Steve Blank

JANUARY 22, 2014

Over the years Dino and I brainstormed about how Lean entrepreneurship would affect regional development. Success depends on finding startups that have identified acute customer pains in large markets where conditions are ripe for a new entrant. Customer Development Lean LaunchPad Science and Industrial Policy Venture Capital'

Early Stage 295

Early Stage Silicon Valley Oregon Technical Review 295

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

Compelling in the sense that you solve a real problem a target group of potential customers has with a product that is significantly better than the alternatives on that market. In my opinion no amount of clever marketing or chest beating at conferences can create a market if you don’t have an amazing product to begin with.

Technical Review 401

Technical Review Startup Business Model Non-Compete 401

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 21, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. Between webcasts and interviews, we’ve been gradually introducing some of the speakers who are appearing at this year’s Lean Startup Conference. We asked why they weren’t using BGov or Meltwater, and we heard they were priced out of those markets. Lean validation.

Lean 152

Lean Startup Metrics Silicon Valley 152

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 28, 2020

He nails the current key startup parameters, including the following: Crafting a lean business plan as your road map. Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 404

Intellectual Property Startup Angel Groups Social Media 404

Startup Lessons Learned

AUGUST 3, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Monday, August 3, 2009 Minimum Viable Product: a guide One of the most important lean startup techniques is called the minimum viable product. I was delighted to be asked to give a brief talk about the MVP at the inaugural meetup of the lean startup circle here in San Francisco. Thanks Eric.

San Francisco 168

San Francisco Product Lean Continuous Deployment 168

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

This post was co-written by Eric Ries and Sarah Milstein, co-hosts of The Lean Startup Conference. This year, for the first time, we've added a day of workshops and site visits to The Lean Startup Conference. The Lean Entrepreneur: Embrace the Unknown to Go Big with Patrick Vlaskovits and Brant Cooper.

Lean 154

Lean Cofounder Startup Analytics 154

Up and Running

AUGUST 21, 2018

Today, I want to introduce a new approach to business planning: Lean Planning. Lean Planning replaces lengthy business plans with a 20-minute planning process that focuses on increasing your chances of success in business. Lean Planning is simpler and faster than writing a traditional business plan. Step 1: Create a Lean Plan.

Lean 134

Lean Forecast Software Review Business Plan 134

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

And they’re easy to remember because they all begin with an M: management, market, money and above all else momentum. That might work for $50-100k but less likely for $3m unless you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, known to the VC, have some metrics that work in your favor or have built something the VC believes to be truly unique.

Early Stage 360

Early Stage Startup Venture Capital Seed Stage 360

crowdSPRING Blog

APRIL 30, 2019

Most startups and small businesses have limited budgets for marketing. So what’s a startup or small business to do when their need for marketing is big, but their budget is small? But, there’s plenty that you can do… if you embrace lean marketing principles. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Lean 91

Lean Small Business Software Review Marketing 91

VC Cafe

MARCH 31, 2025

Conduct brief initial market research: Spend about an hour researching to determine if there’s a substantial market with billions of dollars being made. Prioritize growth as the primary metric for fundraising: For Silicon Valley investors, growth is the most important factor, even more so than the team or past experience.

Cofounder 88

Cofounder Silicon Valley Technical Review PR 88

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

APRIL 5, 2010

In the quest for optimization, A/B tests, metrics, and funnels, we're in danger of losing the fun and value of creative work. We're "lean" but we're not stirring hearts. Now by all of the usual arguments for Lean, Agile, and minimimalism, I should have used boogers too: Boogers were already semi-standardized.

Software Review 226

Software Review Metrics Lean Agile 226

View from Seed

MARCH 19, 2015

Engineers and even marketers proudly claim to be “full stack.” Starting in 2009, Savoia began using an approach as an engineering director at Google that helped the tech giant know whether it was about to build the right product for the market … or a product that would flop.

Product 120

Product Technical Review Marketing Lean 120

Steve Blank

AUGUST 3, 2012

Long before there was the Lean Startup, Business Model Canvas or Customer Development there was a guy in Santa Barbara California who had already figured it out. That earned us the right to ask questions of fact about their department’s mission, goals, operations, volumes, tools, methods, and success metrics.

San Jose 261

San Jose Technical Review Customer Development Software Review 261

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Guest post by Jennifer Maerz, Program Chair of Lean Startup Co. For eight years, our flagship conference has focused on sharing stories and lessons of putting Lean Startup’s entrepreneurial methodology into practice. Lean Startup Week (Oct. 31 ( limited to the first 200 Gold Passholders.)

Lean 108

Lean Programming San Francisco Cofounder 108

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 28, 2010

kaChing has been very active in the Lean Startup movement. With case studies like this, we aim to illustrate specific Lean Startup techniques through the stories of current practitioners. kaChing has been very active in the Lean Startup movement. It was written by Sarah Milstein in collaboration with kaChing CEO Andy Rachleff.

San Francisco 158

San Francisco Lean Continuous Deployment SEC 158

Steve Blank

JUNE 26, 2015

—– Lean Innovation Management. In the last five years “ Lean Startup ” methodologies have enabled entrepreneurs to efficiently build a startup by searching for product/market fit rather than blindly trying to execute. The result will be: a new, Lean version of the Three Horizons of Innovation. Here’s how.

Lean 120

Lean Management Business Model Incubator 120

Startup Lessons Learned

JUNE 15, 2009

Of all the tactics I have advocated as part of the lean startup , none has provoked as many extreme reactions as continuous deployment , a process that allows companies to release software in minutes instead of days, weeks, or months. Another is used by marketing to refer to what customers see.

Continuous Deployment 167

Continuous Deployment Software Review San Francisco Lean 167

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Yet, this was a successful growth marketing campaign. In this article, you will learn how growth marketing compares to traditional marketing and its key components. You’ll also learn how to apply growth marketing to five key channels and how to plan and execute experimentation. What is growth marketing?

Framework 102

Framework Marketing Acquisition Retention 102

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 2, 2009

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Thursday, July 2, 2009 How to conduct a Five Whys root cause analysis In the lean startup workshops , we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the technique of Five Whys. My intention is to describe a full working process, similar to what I’ve seen at IMVU and other lean startups. Expo SF (May.

San Francisco 164

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Software Review 164

Up and Running

MAY 17, 2016

Taking steering one step further, let’s suggest that good planning, with milestones and metrics, is something like steering with the aid of a GPS. Metrics are like dials on the dashboard, indicators of how you’re doing, tracking your progress toward goals. Metrics give you tracking and accountability.

Metrics 80

Metrics Social Media Business Plan Advertising 80

ConversionXL

FEBRUARY 3, 2022

Rob Sobers said about the marketing growth strategy, “It’s not about tactics—it’s about people and process.”. When it comes to process, growth marketers must learn to fail. A marketing growth strategy is about small and incremental wins that build up over time. Growth marketing is about process over tactics.

Marketing 115

Marketing Framework Metrics Channel 115

YoungUpstarts

JUNE 1, 2019

In the first post , we drilled down into the often-overlooked notion of “market-engineering” and why it’s so critical. Go-to-Market. But when it comes to that crucial second phase – go-to-market – entrepreneurs find themselves devoid of help and support. In other words, they need go-to-market traction. Go-to-Product.

Cleveland 150

Cleveland Framework Marketing Early Stage 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2023

He nails the current key startup parameters, including the following: Crafting a lean business plan as your road map. Minimum viable products (MVPs) are recommended for validating the market, with iterative enhancement to quickly meet market feedback. Incorporating a business entity early through online services.

Intellectual Property 261

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Angel Groups Social Media 261

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Little Indians and Big Indians At MIPS Computers , my second semiconductor company, I was the VP of Marketing and defacto head of Sales. I was just in marketing. Gathering feature requests from customers is not what marketing should be doing in a startup. No, not really. All I had done was proudly go out and get customer input.

Customer Development 287

Customer Development Developer Customer Silicon Valley 287

Steve Blank

MARCH 4, 2010

The minimum feature set is the inverse of what most sales and marketing groups ask of their development teams. Most startups following Customer Development and a Lean Startup methodology understand the idea of a minimal viable product. You’re selling the vision and delivering the minimum feature set to visionaries not everyone.

Customer Development 313

Customer Development Business Model Developer Search 313

Up and Running

DECEMBER 17, 2020

Is there a well-defined, sustainable market for your product? And one question that many startups overlook at the early stages of formulating their business plans: do you have a well-reasoned, effective, and budget-savvy marketing plan? Marketing Is a distinct business function. Marketing is one such function.

Marketing 142

Marketing Technical Review SEO Hosting 142

Up and Running

APRIL 29, 2019

When your marketing plan aligns with your branding goals, your company becomes memorable to the masses. percent of American companies use some type of digital content marketing. Make sure branding and marketing align by following the 11 steps below to sync your business branding goals with your actions.

Marketing 142

Marketing Social Media Lean Campaign 142

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 7, 2010

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, April 7, 2010 Learning is better than optimization (the local maximum problem) Lean startups don’t optimize. At least, not in the traditional sense of trying to squeeze every tenth of a point out of a conversion metric or landing page. For example, I’m a big believer in split-testing.

San Francisco 154

San Francisco Lean Metrics Design 154

ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 6, 2020

The days of creating amazing content, paying for advertisement, and then leaning back on your chair to get great results are essentially over. Here are five essential inbound marketing tools for startups and entrepreneurs. Adding videos to your marketing toolkit is a very versatile solution.

Marketing 156

Marketing Entrepreneur Social Media Startup 156

Steve Blank

APRIL 21, 2011

The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment with a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. They ditched the residential market as they realized that a more accessible and profitable customer segment(s) were cities, lighting companies and utilities. Should they look at the Document Management market?

Channel 234

Channel Artificial Inteligence San Francisco Business Model 234

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Engineers are offenders in this category too, but so is any gender-segregated activity, like an all-female PR or marketing team. I already advocate cross-functional teams as part of the lean startup methodology. Last year, I traveled to dozens of cities talking about lean startups and meeting people interested in entrepreneurship.

San Francisco 167

San Francisco Lean Sweden Continuous Deployment 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 29, 2009

I hope to show why lean and agile techniques actually reduce the negative impacts of technical debt and increase our ability to take advantage of its positive effects. Just as a business incurs some debt to take advantage of a market opportunity developers may incur technical debt to hit an important deadline.

Technical Review 168

Technical Review Software Review San Francisco Lean 168

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Very few people turn up with a strong sense of “what we should be doing” or ready to lean into a productive conversation The financials were prepared by the VP of Finance / CFO. Often board members themselves don’t do the work to say “what metrics would we like to see.” Make them do some work to agree what success would look like.

Stock Options 226

Stock Options Metrics Stock Valuation 226

Up and Running

AUGUST 20, 2018

Most of us need just a Lean Business Plan, for internal use, with just bullet point lists and important projections. Good businesses always keep their Lean Plan up to date. The lean business plan is great news because it makes the planning process much less daunting. More on that in the section on the Lean Plan.

Business Plan 119

Business Plan Technical Review Lean Forecast 119

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2013

Guest post by Lisa Regan, writer for The Lean Startup Conference. How can established companies benefit from implementing Lean Startup? Of course, you can also continue the conversation by attending The Lean Startup Conference. What can Lean Startup do about this? What can Lean Startup do about this?

Lean 167

Lean Silicon Valley Agile Cofounder 167

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 18, 2011

(One of the common questions I hear is how to reconcile design and user experience (UX) methods with the Lean Startup. Manuel Rosso was IMVU's first VP of Marketing, and is now CEO of Food on the Table , one of the leading lean startups in Austin. Eric) A lot of people ask me whether design fits into the lean startup process.

Design 167

Design Lean Metrics Silicon Valley 167

Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

At the same time we were educating the press , we began to educate our own marketing department about what exactly we were supposed to be doing inside the company. During the first few weeks I asked each of my department heads what they did for marketing and the company. Titles are not the same as what your job is. This is a big idea.

Silicon Valley 271

Silicon Valley Technical Review RSS PR 271