Steve Blank

AUGUST 31, 2009

After 20 years of working in startups, I decided to take a step back and look at the product development model I had been following and see why it usually failed to provide useful guidance in activities outside the building – sales, marketing and business development.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. Chasing funding versus chasing customers and a repeatable and scalable business model, is one reason startups fail. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.”

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 9, 2009

But in a startup, it is very important to be surrounded by efficient people. 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). 45 is efficient.

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? But I dont think most startups really have a need for someone to do that on a full time basis. But I think in a lean startup, the development methodology is too important to be considered "just management." I dont think so.

CTO 168

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Back in the 1960’s and 70’s no sane MBA’s would work for a Silicon Valley startup.) Reply A diagnostic for startup marketing departments « Yet Another (ex-)VC Blog , on October 20, 2009 at 1:35 pm Said: [.] In all a good thing. via Steve Blank. [.]

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 12, 2009

After these slides, these VC’s recognized that this company had dramatically reduced risk and built a startup that was agile, resilient and customer-centric. The presentation didn’t have a single word about Lean Startups or Customer Development.

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Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Gathering feature requests from customers is not what marketing should be doing in a startup. In a startup the role of Customer Development is to: test the founders hypothesis about the customer problem test if the product concept and minimum feature set solve that problem This is a big idea and worth repeating.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 14, 2009

Five Quarters of Profitability During the 1980’s and through the mid 1990’s startups going public had to do something that most companies today never heard of – they had to show a track record of increasing revenue and consistent profitability. The world of building profitable startups as the primary goal of Venture Capital would end in 1995.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 13, 2009

It took me 8 startups and 21 years to get it right, (and one can argue success was due to the Internet bubble rather then any brilliance.) No internet, no blogs, no books on startups, no entrepreneurship departments in universities, etc. It took lots of trial and error, learning by experience and resilience through multiple failures.

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

Filed under: SuperMac | Tagged: Early Stage Startup , Steve Blank « There’s a Pattern Here SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions Reside Within – So Get the Hell Outside the Building » Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Steve Blank

JULY 16, 2009

Customer Development says having a vision, faith and a set of hypotheses are a normal part of the startup experience. It’s nothing personal, but your interests and your VC’s may not be aligned. More on this in future posts.) Your goals and your VC’s goals may not be aligned. Make sure they are.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 15, 2009

I learned a lot at Convergent, going from product marketing manager in a small startup to VP of Marketing of the Unix Division as it became a public company. If you’re are a startup founder or an early employee, there may come a time in your relationship that your significant other/spouse will ask you the “ what’s more important?

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Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 17, 2014

In this clip we discuss why Nanea is a proponent of a lean startup and data driven development methodology. The episode in it’s entirety is available here – and as always you can listen to it on SoundCloud , iTunes , or any RSS player of your choice. Leadership Startup Lessons'

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Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

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Steve Blank

JUNE 29, 2009

Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA « Steve Blank (tags: startup) [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Reply SVJ , on June 30, 2009 at 3:21 am Said: Hi Steve: I have become a recent regular reader of your blog. Thoroughly enjoy each one of your posts. This one particularly resonates with me. Now In Print!

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Steve Blank

APRIL 9, 2009

If these sound like reasonable answers to you, and you are in a startup/small company, update your resume. Most startups put together a corporate mission statement because the CEO remembered seeing one at their last job, or the investors said they needed one. What I was actually hearing was a failure of management.

Silicon Valley 271

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Steve Blank

JULY 20, 2009

Our salesmen focused on accounts that ordered the largest number of chips and ignored tiny little startups that wanted to build personal computers around these chips (like Cromemco, Osborne, Kaypro, Coleco, Radio Shack, Amstrad, Sinclair, Morrow, Commodore, Intertec, etc.) Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Steve Blank

MAY 18, 2009

It’s why all of you operated so well in the unpredictable environment that all startups face.” What makes an individual a great startup founder (versus an employee) has been something I had been thinking about since I retired. Therefore, I’ll posit one possible path for a startup founder – the dysfunctional family theory.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

This tendency is a two edged sword: by iterating strategy a startup can dramatically improve the size and trajectory of the company, but at times this process can be the bane of venture investors (and why they have prematurely grey hair.)

Customer 218

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Steve Blank

MARCH 19, 2009

As a company with a past history, the company had a massive advantage over a typical startup – it had customers. Normally in a startup you spend an inordinate amount of time and energy in Customer Discovery and Customer Validation. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Why did I ask these questions?

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Steve Blank

MAY 11, 2009

Reply Dan , on June 4, 2009 at 7:55 pm Said: Great story — reminds me of one I witnessed, very analogous but about 15 years later: I was working on a digital music startup around ’98, ( [link] ) and pitched it to then CEO of mp3.com Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. com Michael Robertson.

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Steve Blank

MAY 26, 2009

The best entrepreneurship textbooks and blogs assume that advice to startups is generalizable. But as I learned from my students this “one-size-fits-all” approach does not work for all startups. Different market opportunities present radically different startup risks and costs.

Vertical 159

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Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. We were on the University of North Carolina campus to meet with Fred Brooks and Henry Fuchs. We were sitting in our cheap hotel room when the phone rang.

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Steve Blank

AUGUST 24, 2009

If you’re a startup raising money or just want to see your name online, there’s not a better blog on the web. He prefers to interact directly with the founders of a startup. It’s his job to introduce new startups to the world. Discovering that your worldview is wrong or mistaken can be a life-changing event.

Silicon Valley 215

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Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Startups and Sales If you read this post you can come away with the impression that every startup with a direct salesforce needs a consultative sales team. what Market Type is your startup? Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

Technology 145

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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. This post was mentioned on Twitter by Brendan McManus, [Startup Digest]. Startup Digest] said: Thanksgiving Day [link] [via @sgblank] [.] Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.

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Steve Blank

MAY 28, 2009

are much softer and much, much harder to measure (or believe) in a very early stage startup. be prepared to be the most lean business in the sector (which is only possible where economy of scale does not create huge entry barriers). We’ll talk about how to reduce risk in each type of market in the next post.

Vertical 167

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Steve Blank

APRIL 27, 2009

And now am leading a startup of my own ( [link] ) where we’re students of you and Eric Ries’ lean startup principles. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. invention of electronic warfare, part I and [.] My first business trip to the valley was to visit California Microwave. Now In Print!

Silicon Valley 210

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Steve Blank

APRIL 6, 2009

And in the tradition of great startups, on the way out Perry took 6 of his best managers with him. In five years, ESL went from a plucky startup to the market leader in Sigint and telemetry intercepts. In 1964, Bill Perry, the head of the lab, frustrated with GTE’s management, quit (GTE, a phone company had bought Sylvania in 1959.)

Silicon Valley 201

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Steve Blank

APRIL 2, 2009

Well yes, I understand that, but this is a startup, what else do you want to do? “I Stay out of startups. Getting B-52s through the Soviet Air Defense System Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential? I just want to do strategy.” Those were very short interviews. Tactics mean tenacious and relentless execution measured in years.

Silicon Valley 128

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Steve Blank

JULY 7, 2009

Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. luck… and as one of Steve Blank’s posts today mentioned, you can’t test hypotheses from within your building. Now In Print!

Customer Development 129

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Steve Blank

FEBRUARY 23, 2009

I was between my 7th and 8th and final startup; licking my wounds from Rocket Science, the company I had cratered as my first and last attempt as a startup CEO. I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup. (My It was a long way from Ellis Island.)

Silicon Valley 133

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Steve Blank

MARCH 20, 2009

Facts are the rock on which you build your strategy and tactics In a startup second-hand facts are almost as useless as opinions. It reminded me of “earlier days&# , when I was just starting out in running business operations for startups. Steve Blanks 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice. Now what was the strategy?

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Steve Blank

JULY 30, 2009

That is until I saw that in startup after startup customers come from places you don’t plan on. He’s Only in Field Service When I was at Zilog, the Z8000 peripheral chips included the new “ Serial Communications Controller &# ( SCC ). What happened?

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Steve Blank

MARCH 25, 2009

Would you sell an ebook version on this site for all the rest of us trying to incorporate your model in our startups? most (interesting) startups you’re either doing something completely new or you’re resegmenting an existing market. Type and Sales Teams Startups fall into four Types of Markets.

Silicon Valley 161

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Steve Blank

JULY 2, 2009

Reply Mark Essel , on July 2, 2009 at 9:14 am Said: Reality distortion field isn’t the basic technique covered in startups 101? Rocket Science 2: Drinking the Kool-Aid « Steve Blank (tags: vc startup) [.] Reply Wyatt ODay , on July 2, 2009 at 8:18 am Said: Great post, Steve. I love all these war stories.

Silicon Valley 120

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Steve Blank

MAY 7, 2009

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. Win, lose or draw, these students have a life changing experience where they can network and get smarter as they see what good startup thinking looks like. to compete.

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