Category Archives: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan

Reinventing the Board Meeting – Part 2 of 2 – Virtual Valley Ventures

Posted on June 2, 2011 by Steve Blank

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When The Boardroom is Bits: A revolution has taken hold as customer development and agile engineering reinvent the Startup process. It’s time to ask why startup board governance has failed to keep pace with innovation. Board meetings that guide startups … Continue reading →

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Why Board Meetings Suck – Part 1 of 2

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Steve Blank

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What’s Wrong With Today’s Board MeetingsAs customer and agile development reinvent the Startup, it’s time to ask why startup board governance has not kept up with the pace of innovation. Board meetings that guide startups haven’t changed since the early … Continue reading →

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The Apprentice – Entrepreneur Version

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Steve Blank

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We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master Ernest Hemingway Silicon Valley is built on simple myths – one of the most pervasive is that all winning startups are founded straight out of school … Continue reading →

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Entrepreneurship is an Art not a Job

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Steve Blank

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Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not. George Bernard Shaw Over the last decade we assumed that once we found repeatable methodologies (Agile and Customer Development, Business Model … Continue reading →

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Napkin Entrepreneurs

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Steve Blank

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Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase. Martin Luther King, Jr. The barriers for starting a company have come down. Today the total available markets for new applications are hundreds of millions if … Continue reading →

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The Democratization of Entrepreneurship

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Steve Blank

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I gave a talk at the Stanford Graduate School of Business as part of Entrepreneurship Week on the Democratization of Entrepreneurship. The first 11 minutes or so of the talk covers the post I wrote called “When It’s Darkest, Men See the Stars.” In … Continue reading →

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Honor and Recognition in Event of Success

Posted on March 2, 2011 by Steve Blank

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Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”Attributed to Ernest ShackletonIn 1912 Ernest Shackleton placed this ad to recruit a crew for the ship … Continue reading →

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The Cover-Up Culture

Posted on January 10, 2011 by Steve Blank

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In a startup “Good news needs to travel fast, but bad news needs to travel faster. ”There’s something about the combination of human nature (rationalization and self deception) and large hierarchical organizations (corporations, military, government, etc.) that actively conspire to … Continue reading →

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Now Hear This

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Steve Blank

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Much like my career, in the last two years this blog has traveled a serendipitous path. I orignally wrote it with four goals in mind…read full post. Download MP3

Posted in Air Force, Ardent, Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Customer Development Manifesto, E.piphany, ESL, Family/Career, Market Types, Marketing, Rocket Science Games, Secret History of Silicon Valley, SuperMac, Teaching, Technology, Venture Capital, Vertical Markets, Zilog | Leave a comment

The Lean LaunchPad – Teaching Entrepreneurship as a Management Science

Posted on December 7, 2010 by Steve Blank

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I’ve introduced a new class at Stanford to teach engineers, scientists and other professionals how startups really get built.They are going to get out of the building, build a company and get orders in ten weeks.Jon Feiber of Mohr Davidow … Continue reading →

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