Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Steve,&# he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. If the product does work, and say we’ve developed a drug that cures a type of cancer, your only problem is how big is the licensing deal going to be – not about whether there will be customers. In these markets it’s all about invention risk.

Vertical 167

Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 167

Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

Verticals Are Different I began to realize that entrepreneurs (and their professors) act like every vertical market and industry has the same set of rules. So the first heuristic is: do not assume the startup rules are the same for all vertical markets. Just for discussion, the markets I chose were: Web 2.0,

Vertical 159

Vertical Silicon Valley Intellectual Property RSS 159

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Over the same 30 years, Venture Capital firms have honed their skills and strategies to match Wall Streets needs to achieve liquidity for their portfolio companies. One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is misunderstanding the role of venture capital investors. What Do VC’s Do?

Silicon Valley 237

Silicon Valley IPO Technical Review Venture Capital 237

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. The Customer Development process (and the Lean Startup) is one way to do that.

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Other advisors provided marketing with industry-specific advice in our initial vertical markets (computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, finite element analysis, and petroleum engineering). Some of these advisors from the academic community would work with our of VP of Engineering and help us solve specific technical problems.

Engineer 224

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 21, 2009

On the third Wednesday of every month I co-chair a meeting called the SoCal VCA (venture capital alliance), which represents participants from all of the top venture capital firms in Southern California as well as prominent members of the Tech Coast Angels (TCA). What are your predictions for the road ahead.

Technical Review 241

Technical Review IPO Southern California Venture Capital 241

Steve Blank

APRIL 20, 2009

Berkeley Haas Business School was courageous enough to give me a forum teach the Customer Development Methodology. And since there was no Venture Capital in the 1950′s/’60′s where was the money coming from? After I retired, Jerry Engel , director of the Lester Center on Entrepreneurship , at U.C.

Silicon Valley 302

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Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building.

Customer Development 129

Customer Development Developer Silicon Valley Customer 129

David Teten

APRIL 1, 2021

Almost every private equity and venture capital investor now advertises that they have a platform to support their portfolio companies. Nick Kim , Crosscut’s Head of Platform, in his presentation at the 4th Annual VC Platform Summit, shared their Platform development methodology, which he viewed as an exercise in product development.

Private Equity 78

Private Equity Venture Capital Portfolio Equity 78

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

PS1- I run a small software startup in Brazil and just found out about Customer Development and your blog (I’ve been reading and listening to everything I can get my hands on online, like Venturehacks and Ries’ blog). Oh , yes, many potential prospects are glad to request developer credentials for a free account, but never log in.

Silicon Valley 332

Silicon Valley RSS Software Review Technical Review 332

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Now with a new infusion of $8 million dollars of venture capital, SuperMac had been resurrected from the dead and was attempting to restart. The assets were a series of products already developed and on the market or in the development pipeline. The first step was to recruit a new management team.

Silicon Valley 170

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VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

million in a second round led by previous backer Genesis Partners and joined by T-Venture , the venture capital company of Deutsche Telekom. Innovid has developed an interactive pre-roll ad format called iRoll, that encourages users to click on moving objects with the interactive ads before watching the video.

Software Review 138

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ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 15, 2022

This allows the studio to develop processes, well-organized development teams, and growth plans. Over time, this revenue reduces the dependency on outside venture capital sources. Outside project work for clients helps to assemble talented development teams. There are many different types of startup studios.

Incubator 188

Incubator Startup Software Developers Software Development 188

Steve Blank

APRIL 10, 2009

Customer Development ) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions. Customer Development) to help you quickly recognize and reverse any incorrect decisions.&# My advice was to start a policy of making reversible decisions before anyone left his office or before a meeting ended. That’s why startups are agile.

Silicon Valley 309

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Steve Blank

DECEMBER 7, 2009

Customer Development We were starting Epiphany, my last company. Our competitor was executing on hypotheses we had developed 9 months ago, and their strategy remained static. EE Reply My take on Customer Development and the Lean Startup | Recess Mobile Blog , on January 9, 2010 at 5:30 am Said: [.] This time it was serious.

Silicon Valley 261

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VC Cafe

OCTOBER 16, 2024

The State of Play: Voice AI in 2024 In 2024, about a third of all venture capital funding has been going into AI companies. But substantial investments are also being deployed into emerging startups, particularly into vertical applications. Vertical Applications Taking Off. Let’s dive in!

Vertical 170

Vertical Generative AI B2C CTO Hire 170

Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

Customer Development/Lean Startups In hindsight startups and the venture capital community left out the most important first step any startup ought to be doing – hypothesis testing in front of customers- from day one. It’s what my textbook on Customer Development describes. I was an idiot. Berkeley and at Stanford.

Silicon Valley 208

Silicon Valley RSS Technical Review Lean 208

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

However, you will be dealing with almost daily change, (new customer feedback/insights from a Customer Development process and technical roadblocks ,) as the company searches for a repeatable and scalable business model. This means you still need to have a resilient personality, and be agile. You’re not joining a big company.

Cofounder 230

Cofounder Founder Silicon Valley Technical Cofounder 230

VC Cafe

MARCH 7, 2025

OpenAI s ChatGPT macOS app now supports direct code editing within integrated development environments (IDEs). – by Y Combinator YC on AI-first software development (for 25% of the startups in the current YC batch, 95% of the code is AI generated!) The company is toying a Phd level AI Agent that will cost $20,000 a month.

Israel 103

Israel Stealth Taiwan ChatGPT 103

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

Each month, we pick an up-and-coming vertical or theme and do a deep dive (with the help of Mattermark … portfolio plug). In addition to developing our investment thesis, we recognize that VC is still an industry built on relationships. The post Lessons from my first year at Version One appeared first on Version One Ventures.

Venture Capital 162

Venture Capital Portfolio Vertical Technical Review 162

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. I began to gain an appreciation of how world-class venture capitalists develop pattern recognition for these common types of problems. “Oh Oh yes, company X, they’re having problem 343.

Silicon Valley 133

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Was my response to stop development of the games? Customer Development There was nothing wrong about Rocket Science having a vision radically different than the conventional wisdom. Customer Development says having a vision, faith and a set of hypotheses are a normal part of the startup experience. I said, “That can’t be true!

Silicon Valley 223

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David Teten

SEPTEMBER 23, 2017

Private equity and venture capital investors are copying our sisters in the hedge fund and mutual fund world: we’re trying to automate more of our job. produced this analysis of engineering representation within VC firms: Selected VCs with Highest Representation of Developers in Workforce. Google Ventures (GV).

Private Equity 60

Private Equity Venture Capital Equity Technical Review 60

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development | Tagged: Entrepreneurs « Customer Development Manifesto: The Path of Warriors and Winners (part 5) Unintended Lessons » 6 Responses Twitter Trackbacks for Let’s Fire Our Customers « Steve Blank [steveblank.com] on Topsy.com , on September 24, 2009 at 7:19 am Said: [.]

Customer 218

Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 218

Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

To an entrepreneur, being asked to join a venture firm with an Entrepreneur-in-Residence title means you have been tapped on the shoulder by the VC gods. The CDROM content business in the early 1990’s was one of the many of the long line of venture capital fads. Lots of ideas sound exciting because people are clueless.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS Software Review 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , ESL , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , ESL « Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores A Wilderness of Mirrors » 17 Responses Michael F.

Agile 269

Agile Silicon Valley RSS California 269

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

Reply steveblank , on October 10, 2009 at 10:59 am Said: Sales material developed by marketers who have never left the building is more often that not completely useless. on April 10, 2009 at 6:58 am Said: Amazing blog. Didn’t you want him to be more than 10% productive when working for you?

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 271

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

I finally understood how valuable these contests can be for students in cities or countries without a venture capital or entrepreneurial infrastructure. Over scrambled eggs and diet coke, I listened to this seasoned startup veteran describe the excitement of his students who came to the U.S. to compete.

Business Plan 160

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Present at the Creation It was early 1991 and Apple’s software development team was hard at work on QuickTime , the first multimedia framework for a computer. So SuperMac engineering also developed video compression software, called Cinepak. But to get video to fit and playback on the computers of the era, they needed to compress it.

Video 190

Video Silicon Valley RSS California 190

Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Lessons Learned No one will tell you to work fewer hours You need to be responsible for your own health and happiness Burnout sneaks up on you Burnout is self-induced. You created it and own it.

Silicon Valley 206

Silicon Valley Chad RSS San Francisco 206

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

In the Installation Period , a great surge of technology development (Perez calls this Irruption) is followed by an explosion of investment (called the Frenzy.) For example, US Steel had integrated vertically and was involved in the mining of the iron ore all the way to the production of various steel products, e.g., nails.

Silicon Valley 120

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VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Don’t take my word for it – in the roundup of venture capital predictions for 2017 , I found it to be the top recurring theme. Many large companies will be built (Michael Wolfe, Point Nine Capital). Venture Capital investments in AI, Europe 2016 (Source: Dealroom ). Billion in VC funding.

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Israel Technical Review Startup 122

Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

Filed under: Customer Development , Family/Career , Technology | Tagged: Steve Blank , Entrepreneurs , Tips for Startups « Am I a Founder? Work product can’t be ignored, but central to Customer Development is having a solid relationship with customers so that you can learn their needs and iterate to a product that fits.

Entrepreneur 295

Entrepreneur Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS 295

Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Home Books for Startups Secret History-Bibliography Steve Blank Startup Resources Steve Blank Entries RSS | Comments RSS Categories Air Force (9) Ardent (9) Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan (29) California Coastal Commission (3) Conservation (2) Convergent Technologies (1) Customer Development (98) Customer Development Manifesto (..)

Silicon Valley 213

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 26, 2009

So no post today on entrepreneurship, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Customer Development, Lean Startups, etc. Our friends who run the state park surrounding our ranch will join all of us for Thanksgiving dinner. Just a reflection on my family and hopes for our children.

Silicon Valley 156

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. The answer depends on your answer to two questions: which step in the Customer Development process are you on? Customer Development and Selling Strategy If you’ve just started your company you are in customer discovery.

Technology 145

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 145

Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

Next, you have to deal with the daily crisis of product development and acquiring early customers. And here’s where life gets really interesting, as the reality of product development and customer input collide, the facts change so rapidly that the original well-thought-out business plan becomes irrelevant. Let me know what you think.

Founder 312

Founder Silicon Valley RSS China 312