Steve Blank

AUGUST 5, 2010

Consumer Internet investing seems to have split off from traditional Venture Capital, and is creating a new category of VC’s: Lean VC’s. Electron-based Venture Capital. When I first came to Silicon Valley the world of Venture Capital looked pretty simple. Here’s why.

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ReadWriteStart

JUNE 1, 2020

The next reason is to establish a competitive advantage over your competition and quickly acquire a substantial market share. Let’s take an example – In the case of an internet or app business, the user traction and market penetration is a must. The third reason is to fund your short term operational expenses or working capital.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2010

Our guest this week on #TWiVC was Dana Settle , partner at Greycroft Partners , a venture capital firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles. Another topic we debated early in the program was “lean startup” vs. “ fat startup ” where we both took the obvious hedge and said “it depends.” Time will tell.

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Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2016

These topics were the focus of interviews with the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on SiriusXM Channel 111 (airing weekly Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern). Because Lean Startup methods, Crowdfunding, Amazon Web Services and the Internet that connects us all, is bringing the cost of failure to zero. .

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I was out and about in Silicon Valley doing what I would now call Customer Discovery trying to understand how marketing departments in large corporations worked. I remember presenting our ideas for Marketing Automation to one VP of Marketing in a large Silicon Valley company. He was now CEO of a new company in our market.

Silicon Valley 261

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 261

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

At the same time we were educating the press , we began to educate our own marketing department about what exactly we were supposed to be doing inside the company. During the first few weeks I asked each of my department heads what they did for marketing and the company. Titles are not the same as what your job is. This is a big idea.

Silicon Valley 272

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 272

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development. So what’s wrong the product development model?

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) He serves on the advisory board of a number of technology startups, and has worked as a consultant to a number of startups, companies, and venture capital firms. Looking forward for your future posts.

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

Business schools teach aspiring executives a variety of courses around the execution of known business models, (accounting, organizational behavior, managerial skills, marketing, operations, etc.). What is market size? Come up with ways to test: is a business worth pursuing (market size). Where’s the market?

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Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

Now, helping potential customers discover new things they might like is the job of the discipline of marketing. But that job is changing dramatically, and this brings us to the next major problem facing traditional media organizations: Media companies are failing at marketing. There are too many products clamoring for attention.

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Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2019

Lean LaunchPad class developed for Stanford. And the Lean LaunchPad class I developed at Stanford was the first such class. I believe the analogy is identical for entrepreneurship.The capstone entrepreneurship classes like NSF I-Corps or a Lean LaunchPad class, are for those who have already decided they want to be entrepreneurs.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. Her packaging class was so good that we sent every new marketer at SuperMac to take it.

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Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

Know thyself, know your vision. “…what business is right for you depends not on the market, or what’s hot, but on who you are. It’s the lean format of the business plan—the format that will allow you to adapt fastest as you progress through the startup phase. The sales channels you will use to reach your target customers.

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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

FEBRUARY 12, 2015

It typically takes multiple iterations and pivots to find product/market fit – the match between what you’re building and who will buy it. Sales (and/or customer acquisition in a multi-sided market) becomes achievable by a sales force (or network effect or virality) without heroic efforts from the founders. Lessons Learned.

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VC Cafe

DECEMBER 1, 2015

The Curious AI Company , a General AI company whose first venture is waste sorting (the very definition of unsexy but lucrative), reportedly aims to sell its AI software as a toolkit. Large corporations have access to huge datasets and can acquire more (pace IBM’s recent acquisition of The Weather Channel data assets for $1.5bn ).

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Up and Running

MARCH 9, 2016

Whether opening a new business or expanding an existing one, when evaluating new markets, many entrepreneurs ask themselves several questions: Is there a demand for my product or service in the area? Will I be able to adequately staff my business in the local market? Does the city promote and support small businesses?

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

When venture capital teamed up with technology entrepreneurs in the 1960’s they brought with them the canonical MBA planning tool – the business plan. This makes sense in a company where your customers, channel and competition are known. The Business Plan ?- a roadmap for execution. This years winner were: 1. XoomPark , BYU.

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

There's a lot out there around Customer Development - read Steve Blank : Entrepreneurship as a Science – The Business Model/Customer Development Stack - Steve Blank , October 25, 2010 Checklists for Chaos, The Path to Success - Steve Blank , October 28, 2010 and reading about Lean, MVPs, etc. Size of target market $100M is okay.

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Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

We had thought really hard about “ market type ” and decided to reposition the company from a technology provider to a solutions provider. Over the years marketers have found that using numbers to compare yourself to other products works well. Now as VP of Marketing, I could have sat back and let my PR agency handle the press.

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Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 128

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. They never understood Market Type. Why does Market Type matter?

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 223

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

This is the first way to get video into a computer, we’re going to sell and market this board like there’s no tomorrow. That’s every marketeers excuse for putting their kids in an ad.) Marketing knew who the Spigot customers were; we had all the registration cards and all the data. But you probably never heard of ReelTime.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2011

He was introduced through mutual friends to Highland Capital. At the time consumer internet venture capital was still suffering from the collapse of the Tech Bubble. But it was an attractive time to enter because the successful internet companies were scaling and in need of capital. 34:30 – 37:00). 51:30 – 1:02:40).

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Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

If you’re in markets that still exhibit at them (semiconductors, communications, enterprise software, etc.,) ———— T o: Marketing Department From: Steve Subject: Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters Generating Leads Ownership If your company is going to a show to generate leads, then sales owns the show. .

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Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 139

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

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. Ultimately you want to see if you can find customers and a market for the product as specified – as early as possible. Time to Market – How long?

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Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 126

Up and Running

JUNE 23, 2015

Allyson attributes part of their large reach to Maternova’s strong social media presence, which she says is essential to their marketing strategy. The first thing to do is make sure that you’ve done your homework, that you know your competitors, that you know if there’s a place for you in the market.”. Put together a great team.

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The Equity Kicker

JULY 8, 2019

When I started in venture capital in the late 1990s VCs were regularly lambasted for taking long summer holidays and spending too much time on the golf course. Competition is increasing as more capital flows into the market and transparency improves. Low handicaps weren’t good! Best practices continue to develop apace.

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Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Step 1: Start with a lean plan. It’s the fastest way to get your idea onto paper, and it’s the very first step in the lean planning process, which is much easier and more iterative than traditional business planning methods. A description of your target market or the different market segments you’re targeting.

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Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. No building, no money, no customers, no market? These customer and market risks need to be translated into facts as soon as possible. At each startup I couldn’t wait to do this.

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Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 237

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. Ironically, the model is a good fit when launching a new product into an existing , well-defined market where the basis of competition is understood, and its customers are known.

Silicon Valley 272

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 272

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 30, 2015

That was the message from the latest guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere , my radio show on Sirius XM Channel 111. Entrepreneurs are Everywhere airs Thursdays at 1 pm Pacific, 4 pm Eastern on Sirius XM Channel 111. The whole market could change. … Culture matters whether you’re starting up or helping others to do so.

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Artificial Inteligence Entrepreneur Silicon Valley New York 120

Up and Running

MARCH 1, 2016

Please consult a patent attorney for more information about filing for a patent, and getting your idea to market. . But, when it comes to inventing things, the real trick is sticking the journey through or going from idea to invention to market. Step 3: Do basic market research (before investing money). Resources for inventors.

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Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Non-Compete Naming 60

David Teten

DECEMBER 3, 2019

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. . In liquid markets, most of the calories expended on technology and analytics are focused on trade selection, or “ origination ”. 2) Market .

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Steve Blank

MAY 16, 2016

In companies this would be product line extensions, more efficient supply chain, new distribution channels. In slide 5 they broadly outlined mission achievement for three private sector markets. NarrativeMind further refined their Minimal Viable Product to product/market fit in Slides 11-16. makes an appearance in the class.

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San Diego Metrics Indonesia Silicon Valley 147

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

An Existing Market All four were trying to resegment an “Existing Market.” An existing market is one where competitors have a profitable business selling to customers who can name the market and can tell you about the features that matter to them. Rule 4 : You may want to think twice positioning as a New Market.

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Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 210

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

And they’re easy to remember because they all begin with an M: management, market, money and above all else momentum. Everyone has their own definition of momentum (user numbers, revenue, channel partners, biz dev deals, whatever). If you have good experience then the VC will be leaning forward for the rest of the presentation.

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Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

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. As a result different market types modify what you do in in each step of Customer Development.

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