Author Archives: Steve Blank

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. Download MP3

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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 … Continue reading →

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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 … Continue reading →

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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 … Continue reading →

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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, … Continue reading →

Posted in Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Customer Development, Teaching | Leave a comment

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. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | Leave a comment

How to Build a Billion Dollar Startup

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Steve Blank

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The quickest way to create a billion dollar company is to take basic human socialneeds and figure out how to mediate them on-line. (Look at the first wave of the web/mobile/cloud startups that have done just that:  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Match.com, Pandora, … Continue reading →

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Blinded by the Light – The Epiphany

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Steve Blank

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Epiphany e·piph·a·ny  noun?/i?pif?n?/ A moment of sudden revelation or insight We now know how to teach entrepreneurs how to think about business models and use customer development to turn hypotheses into facts. But there is no process to teach how to get an epiphany. We … Continue reading →

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Nail the Customer Development Manifesto to the Wall

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Steve Blank

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When Bob Dorf and I wrote the Startup Owners Manual we listed a series of Customer Development principles. I thought they might be worth enumerating here:A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model…read full post. Download MP3

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The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps – What America Does Best

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Steve Blank

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We ran the first National Science Foundation Innovation Corps class October to December 2011. 63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made ~2,000 customer calls in 10 weeks, turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. 19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in commercializing their … Continue reading →

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