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. End of theory.&#

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Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

The implications for entrepreneurs is that each of these (market risk versus invention risk,) require radically different financing models, a different type of venture investor, different timing for hiring sales and marketing, etc. In this situation one must make a choice: 1. find a different business (seriously) or 2.

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 169

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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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

But then the Lean Startup’s scientific method of validating their business idea quickly has them feeling right at home. What it’s like to go from the comfort of the lab bench to the chaos of a startup was the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Sunny Shah. Sunny received his Ph.D.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Was the company attempting to be a low cost provider by introducing cheaper products to an existing market? Therefore, no, we weren’t really equipped to be the low cost provider. A key lesson is that as an entrepreneur, you get to choose your segment. No, not really. And we lost money when we did so. Glad to see you blogging!

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Austin Startup

MAY 8, 2018

Background reading: Founder Compensation: Cash, Equity, Liquidity Fatal Errors in Early Startup Hiring Early Hires: Options or Stock Given how deeply involved we are with early-stage startups hiring their first key employees, I figured it would be helpful to outline a few key principles to help entrepreneurs navigate the topic.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In the case of the entrepreneur that was the genesis of this post, he had done a lot on paper. If you buy them food (pizza, donuts, coffee) or free stuff (tech gadget, big monitor, t-shirt), they will love you for it far beyond the cost of the actual item. In this case, these sites didn't pan out all that well for the entrepreneur.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Computer hardware companies were faced with their customers asking for low-cost (relatively) desktop computers they had no experience in building. were the first computer entrepreneurs here. This was just before the IBM PC hit the desktop so there were no “standard” operating systems or applications for desktop platforms.

Technology 146

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 146

Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

Some are r esegmenting an existing market– directed at a niche that an incumbent isn’t satisfying (like Dell and Compaq when they were startups) or providing a low cost alternative to an existing supplier (like Southwest Airlines when it first started.)

Silicon Valley 147

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 147

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

In the case of the entrepreneur that was the genesis of this post, he had done a lot on paper. If you buy them food (pizza, donuts, coffee) or free stuff (tech gadget, big monitor, t-shirt), they will love you for it far beyond the cost of the actual item. In this case, these sites didn't pan out all that well for the entrepreneur.

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Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 296

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Colleges and universities that offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to teach innovation and entrepreneurship classes may benefit from a more formal onboarding process. I’ve been an adjunct for almost 18 years, and I still remember the onboarding process at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Hearpreneur

JUNE 30, 2017

Starting as a one-woman show, we were able to ask Yang about her story, her business and advice she would give to fellow aspiring millennial entrepreneurs. What advice would you give to Millennial entrepreneurs and CEOs? What advice would you give to other women entrepreneurs? .

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

It will cost you your job.” By accountable I meant, “we agreed on a delivery date, and between now and the delivery date it’s OK if you ask for help because you’re stuck, or something happened outside of your control. But do not walk into my office the day something was due and give me an excuse. That kind of accountable.

Silicon Valley 272

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 272

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

In less than a month they designed a low-cost video-capture board that plugged into the Mac and allowed you to connect a video camera and VCR. A month or two before the QuickTime public announcement in May, the SuperMac hardware engineers (who had a great relationship with the QuickTime team at Apple) started a “ skunk works ” project.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 10, 2016

But then the Lean Startup’s scientific method of validating their business idea quickly has them feeling right at home. What it’s like to go from the comfort of the lab bench to the chaos of a startup was the focus of the guests on today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Sunny Shah. Sunny received his Ph.D.

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Cofounder Entrepreneur Engineer California 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

If you’re an entrepreneur, ESL is the most important company you’ve never heard of. When Terman said no, Sylvania, a tube company which built proximity fuse tubes in WWII, won the contract and set up its Electronic Defense Lab (EDL) in Mountain View California in the middle of an orchard. Terman became a consultant to the company.

Silicon Valley 204

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Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

My first business trip to the valley was to visit California Microwave. And now am leading a startup of my own ( [link] ) where we’re students of you and Eric Ries’ lean startup principles. In all the Germans had over 7,500 radars dedicated to tracking and killing the allied bombers.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review Europe Germany 213

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2009

The university found government contracts profitable as the government reimbursed their overhead charges (their indirect costs.) This means they could fund other non-military academic programs from this overhead. The Stanford Applied Electronics Lab built prototypes which were handed off to the military labs for their evaluation.

Silicon Valley 161

Silicon Valley RSS California Government 161

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

And world-class entrepreneurs never quit. How founders cope with startup challenges was the focus of today’s Entrepreneurs are Everywhere radio show. Jessica Mah started InDinero in 2010 to help entrepreneurs with their accounting and tax needs after going through the same challenges with her own businesses. Jessica Mah.

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Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 22, 2020

Digital Response (USDR) CalFresh Onward California Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA) "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1935-1944" SF New Deal donation/volunteer page Transcript for Out of the Crisis #15: SF New Deal Eric Ries : This is Out of the Crisis, I'm Eric Ries.

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San Francisco Government Technical Review Community 60

YoungUpstarts

NOVEMBER 17, 2013

Even the best entrepreneurs have failed in one endeavor or another, and it has given them the hard lessons that allowed them to succeed in their other ventures. Knowing the companies priorities, it would also be prudent to keep things “lean and mean” so the funds and your people’s energies are efficiently utilized. It’s a fact of life.

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San Diego California Lean Leadership 145

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 28, 2009

She said, “Dad, one of the great things you and Mom did was never tell us how much things cost.” Now that I’m older, I’m starting to know what things cost. It was something I never thought about, and when I first heard it I thought it was a terrible thing to have taught her. For a minute it was a pretty depressing thought for a parent.

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North Carolina Silicon Valley RSS Connecticut 167

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Resegmentation means these startups are trying to lure some of the current or potential customers away from incumbents by either offering a lower cost product, or by offering features that appealed to a specific niche or subset of the existing users. Do you know have they distribute their product? Do you know how they create demand?

Silicon Valley 211

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 211

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. Durant was an amazing entrepreneur.

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Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 187

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Entrepreneur news from reporter Eric Markowitz. Theres a huge opportunity cost in not taking equity," he says. In the 1990s, Graham was one of those entrepreneurs giving away equity in exchange for crucial services. He prefers to work with companies that are building Web-based applications and have relatively low start-up costs.

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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. Combined with product costs, an engineering budget, and schedules, this results in a spreadsheet that faintly resembles the first financial plan in the company’s business plan.

Silicon Valley 272

Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 272

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves Part of my problem was that my reality distortion field encompassed my relationships. While she stuck it out for seven years, she had no connection to the passion and excitement that was driving me; all she saw was a tired and stressed entrepreneur when I got home. The Adventure of a Lifetime.

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Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 296

Up and Running

DECEMBER 2, 2015

If you’re stuck wondering how to do your research, here’s some inspiration from the Young Entrepreneur Council. Negotiate your overhead for lower rates to help you get through the lean years when you are still building your company.” What is the cost? See Also: How to Choose a Business Location.

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Entrepreneur California Employee Lean 60

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating. Waterfall, Agile, Lean? You take your product vision and get out of your building to turn your hypothesis into facts. Where do the ideas come from? Innovation – Business Model? Technology?

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 127

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

In future posts I’ll describe how Eric Ries and the Lean Startup concept provide the equivalent model for product development activities inside the building and neatly integrates customer and agile development. This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 256

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. While that’s not true, it is a fact that entrepreneurs only have one word for “startup.” 2.)

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 224

Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

As a private company you can decide that winning at all costs is your culture. You can decide that coming in first at all costs is your culture. Think through if you want to win at any cost. (I I avoid these entrepreneurs like the plague.) And we decided not to. And here’s why. Culture matters. A final note.

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Steve Blank

MAY 21, 2009

Without a budget, costs can quickly spiral out of control (last minute impulse purchases to jazz up your booth, for example) and defeat your best laid plans. A rule of thumb is that your space costs represent about a quarter of your total show budget. Plus tips on overall trade show strategy.

Silicon Valley 208

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 208

Steve Blank

JUNE 3, 2009

In contract to the linear execution via business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.) So starting with the vision of your product, get out of the building, and see if you can find customers and a market for the product as specified.

Vertical 141

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing RSS 141

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. They hit each other with baseball bats until one of them dropped.) This first Zen moment happened at a SuperMac exec staff meeting. Ownership and Teamwork not turf.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. I am a young entrepreneur here, absolutely dying to hear the talk. And many of the best entrepreneurs experience failure a number of times before building a legendary business (thanks Steve Blank, you’re an info sharing rockstar).

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Austin Startup

JUNE 21, 2019

the gung-ho, follow your passion at all costs and the meticulously waiting for the right time camp. A 2013 study of 5000 entrepreneurs spanning different age group over 15 years to see if it was better to keep your day job. I’ve seen opinions that fall passionately on both ends of the spectrum?—?the In the first camp?—?the

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