Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Your presentation doesn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. They will realize that you have built a startup that’s agile, resilient and customer-centric.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Martin , on April 10, 2009 at 9:27 am Said: A post that would delight F.A. link] Reply craig sparer , on April 10, 2009 at 5:44 pm Said: So true. link] Reply steveblank11 , on April 10, 2009 at 10:32 pm Said: Prakash, Thanks for the link. Reply Daily Links #52 | CloudKnow , on April 12, 2009 at 10:18 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 309

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

However the Customer Development Model and the Lean Startup work equally well for startups on the web. The first question to ask is: “Does your startup have market risk or is it dominated by technical risk?” Lean Startup /Customer Development is used to find answers to the unknowns about customers and markets.

Customer Development 228

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 7, 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.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

» 25 Responses Mark Soper , on November 30, 2009 at 6:55 am Said: Steve, I’m working on a consumer internet product concept at the customer discovery phase. Reply Brent , on December 18, 2009 at 8:50 pm Said: Mark, you hit the nail on the head. It’s an art. Customer Development is not a giant focus group.

Customer Development 287

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 287

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Epitaph for an Entrepreneur » 43 Responses Michael Curry 2.0 , on June 15, 2009 at 5:27 am Said: You are rapidly becoming one of my favorite writers about entrepreneurship and start-ups. Reply Mark MacLeod , on June 15, 2009 at 9:21 am Said: Thanks for sharing this Steve. The Adventure of a Lifetime.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. Reply jordancooper , on November 12, 2009 at 8:08 am Said: Steve, sorry to do this in your comment forum, but I don’t see an email or contact. Reply Rishi , on November 12, 2009 at 6:35 pm Said: Thanks for sharing those slides.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Posted on September 14, 2009 by steveblank Over the last 30 years Wall Street’s appetite for technology stocks have changed radically – swinging between unbridled enthusiasm to believing they’re all toxic. 2009 – Back to The Future The bad news is that since the bubble most VC firms haven’t made a profit. So what’s left?

Silicon Valley 237

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Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

Cofounder 230

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Ben Reply Dmitriy Kruglyak , on March 20, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Steve, I look forward to a similar backstory on E.piphany marketing! Ben Reply Dmitriy Kruglyak , on March 20, 2009 at 10:48 am Said: Steve, I look forward to a similar backstory on E.piphany marketing! Can’t wait to hear what you did next at SuperMac.

Silicon Valley 213

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. In 1978 when I joined my first company , information about how to start companies simply didn’t exist. I was an idiot.

Silicon Valley 208

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Rocket Science Games | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Early Stage Startup « Rocket Science 4: The Press is Our Best Product Burnout » 7 Responses Steve , on July 16, 2009 at 9:10 am Said: Steve, This is an excellent post. Vision and $1.65

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Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

Reply Shankar Saikia , on June 29, 2009 at 9:02 am Said: THANKS – MAKES ME FEEL BETTER 21 months ago I left an awesome job at Oracle in Silicon Valley and relocated to India to be an entrepreneur. Reply GaryF , on June 29, 2009 at 9:18 am Said: Wow – talk about “thinking on your feet&# !!!

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Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Early Stage Startup , Tips for Startups « The Curse of a New Building Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1 » 33 Responses William , on May 18, 2009 at 5:44 am Said: Heh.

Founder 312

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Steve Blank

MAY 15, 2009

Stay hungry, stay lean. Reply Andrew Warner , on May 15, 2009 at 9:53 am Said: I had a similar thing happen to me. Reply Michael Pryor , on May 15, 2009 at 10:33 am Said: I won’t dispute your anecdote, but I would like to add that life should be lived not in hopes of a better future.

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Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Thanks Reply objectiveassociates , on July 20, 2009 at 9:47 am Said: Good post. on July 20, 2009 at 10:36 am Said: Nice lessons. Reply Tim Pham , on July 20, 2009 at 11:03 am Said: Love reading your blog, Steve. Reply Maintenance Man , on July 20, 2009 at 3:46 pm Said: Oh man. Seemed to help.

Silicon Valley 206

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Greetings from Crete, Greece Reply Jerry Ji , on April 10, 2009 at 11:09 am Said: Simply _THE BEST_ war story I’ve read in months. Reply How to close a term sheet quickly - Venture Hacks , on April 28, 2009 at 10:43 am Said: [.] The Sharp End of the Stick?

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing , SuperMac , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , SuperMac « Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions Gravity Will be Turned Off » 17 Responses EricS , on May 11, 2009 at 11:05 am Said: I loved my Spigot. Reply steveblank , on May 11, 2009 at 4:07 pm Said: No.

Video 190

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) Unintended Lessons » 6 Responses Twitter Trackbacks for Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank [steveblank.com] on Topsy.com , on September 24, 2009 at 7:19 am Said: [.]

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 218

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 4, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, January 4, 2009 Sharding for startups The most important aspect of a scalable web architecture is data partitioning. For example, Friendster was famously vertically partitioned at one time in its growth curve. January 5, 2009 9:36 AM Eric said. January 5, 2009 9:49 AM Nathan said.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I liked the fact that you linked to the wikipedia page for a payphone — nice touch Reply Chris Ryland , on October 5, 2009 at 12:06 pm Said: Where did Ben Wegbreit fit in the Convergent picture? Reply steveblank , on October 5, 2009 at 2:08 pm Said: Chris, Ben was the founding VP of Engineering at Ardent.

North Carolina 133

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Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

The “Good” Student » 14 Responses Shane Rogers , on April 6, 2009 at 1:37 pm Said: The names of ‘secret’ customers is funny. Reply Bill , on April 7, 2009 at 12:09 pm Said: Interesting how much influence the military has had on our technology industry. If not they were Up the River w/o a Paddle.

Silicon Valley 201

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

Reply Michael Alan Miller » Crash , on August 24, 2009 at 8:47 am Said: [.] | Posted by Chill on 24 Aug 2009 at 11:47 am | Shattered. [.] If you’re a startup raising money or just want to see your name online, there’s not a better blog on the web. I’m not buying it… literally. Reply Michael F.

Silicon Valley 215

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Reply steveblank , on June 25, 2009 at 9:04 am Said: Prakash, This is at the dawn of time, but I seem to remember when we first started selling the IWS, our first product, there weren’t any. rick , on June 25, 2009 at 8:57 am Said: Great post. rick , on June 25, 2009 at 8:57 am Said: Great post.

Technology 145

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. Reply gvb , on November 26, 2009 at 10:20 am Said: “Hopefully we won’t run into any wildlife bigger than us (other than our assortment of rattlesnakes, rabbits …).&#

Silicon Valley 156

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Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

Wall 85: Squint « 365 Wallpapers , on April 27, 2009 at 8:29 am Said: [.] Reply rohit sharma , on April 27, 2009 at 9:47 am Said: in addition to his WWII contributions, Terman also helped educate a generation of engineers or two with his excellent text. invention of electronic warfare, part I and [.]

Silicon Valley 210

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 210

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 5, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, October 5, 2009 The curse of prevention Beware! It could be fixed by refactoring the code itself, or by partitioning the data horizontally or vertically, or by adding additional capacity at the point of the bottleneck, or by shaping end-user demand, or even by removing the feature itself.

San Francisco 133

San Francisco Architecture Lean Continuous Deployment 133

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

» 8 Responses Strategy versus Relentless Tactical Execution « Yet Another VC Blog , on April 2, 2009 at 6:19 am Said: [.] Reply Dave Goulden , on April 2, 2009 at 9:55 am Said: Thanks for the great stories! The numbers were in. Overwhelmingly. What a surprise.) Go ahead and spill the beans!

Silicon Valley 128

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Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

Reply John Muldoon , on July 9, 2009 at 1:52 pm Said: This was really fabulous to watch. luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. How do I get in the room next time?

Customer Development 129

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 129

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, August 24, 2009 Marching through quicksand I have been spending a lot of time lately talking to people in various media companies: editors and agents, executives, journalists, producers and directors. Doug August 24, 2009 8:21 AM Hugh said. August 24, 2009 8:36 AM Erin said. Very smart stuff.

San Francisco 113

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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 146

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Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

Would love to read that whole thing at one go… Reply Alvin , on March 21, 2009 at 7:02 pm Said: Great stuff! Reply steveblank , on March 23, 2009 at 12:11 am Said: Alvin, you can buy the book online at [link] They ship to the Philippines. And why have you split this into so many parts?

Silicon Valley 150

Silicon Valley Customer RSS Philippines 150

Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System » 20 Responses brantcooper , on March 26, 2009 at 3:52 pm Said: Great story, Steve. Reply Dave Goulden , on March 26, 2009 at 11:04 pm Said: I love the redefinition of the market. Reply Knowtu » links for 2009-03-26 , on March 27, 2009 at 1:02 am Said: [.]

Silicon Valley 161

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was between my 7th and 8th and final startup; licking my wounds from Rocket Science, the company I had cratered as my first and last attempt as a startup CEO. 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.

Silicon Valley 133

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Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Reply Wyatt ODay , on July 2, 2009 at 8:18 am Said: Great post, Steve. Reply Mark Essel , on July 2, 2009 at 9:14 am Said: Reality distortion field isn’t the basic technique covered in startups 101? Thanks for sharing the lessons you’ve learned, especially the ones where the cost is measured in years.

Silicon Valley 120

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Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

Martin , on May 7, 2009 at 9:36 am Said: The caveat would be for undergrads at a school like Stanford or Berkeley. Reply Thomas Finsterbusch , on May 7, 2009 at 2:24 pm Said: I’m a PhD Student in CS at UT Austin, and Austin too has all the crucial resources necessary for startups (VCs, angels, law firms, top talent, etc.).

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