Comments on: Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup

By: cynthia wylie

cynthia wylie — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 22:22:57 +0000

What do you mean by Reality Distortion Field Factor? Thank you,

By: Lean Startup 1.9/10 – Verso la Solution Interview « Zmaker's Weblog

Lean Startup 1.9/10 – Verso la Solution Interview « Zmaker's Weblog — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:41:18 +0000

[...] Steve Blank, “Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup,” http://steveblank.com/2010/01/04/make-no-little-plans-–-defining-the-scalable-startup/- Steve Blank, “A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company”, [...]

By: As 6 condições iniciais de uma startup escalável | Saia do Lugar

As 6 condições iniciais de uma startup escalável | Saia do Lugar — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:56:38 +0000

[...] A dica de hoje foi enviada por Steve Blank através de seu blog. [...]

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:44:51 +0000

I do not understand the “world class team” part. Is it a world class *team* or a team of world-class players. If players all must be world class – what does it mean? Were Jobs and Woz a world class team in 1976? Were Brin and Page a world class team in 1994? 1998? 2001? Were Semel and Yang a world calss team? Was the founder who defected to Google a world class after all? If young and promising people do not get a chance, how do we get world class teams? Can you explain this, maybe in a separate post?

By: Fritz Hager

Fritz Hager — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:55:50 +0000

Gents:

It seems that both Donald Cameron and Daniel Burnham borrowed from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who wrote “Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.”
Fritz

By: A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company « Steve Blank

A Startup is Not a Smaller Version of a Large Company « Steve Blank — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:02:33 +0000

[...] an existing market and taking customers from existing companies or creating a new market. Scalable startups aim to provide an obscene return to their founders and investors using all available outside [...]

By: Mick Liubinskas

Mick Liubinskas — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:25:17 +0000

Another great post Steve.

One of the big challenges we see new entrepreneurs face is the two-faces they need to have.

First – the optimist – “This is going to be huge and change the universe tomorrow!” Your big idea has to get you and your team excited, now and every day.

Second – the focused – “Let’s take the smallest possible step towards that big vision and test it.” Lean & customer dev.

It’s not easy, but welcome to the (fun and possibly best) job

By: Make No Little Plans, Defining the Scalable Startup – Steve Blank « Tech4buziness – Eng

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:04:34 +0000

[...] Which one is “right” is up to you, not the crowd via steveblank.com [...]

By: Sunday Links for Jan 10 2009 - Social Media and Strategy

Sunday Links for Jan 10 2009 - Social Media and Strategy — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:17:01 +0000

[...] Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup by Steve Blank [...]

By: india jdbasketball

india jdbasketball — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 13:13:43 +0000

Steve,

Thank you for writing this blog.

What ‘guts’ these guys have , especially in this day and age. i can see the desire int he creating a new market. You can not put a price tag on that.

Looking forward to reading more. . . *and seeing how IMVU does!

By: John Coady

John Coady — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:26:52 +0000

This post reminded me of a presentation by Basil Peters to a group of Entrepreneurs talking about planning your exit strategy right at the beginning of your new venture. He talked about how most of the aquisitions are in the $15 to $30 million dollar range these days. Google made a number of its key acquisitions in this price range including Adsense from which google makes a significant portion of its revenue. Have a look at Basil’s video presentation at the following link.

http://www.angelblog.net/Start_at_the_End_Your_Exit_Strategy_Part1.html

By: Kate DuBois

Kate DuBois — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:21:27 +0000

Steve, your insights belong in an MBA 101 book (if they aren’t already). A friend of mine’s brilliant son graduated from Harvard’s MBA program with stars in his eyes and has cycled through a few startups with such grand scalable visions that ended up hindering their daily business growth and forced him to move on. I recently previewed a new book Built To Sell that reflects what you’re saying about making a conscious choice and suggests having an “options strategy,” not just an exit strategy for the founder or founding team.

By: Mark Landay

Mark Landay — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:33:22 +0000

Steve, nice post. Long time no talk (think e.piphany days). The world-class team lesson rings true to me after 20 years recruiting those folks to startups. Like Paul, I am turning down searches for founders who hire key employees via Linkedin ads and Craigslist, or wanting to pay recruiters 15% of too low salaries to attract a star performer and too low of fee to attract a good recruiter. It is all about building a great team and the results are a great company. Well said.

By: Mark Landay

Mark Landay — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:32:33 +0000

Paul,
Happy New Year. Well said. I agree completely, and with my 20 years executive search experience appreciate your standards. I will be writing an article soon about such for an industry publication. Keep up the good work.

By: Domenick Celentano

Domenick Celentano — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:21:45 +0000

Hi Steve,

I teach Entrepreneurship and work exclusively with small and mid sized businesses. Your post is very relevant because I try to differentiate Small Business and Entrepreneurship in the areas of Scalability and Replicability. The book, The E-Myth and a Harvard Business Review article on Why Entrepreneurs don’t scale help me frame this discussion.

This is probably the best piece on differentiating Small Business and Entrepreneurship as well as making the case that both are OK.

I will be saving this piece for future Entrepreneurship classes… thanks for the pointed insight….

All the best!

Domenick Celentano
Silberman College of Business
Fairleigh Dickinson University
http://fdu.domenickcelentano.com/
http://www.domenickcelentano.com
http://managementofsmallbusiness.blogspot.com/

By: Top Posts — WordPress.com

Top Posts — WordPress.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:10:33 +0000

[...] Make No Little Plans – Defining the Scalable Startup Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood… Daniel Burnham A lot of entrepreneurs think that [...] [...]

By: Joe Agliozzo

Joe Agliozzo — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:38:14 +0000

Steve, love to see your thoughts on the important points for the “small business” type business to succeed. Other than the financing path, it seems that most of the same principles apply, right? (get out of the building, minimum viable product, etc.)

By: Paul Gomory

Paul Gomory — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:10:44 +0000

Steve. Long time no talk (think ardent, wegbreit days). The world-class team lesson rings true to me after 30 years recruiting those guys/gals to startups. I am about to turn down a chance to do a CFO search for a founder who has raised $9mm of VC for his 16-person company. He hired his first CFO from Craigslist (who, no surprise, is not a fit), he wants to pay any recruiter 15% of 150K (too low salary to attract a star performer and too low fee to attract a star recruiter), and he “doesn’t have time” to meet me face-to-face. By his own words he is leading a “cult” – reality-distortion indeed, but not building a TEAM.

By: Jan Erik Solem

Jan Erik Solem — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:38:19 +0000

Hi Steve, great post. The reality distortion field factor for attracting a great team is often underestimated.

Love the quote at the top. I have another (later) version of that quote from Donald Cameron:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jesolem/1908620124/