Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 2009

There isn’t a sales problem, the problem is that marketing just did not understand its customers and how to create demand or position the product. She quickly comes to the conclusion that the company’s positioning and marketing strategy were incorrect. Now the VP of Marketing starts sweating.

Customer Development 224

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

press and use it to generate end user demand and then drive that demand into our sales channel. The Potrero benchmark strategy was one component of this creating end user demand through PR.) We were constantly creating metrics [.] there were words of encouragement on the package.

Silicon Valley 124

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 124

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Customers went into the store either looking for the SuperMac product by name (if our demand creation activities had been effective) or went in unsure of which brand of board to buy. Your design or ad agencies can impress you with their awards, but if you’re not moving product or creating demand, you’ve missed the point.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Unfortunately most startups learn this by going through the “Fire the first Sales VP&# drill: You start your company with a list of potential customers reading like a “who’s who&# of whatever vertical market you’re in (or the Fortune 1000 list.) Your board nods sagely at your target customer list.

Silicon Valley 131

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

As a result the young company is now saddled with an expensive, scaled-up sales organization frustrated trying to execute a losing sales strategy and a marketing organization desperately trying to create demand without a true understanding of customers’ needs. One’s hypothesis and assumptions are the equivalent of apriori guesses.

Customer Development 238

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 238

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. These two posts were amazing. Anyways, here’s one question I have.

Silicon Valley 128

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 128

The Next Web

DECEMBER 3, 2013

CIOs have a once in a lifetime opportunity to provide the leadership needed to guide their companies through these challenges. Orders are placed every day to a mix of vendors, based on demand. Think of it as a compute supply chain, with the CIO managing the vertical integration of this chain. New issues to resolve.

Cloud 128

Cloud API Vertical Cofounder 128

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

You’ve built a sales organization and company that’s burning cash before you know if you have demand for your product or a repeatable and scalable sales model. To create this demand at first customer ship, marketing activities start early in the product development process. Doesn’t it depend on vertical market.?

Customer Development 215

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 215

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. Faith-based Entrepreneurship At first, entrepreneurship is a Faith-based initiative. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one. At each startup I couldn’t wait to do this.

Silicon Valley 212

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 212

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2009

while if it’s (b) we can shovel money out the door creating demand and sell into it. For example, our company finances renewable energy installations (solar, fuel cell, etc.) and I am not sure if that is (a) a new market or (b) a segment of the existing market for energy.

Customer Development 212

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 212

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Do you know how they create demand? Rule 1: In an existing market Customer Development means not only understanding potential customers, but your competitors in detail – their product features, their sales channels, their demand creation strategy, their business model, etc. Me – “Have you used Company x’s product?

Silicon Valley 181

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 181

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 13, 2010

StoredIQ has rapidly gained traction with customers across several vertical industries, including financial services, healthcare and oil and gas. I am delighted to join StoredIQ’s leadership team and capitalize on the tremendous market opportunity that now exists to solve this critical information management problem.&#.

Vertical 59

Vertical Early Stage Cofounder Channel 59

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

corporation, and by extension Sloan laid the foundation for America’s economic leadership in the 20th century. Finally, GM created the notion of perpetual demand within brands by continually obsoleting their own products yearly with new models rolled out every year. One guy really did all of this. auto market with 60% of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 156

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 156

ConversionXL

NOVEMBER 5, 2020

The goal was simple: validate demand or move on. For example, after looking at the broader market, we saw that a service that helps marketers scale their video content was in demand. Choose to expand vertically or horizontally. Generating backlinks and establishing thought leadership are two common content marketing objectives.

PR 120

PR B2B Lean Audience 120

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 3, 2017

The leadership centers of the microcomputer world shifted from Albuquerque to the San Fernando Valley (LA), the Bay Area, and Seattle. Accelerator programs are becoming more and more vertical and pulling together corporate and institutional support that provides investment, purchasing power, and validation.

Atlanta 48

Atlanta Albuquerque Incubator Austin 48

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

Reply Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) » Dig for Leadership - Stories that try to make the world a better place. , AKPC_IDS += "1115,"; (No Ratings Yet) Loading … Posted in Leadership | Tagged [.] on September 28, 2009 at 11:55 am Said: [.] carry on reading.

Customer Development 242

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 242

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

With that implicit assumption, startups hire a VP of Sales with a great rolodex and call on established mainstream companies while marketing creates a brand and buzz to create demand and drive it into the sales channel (web, direct salesforce, etc.) In 1996 no potential customer had even heard of a Personal Digital Assistant.

Customer Development 196

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 196

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

The key contributors to an out-of-control burn rate is 1) hiring a sales force too early, 2) turning on the demand creation activities too early, 3) developing something other than the minimum feature set for first customer ship. The goal is to reach venture-scale (~10x return on investment.)

Lean 244

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 244

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Reply BillSeitz , on November 23, 2009 at 4:51 am Said: Did you put your pinky next to the corner of your mouth and demand “1 beellion dollars&# ? And what did Ardent VCs say when they found out they lost all they invested (and how much they lost)? Story here. [.]

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 185

YoungUpstarts

JULY 18, 2016

Instead, it demands taking a critical inventory of the qualities and tendencies that are truly flaws – and working against their own interests. But leadership is about more than assigning tasks, and effective delegation is actually a learned business skill. Entrepreneurs probably trend towards being Type-A people.

Entrepreneur 100

Entrepreneur Cofounder Vertical Founder 100

Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

If the VP of Sales doesn’t think that generating end user awareness and ultimately demand for them is worthwhile, then one of you is an idiot. Hope it’s not you. Once you know which show you’re going to and what your goals are, draw up a budget.

Silicon Valley 178

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 178

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 13, 2020

Demonstrate inclusive leadership, and include the entire team in the decision-making process – not just top down. Employees are the foundation of any firm – the first KPI any company should focus on over the next 12 months is to bring stability back into the firm, and reduce annual turnover.

Management 194

Management Founder Asia Cofounder 194

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

The company has a large press event, and Marketing launches a series of programs to create end-user demand (trade shows, seminars, advertising, email, and so on). Sales is heavily building and staffing a national sales organization; the sales channel has quotas and sales goals. Marketing is at its peak.

Silicon Valley 260

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 260

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 2, 2021

He also shared his perspective on M&A (including Uber’s recent acquisitions of Postmates and Drizly), autonomous vehicles, the complexities of working in highly regulated industries, and how his personal and professional background shaped the way he approaches leadership today. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT. It’s always a combination.

Iran 39

Iran Technical Review Non-Compete Lean 39

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

Just like catching a bug in development is cheaper than fixing it once it has been released, confirming lack of customer demand prior to ramping up a sales engine is cheaper than finding out once you have a paid sales team. The primary goal of customer development is to reduce the cost of mistakes.

Venture Capital 209

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 209

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 17, 2011

And if we’re reflective, it’s also one of the most important success criteria for investors, senior executives, tech writers and virtually anybody involved in business leadership. Were they vertically integrated ? Yet most startups seem to constrain creativity to product design. That’s a shame. If so, why?

Technical Review 356

Technical Review Framework Audience Media 356

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Did the VC’s like your team ? Do they believe you have a big enough vision and market.

Customer Development 262

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 262

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

We need our team members to have sustainable work / life balance or risk losing them to another less demanding industry all together. I have been swinging for the fences for several years as a young entrepreneur at the executive leadership level for several start-ups and most recently starting my own. I haven’t seen any other [.]

Entrepreneur 276

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 276

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2012

A while back I found some great business leadership insights in “ The Secrets of Tuned In Leaders ”, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott. Often, this means specializing in a single vertical market or industry. Leadership is distributed. They demand real measurements that help them run the business.

Vertical 223

Vertical Distribution Leadership Programming 223

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

A while back I found some great business leadership insights in “ The Secrets of Tuned In Leaders ”, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott. Often, this means specializing in a single vertical market or industry. Leadership is distributed. They demand real measurements that help them run the business.

Startup 233

Startup Leadership Vertical Distribution 233

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

I wanted to know if marketing was getting any bang-for-the-buck in spending its demand creation dollars. Which ones? Had they seen any our ads? Did they understand them? Had they read any stories about us? I wanted to understand how customers bought our products. I knew we were selling through a multi-level indirect sales channel.

Silicon Valley 185

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 185

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 17, 2010

A while back I found some great product leadership guidance in “ The Secrets of Tuned In Leaders ”, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers & David Meerman Scott. Often, this means specializing in a single vertical market or industry. Leadership is distributed. They demand real measurements that help them run the business.

Leadership 224

Leadership Vertical Distribution Programming 224

Hearpreneur

JUNE 4, 2016

We have established clients in some of the world’s largest companies, across multiple interesting verticals such as telecom, banking, travel and entertainment, and commerce. Our small but elite group of optimistic and hard-working people are creating something that will help any business make better recommendations and decisions.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Haiti Artificial Inteligence PR 48

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 28, 2020

He handles day-to-day operations with the rest of the leadership, while being focused on both investment and revenue generation. We will service the demand we’ve built, and prepare our supply chain for substantially increased demand in 2021. All SXSW Pitch events take place at the Hilton Austin Downtown.

Cofounder 70

Cofounder Austin Vertical Texas 70

Transformify

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

It’s increasingly obvious that the future of work is much more remote, particularly as the new on-demand economy continues to charge up. Our leadership team sets a good example by being highly responsive to Slack messages and other forms of communication. And it’s working.

Global 72

Global Angel Investor Design Vertical 72

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Instead the huge mismatch between expectations and reality of our first games diminished the brand and demoralized the company – we never recovered.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

My two cents is that a business plan is the single place to collect your thinking about about your: business model, distribution channel, demand creation plan, financial assumptions, and customer and product development plan. I was simply confused about what a plan was for.

Business Plan 140

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 140