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Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. Markets with Invention Risk are those where it’s questionable whether the technology can ever be made to work – but if it does customers will beat a path to the company’s door. are much more differentiating than technology.
Verticals Are Different I began to realize that entrepreneurs (and their professors) act like every vertical market and industry has the same set of rules. So the first heuristic is: do not assume the startup rules are the same for all vertical markets. Just for discussion, the markets I chose were: Web 2.0,
Other advisors provided marketing with industry-specific advice in our initial vertical markets (computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, finite element analysis, and petroleum engineering). They knew the technology trendsetters in their fields and got us in front of them.
Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. Convergent Technologies was one of those OEM suppliers. Their engineers hated us.
In times when venture capital is hard to get, investors extract high costs for failure (down-rounds, cram downs , new management teams, shut down the company.)
Filed under: Customer Development , Technology | Tagged: Customer Development , Early Stage Startup , Entrepreneurs , Startups , Steve Blank « SuperMac War Story 6: Building The Killer Team – Mission, Intent and Values Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location » 17 Responses Michael F.
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. Large companies were acquiring technology startups just to get in the game at the same absurd prices.
Zilog produced one of the first 8-bit microprocessors , the Z-80 (competing at the time with Intel’s 8080 , Motorola 6800, and MOS Technology 6502.) Crammed into Silicon Valley along with millions of people around the San Francisco Bay it’s hard to fathom that 15 air miles away was a stretch of California coast that was still rural.
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 (..)
On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). They have data from surveys they did with corporate development officers (e.g.
You’re not joining a big company. Startups are the adventure of a lifetime. But make sure it fits who you are. a comment » Yet another brilliant post from Steve Blank, this time about what it takes to found, co-found, or work in a startup at various stages of [.]
Our current focus is Actors and Actresses and we are moving into other verticals. What networking events in Los Angeles or Southern California do you go to? I know Jim, Mark, Kurt (see Los Angeles Technology Connector – Kurt Daradics ). Still it’s something that most managers need to learn how to do better.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times Ardent would be my third technology company as a VP of Marketing (Convergent Technologies and MIPS Computers were the other two.) It was my ex boss from Convergent Technologies, “Steve we’ve all just resigned from Convergent and we’re starting a new company.
I didn’t recognize the behavior at the time, but anyone who loves technology and gadgets has at one time or another has bought a technology toy – USB memory sticks, iPod Shuffles, umbrellas with LED lights, alarm clocks that talked, Flip Video Cameras, etc. We accidently had a product with the Novelty Effect.
At some point in my career as I began to formulate thoughts about mission and intent, I started to think about the broader role of marketing in a growing technology company. on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. The Sharp End of the Stick? It became [.] com) , on June 1, 2009 at 4:21 pm Said: [.]
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 (..)
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 (..)
This year, with the kids grown, their choice was to fly up from Southern California and spend the holidays at our ranch. California, where even the rabbits are bigger than life! Imu turkey can’t be beat if you’re trying to exceed any rational amount of salt intake.) Your ranch has rattlesnakes and rabbits bigger than you?
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 (..)
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. The Army offered Fred Terman, the Dean of Engineering at Stanford, a $5M contract to build an electronics countermeasures lab.
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 (..)
—————- The next piece of the Secret History of Silicon Valley puzzle came together when Tom Byers , Tina Selig and Mark Leslie invited me to teach entrepreneurship in the Stanford Technology Ventures Program ( STVP ) in Stanford’s School of Engineering. My office is in the Terman Engineering Building.
Acelerar Technologies Daniel expects SharePoint's cloud based solution provider eco-system to develop over the next few years. Anupam Rajey from Lucknow, India, presented Acelerar Technologies , an outsourced accounting services BPO project from India. For now, it won't come in through the store. He currently has a 1999 strategy.
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 (..)
We had been attempting to compete by their rules with the same types of technology messages. Up until now all the graphics board companies supplied “technology”, and it was up to the customers to figure out which of these arcane specs was best for their business. VP of Marketing, we now understood who our customers were.
I’ve made the acquaintance of a thought leader with her finger on the pulse of where the nation sits in terms of technological readiness to innovate. Steve Jobs once challenged Obama to find him 30,000 engineers so he could build a plant in California. Thanks Pamela. Where is the innovation workforce? – Dr. Pamela A.
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.
Today James Hickey from San Diego, California, pitched Parallel6 , a company that does social media marketing services for brands and also has a white label mobile app that can be customized and branded for their clients' mobile and social marketing needs. In that case, the verticals of choice could be manufacturing, wholesale and retail.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted a California startup company called Alef Automotive the first-ever airworthiness permit for a fully electric flying car that is capable of both flying and driving on roads. This milestone event marks the beginning of a new era in the transportation industry.
I Hate Business Plan Competitions Yet this same conversation reminded me why every time students at Berkeley or Stanford tell me they’ve entered a technology business plan competition, I question whether they are wasting their time. You’ll learn a lot.
What appears clear to me today is how fundamentally the Internet is changing business processes, and the advent of nifty social media tools and technologies that plug into core business processes like lead nurturing are a powerful force. The next event will be on Tuesday, November 22, 2011, at 8:00 AM (PDT), register to attend here.
MBA or Domain Expert Years later when I was running marketing departments I came up with a heuristic that replicated my own hire: in a technology company it’s usually better to train a domain expert to become a marketer than to train an MBA to become a domain expert. Thanks Steve!
Texas is the most promising technology investment opportunity in the United States and Capital Factory is going to turbocharge it. What will it take for Texas to produce startups of that kind of scale and impact in technology, food, retail, entertainment, energy, education, real estate, transportation and health?
Every generation of new technology seems to find a willing audience in naïve journalists and eager readers. We were larger than life, but as one potential investor told us, “You guys are all hat and no cattle.”
Simulation to Reduce Invention Risk If you’re in a vertical where “invention risk” is dominant, then you want to do everything you can to manage and reduce those risks. When I wrote the Four Steps to the Epiphany , the Customer Development text, I hadn’t yet thought about what vertical markets it might be appropriate for.)
Fourth, as a public official in the State of California , to offer a window on how public policy on California Coastal protection gets made. Third, to share both thinking and practice as I learned how to teach entrepreneurs (the way one teaches artists and musicians.). To add your email to the free podcast alert service, click here.
In the last three posts, we drew the relationship of market risk and invention risk with vertical markets and pointed out verticals where customer development would be useful. would look in each of the verticals. Technology? For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Where do the ideas come from?
Dave’s Note: William Fisher is CEO of Quicksilver Software, a software and Internet game development company in Southern California. We’re successful because we specialize in “hard problems” but not in any one vertical market. Guest Post by William Fisher. Fourth is embracing change.
But what I remind them is that great grades and successful founders/technology entrepreneurs have at best a zero correlation (and anecdotal evidence suggests that the correlation may actually be negative.) There’s a big difference between being an employee at a great technology company and having the guts to start one. I love Google.
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 (..)
Before leaving California, the engineers gave me a course in this specialized receiver design. As I ran, if I looked at the base behind the fence I was staring at the most advanced technology of the 20th century. As a going away gift my roommates got me a joke disguise kit with a fake nose, glasses and mustache.
They're both longtime sales leaders, practitioners and professors of entrepreneurship at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. we have talked to advertising technology salespeople who hate technology, right? Their, their job is to sell technology, but they hate it.
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