Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 7, 2008

If you cant find any , maybe that means you havent figured out who your customer is yet. And if you dont know who your customer is, perhaps some customer development is in order? Labels: customer development , search engine marketing 13comments: Jim Lindstrom said. What is customer development?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

So if youre new, consider not paying any attention to the rest of this post, and just diving into the archives, if you havent already. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

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San Francisco Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 155

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

You must also understand the value the product provides customers (along with the rest of your business model.). And going for crowdfunding before you do customer discovery with customers can lock you into the wrong idea too early. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

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Detroit Baltimore Entrepreneur Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

My two cents is that a business plan is the single place to collect your thinking about about your: business model, distribution channel, demand creation plan, financial assumptions, and customer and product development plan. And the rest of the advice on this blog is irrelevant.

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Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2010

Recently, he was bitten by the lean startup bug and has started writing about his experiences attempting to apply lean startup and customer development principles. Managing weekly releases got a lot harder once I started doing customer development. Things started to slip. I am not advocating adding no features at all.

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Continuous Deployment San Francisco Lean Wiki 151

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2016

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, – the business model – is what turns a product into a business. Quotes from customers that illustrated learnings and insights. Pivot stories. Demo of final MVP.

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

But, as any startup can tell you, this opens up a tremendous set of opportunities for the rest of us. Mass blasts of information are ineffective, because the broadcast channels are suffering from information overload (even in social media). The old models are broken, and we do not yet have new models to replace them.

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San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2010

Wait a minute, what about the rest of Customer Development ? Aren’t you going to validate your hypotheses by first getting some customers?”. Now I was confused, and I asked, “Well what do you guys believe – Customer Development or launch on a schedule?” Filed under: Ardent , Customer Development.

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Steve Blank

JULY 29, 2013

Its goal is to take the original idea and search for a repeatable and scalable business model - first by finding product/market fit, then by testing all the parts of the business model (pricing, channel, acquisition/activation, partners, costs, etc.). Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 7, 2020

The key principles of customer development are: There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside. You can test your hypotheses with a series of experiments with potential customers. The rest of the canvas might be validated with pricelists, spreadsheets, etc. All you have are a series of untested hypotheses.

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Customer Business Model Restful Video 422

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know I believe that: 1) a product is just a part of a startup, but understanding customers, channel, pricing, etc. are what make it a business, 2) business plans are fine for large companies where there is an existing market, existing product and existing customers.

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Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

A business plan has a set of assumptions (who’s the customer, what’s the price, what’s the channel, what are the product features that matter, etc.) Yet by first customer ship most of the business model hasn’t been validated or tested. Business Model Design and Customer Development Stack.

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Burn Rate Management Business Model Customer Development 252

Steve Blank

JULY 22, 2010

Customer Validation needs to have the CEO actively involved. Here’s an example in a direct sales channel. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch. Listening, I got the rest of the story. Do we have a workable sales and distribution channel? Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen.

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Forecast Sales Customer Customer Development 279

YoungUpstarts

OCTOBER 24, 2012

HOW-TO HINT: If you get a negative reaction when you speak your commitment, channel David Letterman. But rest assured, whatever you give will come back to you with interest. If you commit to it, Clients First is a path you’ll be traveling for the rest of your life. It keeps us on the proverbial straight and narrow.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2012

In a university, the Lean LaunchPad class teaches a methodology the students can use for the rest of their careers. In an incubator, the Lean LaunchPad develops angel or venture-funded startups. 2) Get the teams out of the building to test their hypotheses with prospective customers. Here’s what they found. Lessons Learned.

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Lean Incubator Business Model Georgia 260

Steve Blank

MARCH 7, 2012

The premise of the class is that startups, are not about executing a plan where the product, customers, channel are known. We trying to teach students a methodology that combines customer development, agile development, business models and pivots. —– The rest of the teams present next week.

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ConversionXL

MAY 29, 2013

But now that it’s getting more and more difficult to make money via AdWords and other PPC channels, boosting conversion rates on your landing pages is more important than ever. You can always ask for the rest once you get their contact info. Landing pages are easy – in theory. Maybe first name. MAYBE phone number.

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PPC Mobile Conversion Stock 132

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Keeping the interactive unit separate from the rest of the company helped, he said. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. Filed under: Customer Development. If you can’t hear the clip, click here. But he wonders if the company could have made a bigger move: They were very smart to break us off.

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Washington Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Cofounder 299

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

” As the managing editor of Bplans, I’ve had the good fortune to learn about business via the content we share; through interviews with LivePlan customers and other business owners; and thanks to brilliant, informal coaching from people like Tim Berry, Noah Parsons, and the rest of the executive leadership team at Palo Alto Software.

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

I remind my students that I’m teaching them a methodology they can use the rest of their careers, not running an incubator. Their sales had given them some real data on three potential distribution channels: direct to consumer, brick and mortar retail, retailers. Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching.

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The Startup Magazine

FEBRUARY 21, 2020

In general, successful startups do three major things: They understand who their customers are, what they want and clearly define the product or service Unique Selling Point(USP). However, the key difference between a successful and unsuccessful startup rests on the shoulders of the entrepreneur themselves. By customer development.

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Startup Acquisition Business Model Finance 156

Steve Blank

MARCH 11, 2015

They’ve found product/market fit (what products customers want to buy). They’ve learned the best distribution channel to get the product from their company to the customer. And both organizations – execution and innovation – need to understand that the success of the company rests on how well they can cooperate.

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Widget Lean Business Model Metrics 120

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 19, 2009

In other words, the service transforms tweets into professional reports that are sent by snail mail, fax, and email - the channels that actually have attention paid to them. 2gov.org will take care of the rest. 2gov.org will take care of the rest. He was at todays event, and the Geeks on a Plane had a brainstorm.

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Steve Blank

JULY 19, 2016

We didn’t understand what would work in the rest of the world. . Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. . Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. When we shipped, Mobispine worked perfectly in the Stockholm subway. Want to be a guest on the show?

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Cofounder Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Sweden 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

I remember selling Angela Lee at the Kellogg School of Business, and Angela referred it to someone at Wharton, who referred it to someone at Columbia and Duke, and the rest is history. . Ironically, though, academics are horrible customers. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

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Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 151

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

How this research is transferred outside the university, and why this “tech transfer” process is important was the focus of an interview with two of the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Want to be a guest on the show?

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Government Entrepreneur Intellectual Property Silicon Valley 120

Steve Blank

MARCH 9, 2016

At Razorfish, Craig’s lack of startup experience showed: We expanded too quickly, and in particular we merged with a company that was a complete culture clash with the rest of the company. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show.

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Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 22, 2008

Because the book is chock-full of examples of how to do this in older industries, I will focus on my experience integrating NPS into an online service, although it should be noted that it works equally well if your primary contact with customers is through a different channel, such as the telephone. What is customer development?

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.Net Operations San Francisco Lean 158

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Keeping the interactive unit separate from the rest of the company helped, he said. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111. Filed under: Customer Development. If you can’t hear the clip, click here. But he wonders if the company could have made a bigger move: They were very smart to break us off.

Washington 120

Washington Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Cofounder 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 8, 2016

I remember selling Angela Lee at the Kellogg School of Business, and Angela referred it to someone at Wharton, who referred it to someone at Columbia and Duke, and the rest is history. . Ironically, though, academics are horrible customers. Tune in Thursday at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111.

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Cofounder New York City Entrepreneur New York 120

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2015

Those were the messages from the two latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on Sirius XM Channel 111. Clips from their interviews are below, but first a word about the show: Entrepreneurs are Everywhere airs Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern on Sirius XM Channel 111. Giving help and getting help.

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Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Investment Bankers 120

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

If you can just be friendly enough and get your users to party with you, the rest is really easy. They’re deep into Customer Development ,” he said. Tech support keeps angry customers at bay while having no power to effect change. Now, thanks to social media, you don't have to outspend. There is a much better technique.

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Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

And they have channeled all this into whatever activity they could find outside of their home – sports, business, or …entrepreneurship. Therefore I’m not sure what to make of the rest of their conclusions. They have learned to function in a permanent state of chaos. Let me know what you think. Comments and brickbats welcomed.

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The Startup Toolkit

OCTOBER 27, 2011

Any customer-facing interaction is a rife with silver-bullet-syndrome. I’ve made every possible variant of this mistake: Instead of hustling sales, I sought a clever marketing or channel strategy. Instead of talking to customers, I watched analytics or sent out a survey. Customer-facing stuff is hard! Ten percent.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 26, 2019

The class was unique in that it was 1) team-based, 2) experiential, 3) lean-driven (hypothesis testing/business model/customer development/agile engineering). When we started this class, the concept of Lean (business models, customer development, agile, pivots, mvp’s) was new to everyone. Class Velocity/Depth.

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Lean Business Model Balance Sheet Video 256

ConversionXL

AUGUST 13, 2015

Live chat is becoming increasingly common as a customer support channel. In fact, Zendesk’s newest report found that “In Q1 2015, live chat led all other channels in customer satisfaction at 92%.”. A proportion will, the rest will simply leave the store.”. Image Source. High traffic, high bounce rate. Gather data.

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Widget Mobile Lead Generation Channel 48

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 31, 2009

Maybe location-specific "channels"? The broadcast nature of joblink doesn't seem necessary/useful to me but I can see how the rest are useful. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? July 31, 2009 11:16 AM BillSeitz said. Does this scale in any way?

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San Francisco Lean Startup Continuous Deployment 68