Up and Running

MAY 28, 2015

We recently had Tim Berry, Palo Alto Software founder and business planning expert, present our Bplans audience with his latest advice on lean business planning. Start your lean business plan today: Download our Free Lean Plan Template one-page-pitch-download.pdf. I’m going to start with what’s a lean business plan.

Lean 60

Lean Business Plan Video Software Review 60

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. (My Yet when I talked to my venture capital friends, they said, “Well, that’s just how startups work. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 131

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 131

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Was the sales revenue model based on actually testing the hypotheses outside the building? Product Development Diagram 1.

Customer Development 244

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 244

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. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.

Lean 263

Lean Internet Silicon Valley Venture Capital 263

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” I would also note that they claim 2.1

Partner 240

Partner New York City Cofounder Syndicate 240

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

This tendency is a two edged sword: by iterating strategy a startup can dramatically improve the size and trajectory of the company, but at times this process can be the bane of venture investors (and why they have prematurely grey hair.) 4) You don’t see any revenue gain past three years. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Customer 216

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 216

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 13, 2013

Thomas Clayton has started and run numerous high-tech startups in Silicon Valley. He is currently CEO of Bubbly , a social media startup backed by Sequoia Capital, SingTel Innov8, and JAFCO. The process of raising money in Asia is very different from raising money in Silicon Valley and, frankly, it’s not nearly as easy.

Asia 132

Asia Silicon Valley India Term Sheet 132

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 16, 2010

One is the “denominator problem&# which says that if an LP invests X% (the denominator) into “alternative investments&# such as venture capital and if their total amount available to invest (the numerator) goes down by 30% then the amount they allocate to VC will by definition need to go down by 30% to stay the same percentage.

LP 311

LP Technical Review Early Stage Silicon Valley 311

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

And it was going to mention the two words that SuperMac marketing needed to live and breathe: revenue and profit. If marketing can’t deliver the 40,000 leads what else can we do for sales to still achieve our revenue and profitability?”) They understood the mission intent was our corporate revenue and profit goals. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 269

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

be prepared to be the most lean business in the sector (which is only possible where economy of scale does not create huge entry barriers). In particular, you will likely have to do without venture funding becuase it is costly. These two numbers have direct impact on revenue and financial health. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Vertical 162

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 162

crowdSPRING Blog

NOVEMBER 30, 2012

The problem with a Lean Startup: the Minimum Viable Product | Paul Kortman – [link]. In Silicon Valley, Technology Talent Gap Threatens G.O.P. Special Report: Silicon Valley’s dirty secret – age bias | Reuters – [link]. Want Venture Capital Funding? Want to create a new habit?

Social Media 100

Social Media Small Business Central African Republic Design 100

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). And Stanford’s Lean LaunchPad class could do just that.

Engineer 284

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 284

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

A year goes by, you miss your revenue plan, and you’ve burned through your first VP of Sales. Reply 4 Anti-Lean Startup Archetypes at Market By Numbers , on August 4, 2009 at 11:30 am Said: [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Your board nods sagely at your target customer list.

Silicon Valley 143

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 143

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 2, 2009

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries ’s description of the intersection of Customer Development , Agile Development and if available, open platforms and open source. Over its lifetime a Lean Startup may spend less money than a traditional startup.

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Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 260

Venture Chronicles

MAY 26, 2010

This is the “tastes great, less filling&# debate that recurs on a regular basis in the venture capital and entrepreneur communities. From Lean vs Fat Startups: The Disrupt Debate ]. From Lean vs Fat Startups: The Disrupt Debate ]. The full video of the debate is below.

Lean 40

Lean Early Stage Valuation Startup 40

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

The signals are loud and clear : seed and late stage valuations are getting frothy and wacky, and hiring talent in Silicon Valley is the toughest it has been since the dot.com bubble. With Netscape’s IPO , there was suddenly a public market for companies with limited revenue and no profit. Carpe Diem.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

Hacking for Defense is a battle-tested problem-solving methodology that runs at Silicon Valley speed. The CIA set up In-Q-Tel to be the venture capital arm of the intelligence community to speed the insertion of technologies. We just held our first Hacking for Defense Educators Class with 75 attendees.

Silicon Valley 259

Silicon Valley Afghanistan Iraq Community 259

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

Luckily (or maybe because we were in Silicon Valley where there was a domain expert for everything) there was a very smart consultant in the retail computer space, Seymour Merrin, who preached about the importance of packaging. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Worry about the sales results.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Up and Running

MAY 3, 2012

Entrepreneurship continues to be a sexy topic for governments, with every country worth its salt trying to create its own tech hub, mimicking Silicon Valley. Eric Ries , author of The Lean Start-up , puts it best: ‘ The grim reality is that most start-ups fail. Most new ventures do not live up to their potential.

Entrepreneur 82

Entrepreneur Technical Review Silicon Valley Lean 82

Up and Running

MARCH 27, 2014

Have you ever heard of the book The Lean Startup by Eric Ries? And usually, when people are talking about this book, they’re talking about it like it only applies to big Silicon Valley tech companies. But I really believe that there are lessons in The Lean Startup for all businesses, big and small—including my own.

Lean 95

Lean Startup Silicon Valley Small Business 95

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

We faced this same problem in entrepreneurship and venture capital, but we are getting past it. Just like in the world of startups, we can start to use micro-scale pilot programs, executed in lean fashion, to gather real facts for making ROI decisions about new project investment. What is the right revenue model?

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

Hacking for Defense is a battle-tested problem-solving methodology that runs at Silicon Valley speed. The CIA set up In-Q-Tel to be the venture capital arm of the intelligence community to speed the insertion of technologies. We just held our first Hacking for Defense Educators Class with 75 attendees.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Afghanistan Iraq Community 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

Finally, I’ll write about how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. Once the product begins to ship, startup sales execs use orders and revenue as its marker of progress in understanding customers.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 228

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

We were depending on investor funding, but with $60,000 in revenue no one would fund it. . Jessica ran things as lean as she could for the next few months while figuring out what to do. When Peggy first arrived in Silicon Valley, she worked for Boole & Babbage , before founding her own firm. No one was interested.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 22, 2009

Corner Cases and Consensus are For Large Companies Carefully considering each and every possible outcome before you proceed with a decision is something large companies with large revenues, shareholders and employees need to do. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 201

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 201

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

In hindsight it appeared clear that startups that survive the first few tough years do not follow the traditional product-centric launch model espoused by product managers or the venture capital community. As you stated, the VCs only want to hear about product development and, I would add, revenue models. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 133

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

This series of posts is a brief explanation of how we’ve evolved from Product Development to Customer Development to the Lean Startup. Yet we used the product development model not only to manage product development, but as a road map for finding customers and to time our marketing launch and sales revenue plan. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 269

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 269

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). And Stanford's Lean LaunchPad class could do just that. This is a big deal.

Silicon Valley 118

Silicon Valley Intellectual Property Balance Sheet Lean 118

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provided the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. After twelve months Handspring’s revenue was $170 million. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

Customer Development 220

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 220

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Business and Revenue Model – How do we organize to make money? Waterfall, Agile, Lean? Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Customer Development Steps – How do we iterate with customers? Intellectual Property/Patents – Strategic or Tactical, timing? Regulatory Issues – What are they? Now In Print!

Vertical 125

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 125

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan put in place GM’s management accounting system (borrowed from DuPont) that for the first time allowed the company to: 1) produce an annual operating forecast that compared each division’s forecast (revenue, costs, capital requirements and return on investment) with the company’s financial goals. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 179

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 179

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

A Progress Graph on the right visually shows how far you’ve come (in whatever units of goodness you’re tracking – revenue, units, users, etc.) Your presentation doesn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. This is a radical departure from a traditional VC pitch. Get back up and running.

Customer Development 267

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 267

Steve Blank

JUNE 22, 2009

We Changed Our Mind In 1966, 10 years after Hewlett’s memo, Hewlett Packard’s revenue and headcount had grown ten fold; $200 million and 11,000 employees – all from test and measurement equipment. And venture capital and entrepreneurship has made life even tougher for the modern corporation. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 186

Silicon Valley RSS California Agile 186

Up and Running

AUGUST 19, 2014

Though that level of restraint may mean living quite “lean” in your personal life for a while, doing so provides an opportunity to establish solid footing for your business as early as possible, so that you have at least one year to learn from the trends and sales cycles that will emerge once you’re past “break even.”

Salary 119

Salary Sweat Equity Silicon Valley Sales Cycle 119

Eric Friedman

AUGUST 18, 2021

I lovingly call him the curmudgeon of fintech – in this episode we go deep into how he is building a venture capital firm and practice, not just running a fund and how he views the world of fintech investing. One of the ones that really bothers me is how Venture Capitalists try and conflate what they do as being complicated.

Silicon Valley 88

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Cofounder Africa 88

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2009

I was asked to explain why a marketing program that cost $150,000 bucks literally generated nothing in revenue for the company. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. They hit each other with baseball bats until one of them dropped.) This first Zen moment happened at a SuperMac exec staff meeting. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Read part one on the Evolution of Corporate R&D , part two on Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley , and part three The 6 Decisions to Make Before Setting up an Innovation Outpost. Silicon Valley, Boston). Successful Innovation Outposts typically develop over a period of time through three stages.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Incubator Acquisition Business Model 120