China Startups (The Complete Series)

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Steve Blank

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I just spent a few weeks in Japan and China on a book tour for the Japanese and Chinese versions of the Startup Owners Manual. In these series of 5 posts, I thought I’d share what I learned in China. All the usual caveats apply. I was only in China for a week so this a cursory view. Thanks to Kai-Fu Lee of Innovation Works, David Lin of Microsoft Accelerator, Kevin Dewalt and Frank Hawke of the Stanford Center in Beijing, and my publisher China Machine Press…read posts 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5.

Download MP3 for postings 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

Posted in China, Customer Development, Technology, Venture Capital | Leave a comment

The Lean LaunchPad Goes to High School

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Steve Blank

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While the Lean LaunchPad class has been adopted by Universities and the National Science Foundation, the question we get is, “Can students in K-12 handle an experiential entrepreneurship class?”  Hawken School has now given us an answer…read full post.

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Failure and Redemption

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Steve Blank

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“What’s gone and what’s past help
Should be past grief.”

William Shakespeare - The Winter’s Tale

We give abundant advice to founders about how to make startups succeed yet we offer few models about dealing with failure…read full post.

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Why Big Companies Can’t Innovate

Posted on February 23, 2013 by Steve Blank

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My friend Ron Ashkenas interviewed me for his blog on the Harvard Business Review. Ron is a managing partner of Schaffer Consulting, and is currently serving as an Executive-in-Residence at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. He is a co-author of The GE Work-Out and The Boundaryless Organization. His latest book is Simply Effective.  For what I had thought were a few simple ideas about taking what we’ve learned about startups and applying it to corporate innovation, the post has gotten an amazing reaction…read full post.

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At times not losing is as important as winning

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Steve Blank

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At times not losing is as important as winning.

Customer Validation
E.piphany was an 11-month-old startup with 31 people and on fire. We had closed four $100,000 deals for our customer relationship management software…read full post.

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Entrepreneurship for the 99%

Posted on June 4, 2012 by Steve Blank

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As the morning fog burns off the California coast, I am working with Steve Blank, preparing for the Lean LaunchPad Faculty Development Program we are running this August at U.C. Berkeley. This is a 3-day program for entrepreneurship faculty from around the world how to teach entrepreneurship via the Lean LaunchPadapproach (business model canvas + customer development) and bring their entrepreneurship curriculums into the 21st century...read full post.

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Why Facebook is Killing Silicon Valley

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Steve Blank

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We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win…

John F. Kennedy, September 1962

Innovation
I teach entrepreneurship for ~50 student teams a year from engineering schools atStanford, Berkeley, and Columbia. For the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps this year I’ll also teach ~150 teams led by professors who want to commercialize their inventions. Our extended teaching team includes venture capitalists with decades of experience…read full post.

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9 Deadliest Start-up Sins

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Steve Blank

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Inc. magazine is publishing a 12-part series of excerpts from The Startup Owner’s Manual, the new step-by-step “how to” guide for startups. The excerpts, which appeared first at Inc.com, highlight the Customer Development process, best practices, tips and instructions contained in our book.  Feedback from my readers suggested you’d appreciate seeing the series posted here, as well.Whether your venture is a new pizza parlor or the hottest new software product, beware: These nine flawed assumptions are toxic…read full post.

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Why Innovation Dies

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Steve Blank

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Faced with disruptive innovation, you can be sure any possibility for innovation dies when a company forms a committee for an “overarching strategy.” I was reminded how innovation dies when the email below arrived in my inbox. It was well written, thoughtful and had a clearly articulated sense of purpose. You may have seen one like it in your school or company…read full post.

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Five Days to Change the World – The Columbia Lean LaunchPad Class

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Steve Blank

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We’ve taught our Lean LaunchPad entrepreneurship class at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and the National Science Foundation in 8 week, 10 week and 12 week versions.  We decided to find out what was the Minimum Viable Product for our Lean LaunchPad class…read full post.

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