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. As a result, the standard product development model is not only useless, it is dangerous.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 223

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2013

China has embraced state capitalism in a way Wall Street can only dream about. Startups, Venture Capital and the Communist Party: how did this happen in China? But before startups could happen, China’s basic science, technology and finance infrastructure and ecosystem needed to be built. Like the U.S.

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China Taiwan Silicon Valley Guam 215

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. 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. See part one for the first time it happened. This time it was serious. Good stuff too.

Silicon Valley 261

Silicon Valley Non-disclosure Agreement NDA Startup 261

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

But then, because there might be entrenched competitors and your concept is radically new, you still need to invest in the customer development process to learn how to get design wins from companies who may be happy with their existing vendors. How would that change my company strategy?

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 167

Steve Blank

JULY 27, 2009

We four instructors would grumble and complain to one another about our lack of leadership. Entrepreneurs are fearless, persistent and uninhibited about asking – whether it’s asking to assemble a team, get financing, sell customers, etc. I’ve built my company using the Customer Development Model from Day One.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review California 120

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. In contrast to simply executing your business plan, the Customer Development process is built on low-cost and continuous learning and iterating.

Vertical 126

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 126

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

corporation, and by extension Sloan laid the foundation for America’s economic leadership in the 20th century. Sloan kept the corporate staff small and focused on policymaking, corporate finance and planning. The Modern Corporation Sloan is rightly credited with formalizing the idea of the modern U.S. One guy really did all of this.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 184

Steve Blank

MARCH 22, 2009

Steve my name is Donald xx, and I’m the head of external affairs of the CIA’s venture capital firm and we’d like you to keynote our conference.” And you’d like me to do my talk on Customer Development and startups?” “No, we’re the other CIA.” We witness similar behavior in corporate finance.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Thailand RSS Venture Capital 271

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, etc. You literally have to take your vision of the opportunity and against all rational odds assemble financing, and a team to help you execute. And that’s just to get started.

Founder 313

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 313

Steve Blank

JULY 13, 2009

Which at this stage of the company was marketing and financing. Not being able to hear negative customer input is an extremely bad idea. Out of the Ashes A few of the key tenets of Customer Development , came from the ashes. The story had universal appeal, and we spun the tale and keep the buzz going.

Silicon Valley 122

Silicon Valley Product RSS California 122

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 26, 2009

Yet one of the most remarkable things about the boom in microwave and silicon startups occurring in the 1950’s and 60’s was that it was done without venture capital. ARD was a publicly traded venture capital firm (raising $3.5 There was none. military and intelligence agencies and defense contractors. Whitney Co.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley Securities and Exchange Commission Venture Capital RSS 184

Steve Blank

MAY 4, 2009

In an early stage startup, instead of sales being up front, the point departments are likely to be product development and customer development. Later on in this same company’s life, sales will become the pointy end and product development moves to a supporting role. It varies by company and changes over time.

Silicon Valley 133

Silicon Valley RSS Non-Compete California 133

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

Arthur Rock, an investment banker at Hayden Stone in New York (who helped broker the financing of Fairchild) moved out to San Francisco in 1961 and partnered with Tommy Davis. But by the 1960′s the tidal wave of semiconductor startups would find a valley with a growing number of SBIC backed venture firms and limited partnerships.

Silicon Valley 130

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 130

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Welcome to the Lost Decade (for Entrepreneurs, IPO’s and VC’s) - Steve Blank , July 15, 2010 If you take funding from a venture capital firm or angel investor and want to build a large, enduring company (rather than sell it to the highest bidder), this isn’t the decade to do it. Customer Development Diagnostics over Lunch.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

Managewith.us - Collaborative Task Manager Mavenlink - manage project communications, documents, schedules, budgets, payments Industrial Logic – Agile eLearning Misc Office Help Google Apps – cloud mail server, calendar, docs, etc.

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Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110