Comments on: Raising Money Using Customer Development

By: Farid

Farid — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 03:47:14 +0000

Yes we tried the Customer Development Model when we developed a web apps for company secretary service. Not only we need to break the Malaysian cultural behavior who happen not to be too friendly with strangers from outside of their offices, we also need to break mentality from our team members as well in term of capturing the information from customers. We argued a lot with customers and sometimes it got frustrating when what we discovered was actually far much different than we had thought. But anyhow, without understanding our market, there is no way we could develop apps that is actually answering their problem in workplace.

By: Kevin Shockey

Kevin Shockey — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:07:27 +0000

This is some of the best advice I’ve ever heard of when it comes to building a web startup in 2011. Why seek investment until you’ve got a business model that is already in process of iterating towards user needs and desires?

Here’s my two cents: http://bit.ly/i8Pzsp

By: Social entrepreneurship checklist « Compassion in Politics: Christian Social Entrepreneurship, Education Innovation, & Base of the Pyramid/BOP Solutions

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:11:00 +0000

[...] is quite good. In fact, he believes (and its been historically proven that) this can be a method of securing funding 1) Concept 2) Business Plan 3) Test Hypothesis 4) Customer Proof 5) Lessons Learned 6) Series A. [...]

By: Don’t forget to keep it simple – Recomended reading from Steve Blank « Spreading FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:28:15 +0000

[...] ability to deliver a persuasive elevator pitch and follow it up with a substantive presentation is the difference between a funded entrepreneur and those having coffee complaining that they’re [...]

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Wed, 28 Apr 2010 22:15:01 +0000

By: Lisa Hjorten

Lisa Hjorten — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 20:34:26 +0000

Great post, it made me feel even more confident about my current approach which is

1. to get as many customers as possible across our target markets to validate the breadth of the solutions and

2. to be very transparent about my lessons learned, for example: I thought my market was A but it is really B, C, D, and E.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

By: Mark Gibson

Mark Gibson — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 15:27:26 +0000

Hi Steve,

I’ve read Four Steps a couple of times now (loved the Secret History of Silicon Valley) and enjoy your blog-posts…this is on target.
Look forward to an opportunity to share a coffee with you at Cafe Borrone…(my old hangout) when we visit Bay Area in late May.

All the best,
Mark

By: Charlie Crystle

Charlie Crystle — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:31:07 +0000

brilliant post. thanks for the reminder. I’m going to link this this and read it weekly

By: Aristotle

Aristotle — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:26:23 +0000

Hi Steve, great post. I think you’re dead on. Question for you…on one of the first CafePress slides they mentioned raising a seed round in their first year – any advice on how to raise that initial round (i.e. prior to the Series A)? How would you suggest framing the story at that point when you’re still in the process of getting customer validation?

By: steveblank

steveblank — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:22:42 +0000

Nope. Progress is the same.

By: Curtiss Middlebrooks

Curtiss Middlebrooks — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:23:14 +0000

Great stuff Steve. Would you modify any of this if you had a B2B product instead of a B2C product, where every potential customer is also a potential competitor? Thanks.

By: Customer Development Oriented Lead Developer for Start-up – EventSession

Customer Development Oriented Lead Developer for Start-up – EventSession — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:00:22 +0000

[...] Get back up and running. Get revenue and cycle through as few iterations of Customer Validation as fast as possible — and then get some angel funding so we can hit the scale button. [...]

By: Raising capital - The 50 or so things you should read first | JonBischke.com

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:59:13 +0000

[...] & Raising Capital Pitch Perfect 4 ways to get automatically rejected by an angel investor Raising Money Using Customer Development Due Diligence Checklist Term Sheet Archives (from Brad [...]

By: jorge

jorge — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:29:18 +0000

Very helpful, as usual. Thanks, Steve.

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:28:17 +0000

Standing ovation… but one caveat. Anything that is not a standard VC dozen format will get thrown away by a junior associate with MBA before it is ever seen by a partner. Sadly, VCs have their own process.

By: jordancooper

jordancooper — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:00:05 +0000

Very insightful stuff. Having gone the “product development” vc route for my last (failed) company…I have decided to go the “customer development” route this time around. But not because it increases the chance of getting backed. In fact, just the opposite. We were able to raise a Seed round from Bessemer Venture Partners on a powerpoint idea, and never found the repeatable customer model. But we had to keep driving for a year before deciding to return half the capital we raised and shutting down. I’d rather learn that the customer isn’t out there in the early pre-funding months before committing the next five years of my life to something by taking on institutional capital. By definition, an entrepreneur in their 20′s only gets 5 or 6 “5 year decisions” in their career. So I believe the “customer model” should be implemented to collect enough data to make use one of those bullets intelligently, although telling a better “VC” story is a nice side-benefit. Until an entrepreneur can convince themselves that there is a “product/market fit,” being nimble and open to the possibility that a current project might not be as good a bet as the next idea coming behind it seems like a a healthy mindset. I just started a blog here: http://bit.ly/AsCzh. I think I might expand on this idea for my next post. Thanks Steve

By: Edwin Oh

Edwin Oh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:35:06 +0000

DEAD NUTS ON TARGET! In my work with startups, I hear some variant of this question at least once a week. If tech startups spent as much time following the Customer Development process to validate the existence of paying customers as they do technical features, they would be much better served if and when it was time to raise money. And I have no doubt the VCs who have to listen to all the pitches would be happier as well. Great post!

By: Week 2 – Customer Discovery & Listening « Iain’s Chips & Tech

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:44:08 +0000

[...] Here is a great post, by the inventor of the Customer Development process, Steve Blank on Raising Money with Customer Development. I like his covering line This is a radical departure from a traditional VC pitch. It will blow the [...]

By: My daily readings 11/06/2009 « Strange Kite

My daily readings 11/06/2009 « Strange Kite — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:35:31 +0000

[...] Raising Money Using Customer Development « Steve Blank [...]

By: R Paul singh

R Paul singh — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:12:52 +0000

Great article