Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2014

The University of Maryland is now integrating the Lean LaunchPad ® into standard innovation and entrepreneurship courses across all 12 colleges within the University. Over 44 classes have embedded the business model canvas and/or Customer Discovery including a year-long course taken by every single one of its bioengineering majors.

Maryland 280

Maryland Lean DC Virginia 280

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Intellectual Property 341

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 341

Steve Blank

MARCH 8, 2011

In January, we introduced a new graduate course at Stanford called the " target="_blank">Lean LaunchPad. 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. – not just web-based startups.

Lean 307

Lean Business Model Customer Development Guinea 307

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Guest Post by Misti Yang, Writer for Lean Startup Co. Editor’s Note: We wrapped up the 2017 Lean Startup Week in San Francisco just a few weeks ago, and we’re excited to share with you some of the best lessons learned in entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. Remember your customers, culture, and connections.

Lean 245

Lean Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 245

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

In my 21 years as an entrepreneur, I would come up for air once a month to religiously read the Harvard Business Review. It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with.

Technical Review 331

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 331

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

A startup is not just about the idea, it’s about testing and then implementing the idea. As the farm fields flew by on the interstate I listened as Dave described how he translated his vision into a series of hypotheses and mapped them onto a business model canvas. This startup was broken at multiple levels. The Problem.

Cofounder 336

Cofounder Founder Technical Cofounder Coder 336

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 19, 2013

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 309

Intellectual Property Technical Review Venture Capital Startup 309

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

We’re deep into teaching a Lean LaunchPad class for Life Sciences and Health Care (therapeutics, diagnostics, devices and digital health) at UCSF with a team of veteran venture capitalists. We’ve recorded these panels for each part of the business model canvas. The class has talked to 1,440 customers to date.).

Lean 266

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 266

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

Some really great stuff in 2010 that aims to help startups around product, technology, business models, etc. 500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication?

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

Over the last three years our Lean LaunchPad / NSF Innovation Corps classes have been teaching hundreds of entrepreneurial teams a year how to build their startups by getting out of the building and testing their hypotheses behind their business model. The next customer segment we tried was startup founders.

Lean 322

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 322

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum. We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. The Lean LaunchPad is now being taught in over 100 universities. So why change something that worked so well?

Intellectual Property 290

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 290

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Over the years Dino and I brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. Few entrepreneurs find this scalable and repeatable business model because it’s not easy.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? Surprisingly if you’ve filled out the business model canvas you already know who you need. She started by sketching her business model canvas on a napkin, but somehow the conversation quickly shifted to what was really on her mind.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks , turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. government agency that supports research in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. “We’ve been reading your blog about your Lean Launchpad class.” The Innovation Corps Startup Team.

Incubator 310

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 310

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 19, 2017

The lean start-up movement has been based on a single insight – which the purpose of a start-up is to discover a business model that works. In this article we explore the unique challenges of a lean start-up and how Outsourced Product Development (OPD) can be used to overcome them. The Lean Start-Up Environment.

Product Development 153

Product Development Lean Developer Product 153

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

The Japanese edition of The Startup Owner’s Manual hit the bookstores in Japan this week. Back in 1990’s, I was working for one of the leading sogo shohsa (trading company) in Japan, building data communications startups. The result: great success of my third startup, a load balancing technology for web servers back in the late 1990’s.

Japan 305

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 305

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2013

For what I had thought were a few simple ideas about taking what we’ve learned about startups and applying it to corporate innovation, the post has gotten an amazing reaction. First, he says, the focus of an established firm is to execute an existing business model — to make sure it operates efficiently and satisfies customers.

Business Model 334

Business Model Technical Review Business Plan Search 334

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

In my 21 years as an entrepreneur, I would come up for air once a month to religiously read the Harvard Business Review. It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with.

Technical Review 223

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 223

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 30, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 219

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 219

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 6, 2019

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Finance 320

Finance Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 320

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

Entrenched Innovation Model Issues : Qualcomm’s existing innovation model – wireless products were created in the R&D lab and then handed over to existing business units for commercialization – was wildly successful in the existing wireless and mobile space. Venture Fest was not integral to their success.

Programming 273

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 273

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

The concepts in my Lean LaunchPad curriculum can be taught in a variety of classes–as an introduction to entrepreneurship all the way to a graduate level “ capstone class.”. Our Lean LaunchPad class requires student teams to get out of the building and talk to 10-15 customers a week while they’re building the product.

Lean 286

Lean Customer Development Business Model Email 286

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 14, 2014

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Entrepreneur 283

Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator 283

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2022

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding. Get a loan or line-of-credit.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Technical Review Incubator Bootstrapping 261

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 19, 2011

I recently sat down with Matt Coffin , the founder of LowerMyBills, which sold for $400 million but was very nearly a bankruptcy only a few years early, and talked “startups.&#. Matt is one of the most transparent, focused & honest startup guys you’ll meet. Or read the quick, informative summary below the image!

Acquisition 304

Acquisition Warrant Customer Term Sheet 304

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2021

The trick is we use the same Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum — and the same class structure – experiential, hands-on– driven this time by a mission -model not a business model. Hacking for Defense has its origins in the Lean LaunchPad class I first taught at Stanford in 2011.

Lean 417

Lean Security Asia SBIR 417

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

We realized this mechanism had been occurring for years at University’s startup competitions, such as the MIT 100K Accelerate Contest. We dubbed the program Qualcomm’s Venture Fest and the process, “ Collective Entrepreneurship ”, a three-phase program combining crowdsourcing with entrepreneurial techniques for startup creation.

Programming 301

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 301

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2018

Today, I want to introduce a new approach to business planning: Lean Planning. Lean Planning replaces lengthy business plans with a 20-minute planning process that focuses on increasing your chances of success in business. Lean Planning is simpler and faster than writing a traditional business plan.

Lean 134

Lean Forecast Software Review Business Plan 134

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

—– Lean Innovation Management. 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. We can adapt these startup tools for use inside the corporation. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

We realized this mechanism had been occurring for years at University’s startup competitions, such as the MIT 100K Accelerate Contest. We dubbed the program Qualcomm’s Venture Fest and the process, “ Collective Entrepreneurship ”, a three-phase program combining crowdsourcing with entrepreneurial techniques for startup creation.

Programming 293

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 293

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2010

In the Customer Development model, the premise is that a very small group of early visionary customers will guide your product features until you find a profitable business model. Most startups following Customer Development and a Lean Startup methodology understand the idea of a minimal viable product.

Customer Development 313

Customer Development Business Model Developer Search 313

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2013

For what I had thought were a few simple ideas about taking what we’ve learned about startups and applying it to corporate innovation, the post has gotten an amazing reaction. First, he says, the focus of an established firm is to execute an existing business model — to make sure it operates efficiently and satisfies customers.

Business Model 226

Business Model Business Plan Technical Review Search 226

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2018

As we put the final touches on Lean Startup Conference 2018 , I wanted to take a moment to share more about some of the panels, workshops, and events. As is the right business model, which is the focus of the Don’t Bet on Your First Business Model workshop. For the whole program, please take a look here.

Lean 103

Lean Las Vegas Cofounder Startup 103

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 26, 2021

Launching a startup is ridiculously exciting. Of course, most of you reading this know that the odds of your business becoming a tech unicorn are slim, even if you have a great idea in place. That’s because more than half of all startups fail within the first five years of operation. Lack of Market Need. Running Out of Capital.

Startup 180

Startup Angel Investor Business Model Demand 180

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.”. It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2017

Pete Newell and I were working with a company that was getting its butt kicked from near-peer competitors as well as from a wave of well-funded insurgent startups. A canonical Lean Innovation process inside a company or government agency would look something like this: Curation. The Tidal Wave of Unfiltered Ideas. Lessons Learned.

Incubator 319

Incubator Curation Engineer Government 319

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 12, 2018

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary.

Intellectual Property 134

Intellectual Property Technical Review Startup Incubator 134