Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

I asked Tsutsumi-san to write a guest post for my blog to describe his experience with Customer Development in Japan. But customers didn’t agree. After many sales calls, early prospects showed little rush to buy it! Evangelizing Customer Development in Japan. ————-.

Japan 306

Japan Customer Development Developer Customer 306

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

For a startup, having great sales DNA is a wonderful asset. The problem stems from selling each customer a custom one-time product. This is the magic of sales: by learning about each customer in-depth, they can convince each of them that this product would solve serious problems. They are closing orders.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Steve Blank

JANUARY 4, 2010

Now with customers and early revenue, it was out raising its first round of venture money. Not only did their sales curve look like a textbook case of a VC-friendly hockey stick, but their Lessons Learned funding presentation was an eye-opener.). Which one is “right” is up to you, not the crowd.

Hockey Stick 304

Hockey Stick Venture Capital Startup Cofounder 304

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development. You already have the hockey stick and exponential growth. Your “Customer Development Process&# has really resonated for me. The primary goal of customer development is to reduce the cost of mistakes.

Venture Capital 246

Venture Capital Silicon Valley RSS Hockey Stick 246

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. Even more serious, startups can have radically different cash needs.

Customer Development 223

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 223

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

By 1992 Research in Motion (RIM) had been in business for eight years, had 16 employees, sales of about $500,000 a year, and three or four business lines. In today’s language of Customer Development , RIM positioned the Blackberry as a segment of an existing market – pager users who needed two-way communication.

Hockey Stick 279

Hockey Stick Customer Development Silicon Valley Networking 279

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 16, 2010

In my last post I described what happened when a company prematurely scales sales and marketing before adequately testing its hypotheses in Customer Discovery. The VC’s were very concerned that the revenue the financial plan called for wasn’t being delivered by the sales team. They don’t. All this takes time.” What went wrong?

Revenue 232

Revenue Balance Sheet Hockey Stick Burn Rate 232