Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

The Founder’s New Insight Smart founders are never satisfied with simply executing their current business model, they are constantly observing, orienting and deciding whether their current business model can be made better. But the purpose of this post is what happens when a founder (or large company CEO) finds a better business model.

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Customer Silicon Valley RSS California 219

Software By Rob

AUGUST 5, 2010

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. You’re a startup founder, whether actual or aspiring. Business books are a founder’s learning tool. The problem is that the premise of all of them – whether true or false – is irrelevant to you as a startup founder.

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Founder Startup Software Review Software 78

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

The same issues arose time and again: big company management styles versus entrepreneurs wanting to shoot from the hip, founders versus professional managers, engineering versus marketing, marketing versus sales, missed schedule issues, sales missing the plan, running out of money, raising new money. To Order Outside of the U.S. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 134

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital Customer Development 134

Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

Market Risk vs. Invention Risk - Click to Enlarge For companies building web-based products, product development may be difficult, but with enough time and iteration engineering will eventually converge on a solution and ship a functional product - i t’s engineering, not invention. To Order Outside of the U.S.

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Vertical Silicon Valley Marketing Customer 169

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

They couldn’t keep up with the fast product development times that were enabled by using standard microprocessors. So their management teams were insisting that they OEM (buy from someone else) these products. Customer Development and Selling Strategy If you’ve just started your company you are in customer discovery.

Technology 146

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 146

Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

He spoke at the Founder Institute last week, and his advice was to not hire a PR agency until there were so many inbound requests that you can’t handle them yourself. He prefers to interact directly with the founders of a startup. He knows how to publish articles that drive page views, and this is a good one. Now In Print!

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Silicon Valley PR Technical Review RSS 217

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business. So my advice to CTO / Founders?

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CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

Reply Alan Urech , on May 13, 2009 at 7:03 am Said: As a Moot Bowl Judge who just returned from that competition (May 7-10, 2009), I think that Business Plans provide a framework for the judges and founders to understand the entire business. I hate business plan competitions. Your investors may require something quite different.)

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Business Plan Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital 162

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.

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Silicon Valley Product Startup Product Development 272

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" Labels: product development 15comments: mukund said. Great article youre now in my rss feeds :) October 2, 2008 4:37 AM kamilski81 said. Hi Eric, Great article - Ive added you to my regular RSS reads. What made them exceptional?

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Software By Rob

MAY 21, 2010

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. I’ve communicated with hundreds of startup founders over the past three years, and I’ve begun to notice a pattern. There are three points during the creating of a startup where the founders are most likely to close up shop. For everything.

Software Review 55

Software Review Startup RSS Software Developers 55

femgineer.com

JULY 18, 2010

If you’re a founder who is still trying to grasp the product roadmap and create a company vision its probably not a good time to hire an engineer. There are a lot of engineers out there who have been burned by founders who pull and push them in a variety of directions. Sweat equity or salary?

Engineer 41

Engineer Software Review Startup Technical Review 41

mashable.com

SEPTEMBER 12, 2011

I’m now in my second founder/CEO role, having raised more than $18.5 For example, my company decided early on to hire a UI designer, which has helped tremendously with our product development. And no matter what the latest trends indicate, you will eventually have to spend money on PR and marketing. million in venture financing.

Startup 79

Startup Social Media RSS Social Network 79

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. Geoffrey Moore Author of Crossing the Chasm and four other books, Geoffrey Moore has been thinking about high-tech product development longer than most of have been doing anything on a computer. Subscribe via RSS On Twitter?

Software Review 47

Software Review Software San Francisco RSS 47

steveblank.com

JULY 8, 2011

AgileZen – project management visually see and interact with your work Kanbanery – Simple online team or personal kanban board LeanKit Kanban – Great for visualizing work of product development Kanban Pad – “Nice and lean” and free online Kanban tool Banana Scrum – A tool simple as Scrum itself.

Software Review 110

Software Review Startup Silicon Valley Analytics 110

Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 17, 2009

This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. This post describes a solution – the Customer Development Model. The difference is that the ones that succeed invent a Customer Development model. These steps mesh seamlessly and support a startup’s ongoing product development activities.

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Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 256

blog.wepay.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

At some point, I’ll write another post about what a non-engineer does, or should do, during the early stages of product development. As the only non-developer at WePay, it’s pretty tempting to become technically helpless. I think most non-technical founders working on their first Internet company miss that point.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

blog.wepay.com

APRIL 28, 2010

At some point, I’ll write another post about what a non-engineer does, or should do, during the early stages of product development. As the only non-developer at WePay, it’s pretty tempting to become technically helpless. I think most non-technical founders working on their first Internet company miss that point.

Engineer 53

Engineer Software Review Web Technical Review 53

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. That’s when you find one or more (future) customers that help fund your product development in exchange for input into the process and free or highly discounted use of the software. Subscribe via RSS On Twitter? Check out my book Like this post?

Equity 42

Equity Software Review RSS Widget 42

conversionxl.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

It’s Not a Conversion Problem, It’s a Customer Development Problem. So What is Customer Development? Steve Blank, a serial entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, developed a methodology for creating businesses that runs in parallel with the traditional product development process. Finding Product/Market Fit.

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Customer Development Conversion Developer Customer 60

mashable.com

MAY 24, 2011

May 23, 2011 by Christina Warren 20 Share on Tumblr email share Share on Tumblr email share The Mobile App Trends Series is supported by Sourcebits , a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms.

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Mobile Web Social Media Software Review 90

betashop.com

OCTOBER 8, 2012

I firmly believe that in this age where the product development life-cycle is so short and user feedback comes so quickly, you will know within a year whether you are focusing on a worthwhile one thing. Have amazing co-founders who are better at what they do than you could ever be. Fab.com Fab Feed Bradfords Blog.

Technical Review 108

Technical Review Technology Software Review Valuation 108

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 1, 2009

The founder of what became General Motors was William (Billy) Durant. Billy Durant - Founder General Motors More in the next posts. Ford family did a pretty good job of managing founder-to-manager transition in car business and are still playing a big role in their enterprise 100 years since. What happened to him? Who was he?

Silicon Valley 187

Silicon Valley United States RSS Customer Development 187

Steve Blank

JUNE 8, 2009

Execution by Vertical Market As the class progressed, students asked how the activities/functions of a startup; (Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Product Development, etc.) How does product development differ in communications hardware versus enterprise software, etc. would look in each of the verticals.

Vertical 127

Vertical Silicon Valley RSS Marketing 127

Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

Through trial and error, hiring and firing, successful startups all invented a parallel process to product development. I call this process “Customer Development,” a sibling to “Product Development,” and each and every startup that succeeds recapitulates it, knowingly or not. To Order Outside of the U.S.

Silicon Valley 136

Silicon Valley RSS Venture Capital California 136

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 16, 2013

It can work wonderfully of course, but usually it crushes and destroys companies , not only because it costs more than anticipated but because the founders didn’t realize the business model itself caused them to make incorrect decisions. to democratic product development (voting on which features customers would like to see next?).

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Marketing Viral Campaign Business Model 318

infochachkie.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

If youre new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed , follow me on Twitter , connect with me on Quora. Such positions include: PR, Sales, Product Development, Lead Generation, Strategic Planning, Fund Raising, etc. Interview: Naval Ravikant, Co-Founder AngelList and Co-Maintainer Venture Hacks. |. infoChachkie.

Equity 40

Equity Silicon Valley Cofounder PR 40

www.readwriteweb.com

APRIL 23, 2012

Pinterest can hire, Square can hire, Dropbox can hire - these companies have a clear demand for their products and are becoming market leaders," explains Naval Ravikant, founder of startup advice site Venture Hacks. Need $25,000 for product development? ReadWriteStart. ReadWriteBiz. ReadWriteEnterprise. ReadWriteCloud.

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Hiring Startup Semantic Equity 49

Software By Rob

AUGUST 18, 2010

Join nearly 6,000 startup entrepreneurs by subscribing to my RSS feed. Not too long ago it seemed like every product I knew was offering some sort of free plan. The strategy was brilliant: get loads of people using your product and eventually turn them into paying customers. Subscribe via RSS On Twitter?

Software Review 78

Software Review Software Revenue Cofounder 78

www.vccafe.com

MARCH 11, 2013

.” Hackernews list of “Tools of the Trade” for startups - includes over 150 SaaS tools used by startups, and over 150 comments with interesting insights from founders. Great for visualizing work of product development. Founders Institute Plain Preferred Term Sheet â?? Founder Equity Issues.

Software Review 53

Software Review Technical Review Startup 53

Software By Rob

NOVEMBER 18, 2008

Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets Startup Success Podcast, Open Source For-Profit Startups, One Laptop Per Child 2008, and $19 Usability Testing → The Software Product Myth Micropreneurship , Startups If youre trying grow your startup youve come to the right place. Subscribe via RSS On Twitter?

Software Review 42

Software Review Software Product Salary 42

maplebutter.com

JANUARY 8, 2013

what are the most crucial steps to be taken by a new tech startup when outsourcing major part of the tech to IT firms or outsourcing “product development” eg new social media website project? Near shoring development with your team (ex: your team is based in Canada / India) is cool, but not outsourcing.

Technical Review 44

Technical Review Startup Cofounder Software Review 44

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Paul quotes one of his founders like this: “Thats the actual beauty in the off-the-record-ness: you hear just how screwed up most of these successful startups were on the way up.&# It makes successful founders famous. You are the “hits&# that websites crave, the followers and the RSS subscribers.

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San Francisco Lean PR Metrics 167

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

He should then bootstrap his product development by using the consulting fees. David should use his credibility in capacity planning and convince a dozen customers to pay him consulting fees to solve their capacity planning problems.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.readwriteweb.com

OCTOBER 18, 2010

He should then bootstrap his product development by using the consulting fees. David should use his credibility in capacity planning and convince a dozen customers to pay him consulting fees to solve their capacity planning problems.

Marketing 52

Marketing Bootstrapping Incubator Angel Investor 52

www.kalzumeus.com

FEBRUARY 6, 2013

We need whomever is responsible for product development and/or ops to, effectively, carry a pager for drop-everything-and-do-it-now resolution of security issues, just like we’d do for e.g. the server has fallen over or “our building is, physically, on fire.” Patrick is the founder of Kalzumeus Software.

Security 101

Security Software Review Ruby Startup 101

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 20, 2009

Specially because of Twitter and this information overload, I think many people have been struggling to reduce the number of RSS feeds they actually follow (it is my case), so it´ll become easier for us to keep track of your writing even if we´re not reading those blogs that often. Eric, I do think you should cross-post them here.

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Lean San Francisco Startup Continuous Deployment 68