Steve Blank

OCTOBER 30, 2012

The class teaches founders how to dramatically reduce their failure rate through the combination of business model design, customer development and agile development using the Startup Owners Manual. More importantly, it makes no demands of you to stand and deliver your weekly customer development progress in front of your peers.

Startup 335

Startup Lean Incubator Business Model 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 16, 2013

To fill this gap I wrote The Four Steps to the Epiphany , a book about the Customer Development process and how it changes the way startups are built. Eric Ries, who took my first Customer Development class at Berkeley, had the insight that Customer Development should be paired with Agile Development.

Technical Review 331

Technical Review Lean Venture Capital Customer Development 331

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

We think teaching teams a formal methodology around the Lean Framework (Business Model design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering) is a natural evolution of how successful incubators/accelerators will build startups. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Lean 322

Lean Customer Development Sales Cycle Business Model 322

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 21, 2013

Startup Tools here Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching , Venture Capital. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Teaching Venture Capital' You can follow the talk along using the slides below. If you can’t see the slides above, click here. Additional videos here.

Video 288

Video Oakland Lean Venture Capital 288

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

Filed under: Customer Development. Customer Development' Can these skills be outsourced to partners or are they integral to the DNA of the company? If they’re integral to the company’s success, they should be part of the founding team.

Cofounder 335

Cofounder Founder Intellectual Property Business Model 335

View from Seed

OCTOBER 22, 2015

Customer development” has become its own skill and body of knowledge, and there are some crucial nuances to understand up front before beginning your customer dev discussions. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/26-customer-development-resources/. https://blog.kissmetrics.com/26-customer-development-resources/.

Customer Development 120

Customer Development Developer Customer Seed Stage 120

Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

One of the fundamental benefits of being so active in building the FoundersPad accelerator (a 12-week, Lean Startup program focused on customer development) is working with the cohort participants on refining their business models. Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Science and Industrial Policy , Venture Capital.

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Steve Blank

AUGUST 21, 2013

Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Science and Industrial Policy , Teaching. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Science and Industrial Policy Teaching' Class starts Oct 1 st and runs through Dec 10 th. Download the all three parts of the Life Science series here.

SBIR 321

SBIR Technical Review Lean Startup 321

Steve Blank

APRIL 11, 2013

Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' Torch was the rare government program that was run like a startup – iterating and pivoting as it learned and discovered.

Programming 287

Programming Technical Review SBIR China 287

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 12, 2012

Filed under: Customer Development. Thanks to: Alexis Finch, Sketchnotes / UX Research Consultant @agentfin.

Customer Development 317

Customer Development Developer Customer 317

Steve Blank

JUNE 19, 2014

Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Life Sciences , National Science Foundation. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Life Sciences National Science Foundation' The answers to commercialization questions are outside the lab. They cannot be done by proxies.

Lean 277

Lean SBIR Intellectual Property Customer Development 277

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

Use Customer Development to identify and refine the potential profitable niche and stay in close contact with customers as you build, to be sure you’re building something they’ll want to have…and keep. Filed under: Customer Development. It’s the only way to make a startup not suck.

Startup 334

Startup Cofounder Customer Development Viral 334

Steve Blank

MARCH 29, 2012

When Bob Dorf and I wrote the Startup Owners Manual we listed a series of Customer Development principles. Pair Customer Development with Agile Development. So by popular demand, here’s a poster of the Customer Development Manifesto. for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model.

Customer Development 331

Customer Development Developer Customer Cofounder 331

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

It was only after returning to Stanford and taking the Lean Launchpad class that I became convinced that a radically different, customer-centric approach was the solution. I returned to the Air Force Academy as an instructor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, intent on spreading the gospel of Customer Development and Lean.

Lean 271

Lean Technical Review Acquisition Software Review 271

Steve Blank

JANUARY 2, 2014

Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Life Sciences , Teaching. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Life Sciences Teaching' of all the parts of the business model canvas. It includes reimbursement, regulation, IP, validation, channel access, etc.

Lean 250

Lean Algorithm Customer Development IP 250

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 20, 2011

We taught them the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. This methodology forces rapid hypothesis testing and Customer Development by getting out of the building while building the product. And since the rest of the slides were about Customer Development, I taught those.

Incubator 310

Incubator Government Silicon Valley Lean 310

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 6, 2014

Filed under: Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Teaching' Commitment is the first step in building a startup team. It washes out the others. Setting a high bar saves a ton of grief later.

Lean 286

Lean Customer Development Business Model Email 286

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital. The country needs to figure out a long term privatization strategy for Venture investing. Finnish culture makes risk-taking and sharing hard.

Finland 332

Finland Naming Russia Government 332

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

- SoCal CTO , January 13, 2010 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 No Accounting For Startups - Steve Blank , February 22, 2010 Startup Advice In Exactly Three Words - #StartupTriplets - OnStartups , January (..)

Silicon Valley 378

Silicon Valley Startup Term Sheet Venture Capital 378

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2014

We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices. “Customer Development” to test the hypotheses outside the building and. We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum.

Intellectual Property 290

Intellectual Property Lean IP Open Source 290

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 7, 2011

Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching , Technology , Venture Capital. The number of serial entrepreneurs is very low and until recently most of the talented sales and marketing professionals choose to work for Nokia.

Finland 329

Finland Venture Capital Government Russia 329

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

As described in the HBR article “ Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything ,” we developed Lean as the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack where entrepreneurs first map their hypotheses about their business model and then test these hypotheses with customers in the field ( customer development ) and use an iterative (..)

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Filed under: Air Force , Customer Development , Family/Career/Culture. Unless you’ve had a ton of experience (which includes failing) in a broad range of areas you’re only guessing. Great careers start by peeling potatoes.

Thailand 334

Thailand Engineer Customer Development SEO 334

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

Filed under: Customer Development , Life Sciences , Teaching. Customer Development Life Sciences Teaching' The Lean Startup process and the Lean LaunchPad class can save years in commercialization in these domains. This can be taught.

Lean 266

Lean Customer Business Model Customer Development 266

Steve Blank

JANUARY 30, 2013

I earnestly believe that large corporations should emulate Lean Startups (Business model design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering.) Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Lean LaunchPad , Teaching.

Programming 273

Programming Technical Review Incubator Intellectual Property 273

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 10, 2014

We didn’t know it at the time, but with that investment we had paid for front-row VIP seats to witness the origins of Customer Development and the Lean Startup. Twenty years and 100,000’s of copies of those books later, my life has fortuitously intersected with Steve Blank once again now that we’ve both become educators.

Maryland 280

Maryland Lean DC Virginia 280

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

Filed under: Customer Development , Teaching , Venture Capital. And they’re just getting started. Congratulations. Download the full Startup Genome report here. ——-. I can’t wait to see what Max does by the time he’s 21.

Technical Cofounder 335

Technical Cofounder Early Stage Startup Silicon Valley 335

Steve Blank

APRIL 14, 2013

Filed under: China , Customer Development , Technology , Venture Capital. China Customer Development Technology Venture Capital' They are the signs of a leadership frightened not by external enemies but by their own people. It usually doesn’t end well.

China 328

China Silicon Valley Non-Compete Intellectual Property 328

Steve Blank

APRIL 5, 2017

Filed under: Customer Development , Marketing. Use the Value Proposition Canvas to understand who your audience(s) are. Craft messages to match what your audience has already told you. Pick the media they said they read. Find the right messengers to amplify your message.

Marketing 318

Marketing Audience Technical Review PR 318

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching. Part 2 – challenges and lessons learned – to follow.

Programming 301

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 301

Steve Blank

JANUARY 28, 2013

Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development , Teaching. Part 2 – challenges and lessons learned – to follow.

Programming 293

Programming Design Lean Seed Money 293

Steve Blank

AUGUST 17, 2012

Filed under: Customer Development , E.piphany , Marketing. Understanding the saboteurs in a complex sale is as important as understanding the recommenders and influencers. We needed a selling strategy that took all of this into account. In a startup not losing is sometimes more important than winning.

Forecast 299

Forecast Sales Matching Customer Development 299

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 9, 2013

It was a lifelong lesson that taught me to never start a business where you hate your customers. You don’t want to do Customer Development with them. So you and your team need to feel comfortable being in this business with these customers. It never goes well. You don’t want to talk to them.

Cofounder 330

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Liquidity Event Lean 330

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

What you really need is a VP of Marketing and Customer Development, who can help with lead generation and honing the message, rather than an executive to manage a sales team and existing customers. Evangelism marketing is an advanced form of word of mouth marketing (WOMM), now largely replaced by Facebook and Twitter.

CTO Hire 252

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 252

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 25, 2023

Flexible – listen to allow flex hours and customization. Develop a strong feedback loop to allow responsiveness in improving team member’s day-to-day-experience. Establish a schedule for your own accessibility, so that employees can find you easily, and see that you care about them and know their challenges early.

Employee 282

Employee Matching Customer Leadership 282

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. Tune in Thursday, Oct. 13, at 1 pm PT, 4 pm ET on Sirius XM Channel 111 to hear these upcoming guests on Entrepreneurs are Everywhere : George Zimmer , founder of Men’s Wearhouse and now founder, chairman and CEO of Generation Tux ; and Scott Adams , creator of Dilbert.

Columbus 249

Columbus Entrepreneur Cofounder Ohio 249

Steve Blank

MAY 6, 2015

The Customer Development process is a simple methodology for taking new venture hypotheses and getting out of the building to test them. Customer discovery captures the founders’ vision and turns it into a series of business model hypotheses. If you’re a scientist the answer is easy: you run experiments.

Lean 120

Lean Agile Business Model Customer Development 120