stepped down from RescueTime, I’m pondering my next thing (whether it’s a product role at a very early stage startup or spinning up my own for the 3rd time). Paul Graham kicked it off by noting that all the financings in the recent YC batch were converts.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

VC Cafe covers early stage Israeli and European tech & mobile startups. Steve Blank on Lean Customer Development. Customer service. Google Custom Search Engine. Customer Relationship Management. great web customer acquisition tutorials. VC & Startup Resources. Seed Startups. Codeacademy.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 13, 2011

As customer and agile development reinvent the startup, it's time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven't changed since the early 1900's. Why don't we have standards for what metrics VCs want to see from their early stage startup teams?

Silicon Valley 117

Silicon Valley Balance Sheet Metrics Early Stage 117

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 4, 2013

And that’s not to mention the advice for very early-stage companies on topics like getting your first users, or choosing metrics. These workshops include hands-on, intense instruction in techniques like continuous delivery; innovation accounting; Lean Analytics; and Lean Startup for HR, IT, and finance teams.

Lean 167

Lean San Francisco Conversion Startup 167

www.instigatorblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The more that those first employees feel like founders in terms of their ownership, emotional attachment, responsibility and overall understanding of the startup process (including financing , running day-to-day activities, etc.) I do believe that early employees should trade salary for equity. the better the startup will be.

Equity 41

Equity Employee Startup Vesting 41

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

And the same time we were also going to do all the other strategic stuff about pricing, positioning, promotion and customer discovery and validation to help engineering understand customer needs. Later on in this same company’s life, sales will become the pointy end and product development moves to a supporting role.

Silicon Valley 130

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 130

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 19, 2013

The product was still evolving but their execution ability and customer development had accelerated nicely during the startup’s first few months. We Let The Round Become Competitive: There were dynamics to the opportunity which suggest we could have led the financing if we moved earlier. Two learnings.

Cofounder 105

Cofounder Term Sheet Seed Stage Portfolio 105

Spencer Fry

APRIL 17, 2017

When I first started building Coach, I invested $30k of my own money to get a prototype working and acquire our first half dozen customers, but I (and the contract developer who I was working with) were spread too thin. What I worry about is the demand on every one of your potential customer’s attention and time. Hello, debt.

Bootstrapping 63

Bootstrapping Cap Table Liquidation Preference Cofounder 63

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

www.startuplessonslearned.com

MAY 4, 2012

They assume that the tasks that they are performing during the early stage of startup development are the same tasks that will be performed during the next and very different stages. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development. Case Study: kaChing, Anatomy of a Pivot. Some IPO speculation.

Equity 72

Equity Founder Technical Cofounder Cofounder 72

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

are just emerging for business people (customer development, business model generation,). Developers who understand and can execute on a business model. Four developers who have the ability to take on the following roles while cranking out an awesome product in the early stages.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

The Entrepreneurial Mind

MARCH 10, 2011

Like most microfunds, JumpStart Foundry (JSF) has focused on very early-stage concepts. This is true in the typical areas of accounting, finance, marketing, fundraising (like other micro funds). Program Content : "Lean Startup / Customer Development in practice.

Nashville 65

Nashville Tennessee PHP Ruby 65

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing. Outsourcing is something a big company, with a known customer / problem (that has revenue & traction) does to save cost. Talk to your customers. If you believe in it – then finance whatever you can yourself.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

Peter: Techstars is probably the most famous accelerator but the idea of the accelerator versus the incubator because there is living field, because there’s this very early stage fields for them both. The cool thing is with the device like, that with the science like that, there’s a lot of early stage proving ground needed.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60