Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Ive forecasted the issues you have spoken of without entertaining the thoughts of solutions like you have. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Even though I havent performed the roll before and dont have the experience of any of the other posters, this hits home.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

Take a look at the companies who have raised money (and are still going) after competing: [link] Preparing the pitch for a year is definitely excessive, but I don’t see the harm done in taking a few weeks of doing brutally honest market validation, surveys, financial forecasts etc.

Business Plan 160

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Startup Lessons Learned

NOVEMBER 13, 2008

Because five whys kept turning up a few key metrics that were hard to set static thresholds for, we even had a dynamic prediction algorithm that would make forecasts based on past data, and fire alerts if the metric ever went out of its normal bounds. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup?

Software Review 167

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 167

Steve Blank

JUNE 23, 2020

As the economy reopens companies are finding that customers may have disappeared or that their spending behavior has changed. Revenue models and forecasts are no longer valid. While there’s agreement that companies need to adapt to changing markets, rapidly find new markets, new customers and new revenue models, the question is how ?

Customer 436

Customer Marketing Customer Development Lean 436

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

While it’s useful to be able to have a sales forecast and expense budget early on, it’s not something you need until you’ve validated your idea. Later you will want to come back and create a proper sales forecast, cash flow forecast, and expense budget. Circle back and create a more detailed forecast.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

Steve Blank

MARCH 5, 2012

One of the confusing things to entrepreneurs, investors and educators is the relationship between customer development and business model design and business planning and execution. When does a new venture focus on customer development and business models ? And when do business planning and execution come into play?

Search 326

Search Business Model Customer Development Agile 326

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. Experienced entrepreneurs kept finding that no business plan survived first contact with customers. I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development. Sign up here.

Lean 324

Lean Georgia Michigan Business Model 324

Steve Blank

JULY 22, 2013

Knowing this means farms can make better forecasts of how much their fields will produce, whether they should treat specific areas for pests, and put fertilizer and water only where it was needed. Filed under: Customer Development. Customer Development' The camera has enough resolution to see individual plants.)

Product 335

Product Customer Development Forecast Engineer 335

Steve Blank

JANUARY 21, 2010

What makes the current evaluation hard is that is based not on an assessment of what they have done, but on a forecast of what they are capable of becoming. By now, the board has a good sense of the skill set of the CEO and executive team as entrepreneurs. If the founders and early executives leave, that’s OK; we don’t need them anymore.

Agile 120

Agile Development Team Review Leadership Merger 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development. Berkeley asked me to teach a class in Customer Development at Haas business school. In 2003 U.C.

Lean 295

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 295

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2012

Forecasts can be based on a series of known conditions. It only emerges after an intense business model design and search activity based on the customer development process. Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan , Business Model versus Business Plan , Customer Development.

Business Model 334

Business Model Customer Development United States Operations 334

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 20, 2022

The beginner’s forecasting method is to simply extrapolate current growth rates forward. Forecasting. If applicable, understand the personnel flow for each segment. Do people move just between their segments or up and down through the entire industry? Where do they get trained? AI, Quantum, High performance computing,…?).

Forecast 388

Forecast China Demand Web 388

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

But the product/market fit of this first iteration is a swing and a miss. Marketing and capital expenses (new factory, high R&D expense) were predicated on consumer-scale sales.

Search 302

Search Marketing Forecast Burn Rate 302

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2010

We’ll build the class around the business model / customer development / agile development solution stack. Instead you will be getting your hands dirty talking to customers, partners, competitors, as you encounter the chaos and uncertainty of how a startup actually works. What are the 9 parts of a business model?

Wiki 318

Wiki Lean Management Business Model 318

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 5, 2009

Companies that reliably fail to make their forecasted numbers are exceptionally prone to “management retooling.&# The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Certainly venture-backed startups don’t have this luxury – every business plan has a model in it.

San Francisco 102

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment Startup 102

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

I was in New York last week with my class at Columbia University and several events made me realize that the Customer Development model needs to better describe its fit with web-based businesses. And without revenue how do we know if we achieved product/market fit to exit Customer Validation?” It’s an impressive portfolio.

Customer Development 228

Customer Development Web Developer Customer 228

Steve Blank

JULY 28, 2011

From the point of view of scientists and engineers in a university lab, too often entrepreneurship in all its VC-driven glory – income statements, balance sheets, business plans, revenue models, 5-year forecasts, etc. They’ll explore the best way to deliver the product to customers, the resources required, as well as competing technologies.

Engineer 287

Engineer Silicon Valley United States Intellectual Property 287

Steve Blank

JUNE 18, 2013

I wondered if business plans and 5-year forecasts were the right way to plan a startup. I read a ton of existing literature and came up with a formal methodology for search I called Customer Development. Berkeley asked me to teach a class in Customer Development at Haas business school. In 2003 U.C.

Lean 187

Lean Agile Customer Development Business Model 187

Up and Running

NOVEMBER 10, 2015

It’s structured around a model that Steve has become famous for—the Customer Development Process. Our self-guided tool will also help you forecast financials and manage your business metrics once you’re up and running. . If you don’t like podcasts, this self-paced video course by serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is for you.

Curation 60

Curation Lean Software Review Finder 60

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Struggling to explain the successes and failures of those companies, I discussed principles like continuous deployment, customer development, and a hyper-accelerated form of agile. Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits are among the earliest adopters of new ideas such as Lean Startup and customer development.

Lean 167

Lean Entrepreneur San Francisco Agile 167

The Startup Magazine

MARCH 29, 2024

It’s not just about a logo or a tagline; it’s the experience you promise your customers. Develop a marketing strategy that leverages both digital and traditional channels. This involves careful budgeting, financial forecasting, and cash flow management.

Intellectual Property 158

Intellectual Property Angel Investor Business Model Bootstrapping 158

David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

HOF Capital has stitched together our workflow across Google Suite , Slack , Airtable , Asana , Streak , and some other tools (leveraging Zapier for basic 3rd party integration, in addition to custom development for certain other integrations).

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 30, 2008

Get 18 months or more of cash (runway) in the business against a conservative forecast. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Act now, act with speed. Protect the vital core of the business.Use a scalpel to make strategic cuts. Use Google Apps.

Lean 121

Lean San Francisco Continuous Deployment DC 121

Steve Blank

JULY 11, 2016

Looking back, she realizes she had a too-rosy view of what doing a startup would be like: I wish I had a better appreciation for how difficult it would be to accurately forecast where I’d be 12 months or 18 months from now. Filed under: Customer Development , SiriusXM Radio Show. If you can’t hear the clip, click here.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Entrepreneur Cofounder Customer Development 120

Up and Running

DECEMBER 5, 2016

Determine your target market: You need to know and understand your customers. Develop a forecast: Basic forecasts and budgets are critical; tracking them is even more so. Build an action plan: How are you going to validate your assumptions and measure progress?

Lean 60

Lean Silicon Valley Business Model Forecast 60

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 9, 2009

Talking about trends is more about trying to forecast the future, like a guru, sometimes it works, sometimes not. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? Of course, will be hard to turn in future your free success onto money success, but maybe it´s a to go. all about luck.

San Francisco 94

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment DC 94

ConversionXL

DECEMBER 2, 2020

The stage where your customers are actively researching for more information; during this stage social proof , and testimonials play an important role. The stage in which a customer makes a purchase. The stage in which your customers develop brand loyalty. Building your custom marketing and sales funnel.

Churn Rate 78

Churn Rate Analytics Retention SQL 78

Up and Running

JULY 14, 2015

You need to go out and do some customer development. All these lean businesses, all these wants who want to take as little time as they can to forecast these financials, we’ve talked about this a little bit on the podcast before. That’s not really helpful. You need to do some research. Taste the product.

Incubator 60

Incubator Email Startup Oregon 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 5, 2018

Given the stock market was buying “the story and vision” of anything internet, inflated expectations were more important than traditional metrics like customers, growth, revenue, or heaven forbid, profits. Startups wrote business plans, generated expansive 5-year forecasts and executed (hired, spent and built) to the plan.

Lean 335

Lean Burn Rate Startup IPO 335

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development. This post describes how the traditional product development model distorts startup sales, marketing and business development.

Customer Development 229

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 229

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 13, 2009

After all, when upper management has been told a project will succeed for 4 years, it is very hard for anyone in middle management to stand up and reverse this forecast. The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development ► June (3) What is a startup? No departments The Five Whys for Startups (for Harvard Business R.

Product Development 153

Product Development Developer San Francisco Product 153

Steve Blank

MAY 14, 2012

The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com , highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book. The business plan, its revenue forecast, and the product introduction model assume that every step a start-up takes proceeds flawlessly and smoothly to the next.

Balance Sheet 335

Balance Sheet Business Model Customer Development Metrics 335

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

And they rolled all of this up into a set of financial forecasts with a “size of market” forecast from brand name management consulting firms that said they’d have 42 million customers by 2002. Customer Development, Business Model Design and Agile Development could have changed the outcome.

Business Plan 335

Business Plan Customer Business Model Customer Development 335

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Sloan put in place GM’s management accounting system (borrowed from DuPont) that for the first time allowed the company to: 1) produce an annual operating forecast that compared each division’s forecast (revenue, costs, capital requirements and return on investment) with the company’s financial goals.

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 184

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. The Product Development Diagram Emerging early in the twentieth century, this product-centric model described a process that evolved in manufacturing industries.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 271

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Listening to first-time entrepreneurs talk about their competitive advantages is as predictably invalid as the local weatherman's 10-day forecast. The Phantom Sales Forecast – Failing at Customer Validation - Steve Blank , July 22, 2010 Startup CEO’s can’t delegate sales and expect it to happen. We have the most features.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217