Steve Blank

JANUARY 27, 2011

We’ve been teaching that the difference between a startup and an existing company is that existing companies execute business models, while startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.)

Business Model 285

Business Model Utah Intellectual Property Agile 285

Steve Blank

MARCH 31, 2011

Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development , Business Model Design) to build early stage ventures, entrepreneurship would become a “science,” and anyone could do it. Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.

Agile 334

Agile Customer Development Early Stage Business Model 334

Steve Blank

MAY 17, 2010

Most startups are facing unknown customer needs, an unknown product feature set and is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. That means that writing a static business plan adds no value to starting a company, as the plan does not represent the iterative nature of the search for the model.

Business Plan 320

Business Plan Business Model Customer Development Deal Flow 320

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. That’s why startups are agile. Startups that are agile have mastered one other trick – and that’s Tempo – the ability to make quick decisions consistently over extended periods of time.

Silicon Valley 309

Silicon Valley RSS Startup Agile 309

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 13, 2010

Here’s the course announcement from Professor Vergara (in English): Customer Development Course in Chile – Lean Launchpad. The objective of this course is that groups of students finish with a completed software product that has real customers and an identified market. We look forward to your comments and suggestions!

Chile 241

Chile Silicon Valley Lean Agile 241

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

For decades this revered business magazine described management techniques that were developed in and were for large corporations – offering more efficient and creative ways to execute existing business models. ” It defined a startup as a “temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.”

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 223

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. Teams talk to 10-15 customers a week and make a minimum of 100 customer visits.

Intellectual Property 290

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 290

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

As a reminder, the Dot Com bubble was a five-year period from August 1995 (the Netscape IPO ) when there was a massive wave of experiments on the then-new internet, in commerce, entertainment, nascent social media, and search. Yet while we had plenty of language and tools for execution, we had none for search. The result?

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

Lean 263

Lean Silicon Valley Startup RSS 263

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. Startups are in fact only temporary organizations, organized to search –not execute–for a scalable and repeatable business model.

Lean 307

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 307

Steve Blank

MARCH 2, 2011

Working with him, I’ve been impressed to watch his small team embrace Customer Development (and Business Model Generation ) and search the world for the right product/market fit. They’ve tested their hypotheses with literally hundreds of customer interviews on every continent in the world. Corporate elephants can dance.

Silicon Valley 239

Silicon Valley Agile Customer Development Early Stage 239

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Agile – you may find the real opportunities for your company was somewhere else. However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model.

Cofounder 230

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 230

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2012

When Bob Dorf and I wrote the Startup Owners Manual we listed a series of Customer Development principles. I thought they might be worth enumerating here: A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development. Preserve Cash While Searching.

Customer Development 331

Customer Development Developer Customer Cofounder 331

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? Search Versus Execution.

Search 326

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 326

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

Best practices in software development started to move to agile development in the early 2000’s. This methodology improved on waterfall by building software iteratively and involving the customer. With Agile you could end up satisfying every feature a customer asked for and still go out of business.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 1, 2009

I know that this all seems obvious now with the movements started by Steven Blank ( Four Steps of Epiphany ) with the whole Customer Development processes / Lean Startup movements also popularized by people like Eric Ries. Yet he still personally travels in his customers’ neighborhoods in search of deeper customer insights.

Customer 280

Customer Technical Review Software Review Mexico 280

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2010

The key things I want students to take from the class are: Understand that a startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a profitable business model. For example, when we taught the value of getting out of the building and agile development, we had Eric Ries talk about the Lean Startup.

Business Model 236

Business Model Silicon Valley California Engineer 236

Steve Blank

APRIL 29, 2010

I’ve been teaching Customer Development at U.C. Berkeley was brave enough to let me write and teach a class on a subject that no one had ever heard of – Customer Development. Customer Development was a process to quickly search for a profitable business model when customer needs (features, pricing, channel, etc.)

Customer Development 245

Customer Development Lean Developer Customer 245

Steve Blank

MARCH 3, 2015

The disadvantage is that its methodology was based on the old waterfall model of product development and not the agile and lean methods that startups use today. It taught lean theory ( business model design , customer development and agile engineering) and practice. Seeing Is Believing. Berkeley-wide.

Business Plan 120

Business Plan Silicon Valley Saudi Arabia Lean 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

And we filled it with racks of receivers and displays , wire and strip recorders and communications intercept equipment that could search the electromagnetic spectrum from 50 megahertz to 3 gigahertz, and this is 1943. And in hindsight, we seemed a bit more agile and innovative in WWII.) How was this possible?

Silicon Valley 210

Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 210

Steve Blank

AUGUST 18, 2010

Here’s his story of when Customer Development failed. We were lucky to learn about Customer Development early on in the life of our startup. We bought Steve’s book , started product development and began reaching out to customers ins search of our first earlyvangelists. Lessons Learned.

Customer Development 231

Customer Development Developer Customer California 231

Steve Blank

MAY 23, 2016

Established businesses execute business models while startups search for them. Yet everyone – investors, entrepreneurs, academics — expected new startups to follow the same practices that worked for large companies – write a business plan, forecast 5-year sales projections and build the product without ever talking to customers.

Lean 224

Lean Technical Review Vietnam Engineer 224

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. In this new model, the Horizon level of innovation is defined by whether the business model is being executed or searched for. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 1, 2021

The key was the realization that start-ups are not simply smaller versions of large companies, which execute/ exploit known business models, and whose customers, problems, and necessary product features are all “knowns.” In sharp contrast, start-ups operate in “search/ explore ” mode, seeking a repeatable and profitable business model.

Incubator 419

Incubator Lean Agile Business Model 419

Steve Blank

JANUARY 25, 2010

In this post we’re going to offer a new definition of why startups exist : a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Your startup is essentially an organization built to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. Winston Churchill. A Business Model. More in future posts.

Agile 335

Agile Startup Silicon Valley Business Model 335

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

It dawned on me that the plans were a symptom of a larger problem: we were executing business plans when we should first be searching for business models. So what would a search process for a business model look like? I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development.

Lean 295

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 295

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2021

Founders of startups (and new ventures inside existing companies) are searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. Searching, unlike execution, is not a predictable pattern. Lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering). experiential.

Lean 436

Lean Agile Business Model Business Plan 436

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2019

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. However, they don’t help you figure out where to start the search for your new business.

Lean 334

Lean Marketing Agile Customer Development 334

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 11, 2010

A place to start would be by recognizing the fundamental difference between an existing company and a startup: existing companies execute business models, while startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.)

Agile 256

Agile Business Model Customer Development Lean 256

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 13, 2010

Even when we went out to dinner before we hired him he said, he said he read the Four Steps and couldn’t wait to try this Customer Development stuff.”. “So I’m probably going to fire him and start a search for another one, but what do I do wrong?”. Startups Need Different Titles to Search For an Unknown Business Model.

Startup 319

Startup Business Model Customer Development Bandwidth 319

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

customer development. agile engineering. Some general customer development slides click here. Called “ How to Build a Startup: The Lean LaunchPad ,” it walks you through the Business Model Canvas and an overview of the customer development process. Berkeley presentations, lectures and syllabus here.

Open Source 335

Open Source Silicon Valley Lean Customer Development 335

Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2013

I remember trying to search for the best college for my son and the top ski resort for a family vacation, only to find scam sites promoting a “top 10″ list or “featured” options, meaning they were getting paid to promote them. Lean Start-up Connection: Customer Development. Staying Agile.

Lean 302

Lean Agile Customer Development SEO 302

Steve Blank

MARCH 18, 2011

Over time, open source software the rise of the next wave of web startups and the embrace of Agile Engineering meant that startups no longer needed millions of dollars to buy specialized computers and license expensive software – they could start a company on their credit cards. Rules For the New Bubble: 2011 -2014. Tools in the New Bubble.

Internet 335

Internet IPO Silicon Valley Agile 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

In contrast, startups search for a business model. (Or Or more accurately, startups are a temporary organization designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.) There are few courses which teach aspiring entrepreneurs the skills (business models, customer and agile development, design thinking, etc.)

Wiki 318

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2010

When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany and invented the Customer Development process, my goal was to simply explain to myself what was broken in building a startup and propose an alternative path. This business model iteration loop – the Pivot is what makes startups agile and opportunistic. It’s no longer a theory.

Agile 236

Agile Customer Development Lean Business Model 236

Steve Blank

MAY 10, 2011

These diagrams are the visual representation of the how and the what a team learned in the class – how they tested their hypotheses by getting out of the building using the Customer Development process and what they learned about each part of their business model. The students were challenged to get users, orders, customers, etc.

Lean 288

Lean Business Model Agile Customer Development 288

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

They used Customer and Agile development to search for a scalable and repeatable business model to become a large company. A “ scalable startup” takes an innovative idea and searches for a scalable and repeatable business model that will turn it into a high growth, profitable company. Take No Prisoners.

Hockey Stick 303

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 303