Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

At a university business plan competition, for the first time they can swim in the sea of expertise that we/I take for granted in the middle of Silicon Valley. I love business plan competitions (and with my valley-centric bias, I think Berkeley and Stanford have two of the best.) I was simply confused about what a plan was for.

Business Plan 160

Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 160

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2018

When Sloan arrived at GM in 1920 he realized that the traditional centralized management structures organized by function (sales, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing) were a poor fit for managing GM’s diverse product lines. But the spirit of Billy Durant would rise again in what would become Silicon Valley.

Michigan 301

Michigan Cofounder Stock Forecast 301

Steve Blank

MAY 22, 2009

Everyone should have a chance to walk the floor looking for deals, technology, distribution, customers, etc. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Partnership Opportunities At any show you are attending there has to be tons of opportunity for business to business relationships you hadn’t thought about.

Silicon Valley 139

Silicon Valley RSS California Customer Development 139

Austin Startup

AUGUST 7, 2017

Some businesses can service all four cities with a single distribution hub in one of the cities, making it a unique market for launching new businesses. Partnerships with innovative global companies in major industry verticals provide unique opportunities for customer validation, pilot programs and strategic investment.

Texas 97

Texas San Antonio Houston Dallas 97

Steve Blank

APRIL 30, 2009

SuperMac sold our graphic boards for the Macintosh through multiple distribution channels: direct sales to major accounts, national chains, independent rep firms, etc. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. But the computer retail channel was a large part of our sales. Your mileage may vary, just my two cents.

Sales 120

Sales Silicon Valley RSS Las Vegas 120

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 21, 2015

During the last three years he’s worked with over 100 companies, many of which established Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley. He’s now helping companies get the most out of their relationships with Silicon Valley. and concentrated on a single part of the supply chain – importing, distribution, wholesale, retail.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley Venture Capital United States Technical Review 120

Growthink Blog

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

In 1999, Lee joined the Silicon Valley new media content contingent as an Internet-company CEO, and has since founded two innovative Los Angeles media companies. With Growthink, Lee has continued his deep involvement with film, digital media, content delivery protocols, gaming technologies and sports initiatives.

Los Angeles 85

Los Angeles Silicon Valley Technical Review Distribution 85

VC Cafe

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Till now most people even in Silicon Valley have implicitly assumed that scaling a startup meant switching to manager mode. The focus on entertainment tech meant that we always cared about content creation, distribution and monetisation. In effect there are two different ways to run a company: founder mode and manager mode.

Management 103

Management Technical Review Venture Capital Generative AI 103

Steve Blank

JULY 9, 2009

So I got out out of the building to meet and understand our customers and distribution partners. There couldn’t have been a worse choice for CEO in Silicon Valley. This wasn’t just some random Silicon Valley fantasy. Also, are you available for talks at a Silicon Valley networking group for job seekers.

Silicon Valley 159

Silicon Valley RSS California Video 159

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 31, 2014

Creating a vertically oriented regional ecosystem is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any country or industry. The trap most of them fell into (common almost everywhere): they were reading the blog posts and advice of Silicon Valley-based companies and believing that it uniformly applied to them. It doesn’t.

Global 335

Global Australia Silicon Valley China 335

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 21, 2010

The word conjures images of twenty-something graduate students hacking code in a Silicon Valley dorm room, fueled by a steady supply of Red Bull and Ramen. The vertical axis measures the “percentage of individuals. First of all, we all know that the age distribution in the U.S. By Akira Hirai Entrepreneurship.

Silicon Valley 233

Silicon Valley Investment Bankers Affiliate Distribution 233

Steve Blank

JUNE 5, 2009

You make several first order approximations about your business model, distribution channels, demand creation, and customer acceptance. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Faith-based Entrepreneurship At first, entrepreneurship is a Faith-based initiative. There is no certainty about a startup on day-one.

Silicon Valley 236

Silicon Valley RSS Vertical California 236

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. would look in each of the verticals. For example, How does sales differ from one market to another? Others you need to know when you execute the plan.

Vertical 126

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 126

Austin Startup

MARCH 3, 2020

It’s worth noting that LexSet’s team is distributed with additional team members in Seattle and myself in Los Angeles, giving us great range to take sales meetings all across the country. It’s also steps away from the Rlab , the mixed-reality accelerator we recently graduated from and maintain close ties with.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Los Angeles Cofounder Silicon Valley 63

Steve Blank

AUGUST 27, 2009

After that there’s a discussion of how the product will reach the customer and the potential distribution channel. The distribution discussion leads to some conclusions about competition: who are they and how they differ. The distribution discussion also leads to some assumptions about pricing. Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Product Startup RSS 271

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Growth hacking is a term that emerged from the Silicon Valley tech community and the lean startup methodology. One of Qless’s core verticals is the retail industry. The brand might do this by distributing the content via email to half of their audience, tracking engagement metrics, and measuring the influence on CLV.

Framework 102

Framework Marketing Acquisition Retention 102

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

I responded to their RFP by proposing that Ardent build the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center a distributed supercomputing environment with hundreds of Ardent personal supercomputers rather than a monolithic Cray supercomputer. And where are we today…distributed computing. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 214

Silicon Valley San Diego RSS California 214

Transformify

APRIL 21, 2017

We have arguably the largest distributed workforce in the world. We really wanted to build a network of top tier talent, similar to the caliber of talent that’s working in-house at top Silicon Valley tech companies. And we’ll be expanding into more business verticals soon. Where are you located?

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Silicon Valley Software Review Cofounder 40

Steve Blank

AUGUST 20, 2009

Do you know have they distribute their product? Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Some of the conversations went like this: Startup 1 Entrepreneur -“I’m competing against Company x and have been following the Customer Development process and I’ve talked to lots of customers.” Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 210

Silicon Valley Startup RSS Customer Development 210

Cracking the Code

MARCH 28, 2022

The firm was founded more than 35 years ago and the team quickly realised that innovation was not confined to Silicon Valley. We’ll also see the emergence of more low code / no code platforms that address specific vertical needs. Accel has been a big believer in cloud since the early days of this shift.

Global 62

Global Israel Europe Software Review 62

Version One Ventures

JANUARY 2, 2019

Each week we like share our thoughts on a range of topics from vertical markets to general startup advice and our reflections on investing. Changing the narrative on distributed teams in Silicon Valley”. Among our Silicon Valley-based portfolio companies, every company past “A” has a distributed team.

Silicon Valley 144

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Distribution Artificial Inteligence 144

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

Top management was trying to coordinate all of the operating details (sales, manufacturing, distribution and marketing,) across all the divisions and the company almost went bankrupt that year when poor planning led to excess inventory (with unsold cars piling up at dealers and the company running out of cash.) Order Here. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 184

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 184

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 3, 2009

I was positioning the company as the second coming of the video games businesses at the intersection of “ Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley.” In the end, the CEO couldn’t get his board to give us the cash in exchange for the Japanese distribution rights and some equity. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

Silicon Valley 171

Silicon Valley RSS Startup California 171

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 24, 2013

Already have a bunch of local friends; critical mass of startups in verticals matching our Bottom Up Economy theme; on-the-ground frequently (I grew up here and Satya lived in Manhattan for several years). The distribution is here. My first NYC angel investment was in Charlie O’Donnell, 2007. That’s what attracts talent.

Silicon Valley 120

Silicon Valley New York Vertical Early Stage 120

Mucker Lab

MAY 1, 2013

From the outside, they are vertically integrated challengers to decades if not hundred-years old incumbents. Smaller companies like Warby Parker are taking on branded incumbents in eyewear by re-inventing and collapsing distribution and manufacturing channels. E-commerce is the canary in the coal mine.

Software 107

Software Silicon Valley Los Angeles Columbus 107

ReadWriteStart

DECEMBER 8, 2011

Some vertical ad networks have gone after this opportunity, Glam Media being one of the most successful of the lot. Today's discussion was about how to generate additional distribution and acquire traffic. She is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and strategy consultant. It's just not worth it.

Greece 116

Greece Entrepreneur India Silicon Valley 116

pandodaily.com

JULY 18, 2012

Ultimately, we each had a lot of domain experience in different content verticals and wanted to build the ultimate places we could work every day putting that experience to work. The Smart People Can Denounce Bravo's Silicon Valley All They Want. “It’s hard to create a company like this as a kid,” he says.

Entrepreneur 45

Entrepreneur San Francisco Silicon Valley Technical Review 45

Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

customers aren’t buying it, the cost of distribution is too high, etc.) Look at the early Silicon Valley companies – Homebrew Club =>PCs. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. When a technology is radically new, people buy a product for its technical features. Order Here. Now In Print!

Customer Development 245

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 245

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 20, 2020

Andy is a global thought leader in remote work, telecommuting, and distributed workforces having served as CEO of Crossover and Sococo and on the board of Texas Central, our new bullet train. He was also born here and went to UT Austin before heading out to Silicon Valley for a stint.

Austin 110

Austin Texas Cofounder Los Angeles 110

Hearpreneur

AUGUST 19, 2015

We are unbelievably lucky to be here right now, with a team of über-talented people from the best and brightest Silicon Valley companies, at a moment when what a book should be is morphing before our very eyes. We are transforming publishing for the 21st century. That’s massive.

Entrepreneur 48

Entrepreneur Australia Technical Review Community 48

Reid Hoffman

DECEMBER 12, 2019

Silicon Valley can frequently be too provincial in its views of entrepreneurship, strategy, and markets. In my previous podcast with my friend and entrepreneur Wences Casares, we talked about the ability of entrepreneurs down here to see global markets that Silicon Valley entrepreneurs might miss.

Chile 36

Chile Global Silicon Valley Estonia 36

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 24, 2009

One is explaining the world as it used to work: the importance of gatekeepers, the scarcity implied by limited distribution, and the resulting quality bar that the industry is so proud of. Mostly it is the time and expense required to create the means of distribution for that industry. It’s just taking some longer than others.

San Francisco 113

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Distribution 113

Growthink Blog

JUNE 19, 2010

In 1999, Lee joined the Silicon Valley new media content contingent as an Internet-company CEO, and has since founded two innovative Los Angeles media companies. With Growthink, Lee has continued his deep involvement with film, digital media, content delivery protocols, gaming technologies and sports initiatives.

Los Angeles 76

Los Angeles Silicon Valley IP Technical Review 76

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 29, 2009

This is the second of three posts about the rise of “risk capital” and how it came to be associated with what became Silicon Valley. ———————– The First Valley IPO’s Silicon Valley first caught the eyes of east coast investors in the late 1950’s when the valleys first three IPO’s happened: Varian in 1956, Hewlett Packard in 1957, and Ampex in 1958.

Silicon Valley 130

Silicon Valley SBIC San Francisco RSS 130

Gust

OCTOBER 16, 2012

Band of Angels (Silicon Valley). Sand Hill Angels (Silicon Valley). Others were able to provide additional data for one or more business verticals. The distribution of groups in the survey includes a relatively representative sampling of angel groups across the US and Canada. Ohio TechAngels (Columbus).

Angel Groups 169

Angel Groups Valuation Pre-Money Valuation North Dakota 169

Cracking the Code

OCTOBER 13, 2020

It reminds me of living in Silicon Valley 10 years ago when so many foundational SaaS companies were started. Cloud Entrepreneurs: Embracing the “Silicon Valley State of Mind" Accel has been a big believer in cloud since the early days of this secular shift. Big milestones for the old continent!

Europe 71

Europe Cloud Silicon Valley Israel 71

Start Up Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

An era defined and dominated by the few who could afford the factories, the media and the distribution systems. A bit like Silicon Valley. A local example was the Greenhouse pop up restaurant in Melbourne by Joost Baker – Which included vertical gardens and large amounts of material re-purposing. And now it is over.

Uruguay 123

Uruguay Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 123