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Vertical Markets 2: Customer/Market Risk versus Invention Risk.

Steve Blank

Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. But then, because there might be entrenched competitors and your concept is radically new, you still need to invest in the customer development process to learn how to get design wins from companies who may be happy with their existing vendors.

Vertical 162
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Times Square Strategy Session – Web Startups and Customer Development

Steve Blank

In it, I got asked a question I often hear: “What if we have a web-based business that doesn’t have revenue or paying customers? And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” They’re putting money into web services/business – most without early revenue.

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The Customer Development Manifesto: The Startup Death Spiral (part.

Steve Blank

Instead of a Sales team and organized to sell with a consistent and successful sales roadmap generating revenue, it is a disorganized and unhappy organization burning lots of cash. Because the company based its headcount and expenses on the expectation that the Sales organization will bring in revenue according to plan.

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Can You Trust Any vc's Under 40?

Steve Blank

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. They taught you about customers, markets and profits.

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Let's Fire Our Customers

Steve Blank

When a startup finds a repeatable sales process and steadily increasing revenue, its investors wants to harvest the rewards and build a culture of “execution.” 4) You don’t see any revenue gain past three years. 2) They don’t care about your profitibility and ultimately, your staying power. To Order Outside of the U.S.

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The Customer Development Manifesto: Reasons for the Revolution.

Steve Blank

Was the sales revenue model based on actually testing the hypotheses outside the building? Education program must emphasize the need to start with customer needs and design your entire product development strategy around a customer development blueprint, as you put it so very well. All of this is usually a bad idea.

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Out of the Ashes - Something Isn't Quite Right

Steve Blank

I have been working on getting a startup to revenue for a while, and while this is my 4th iteration and I have not yet succeeded, I’ve been learning new things every time. Theme: Digg 3 Column by WP Designer. Your blog post has provided a lot of useful insights for me which I’ve been implementing. Now In Print!