In a startup the search for a business model is chaotic, unpredictable and uncertain. Yet the Customer Development process uses a series of checklists to ensure that you walk through the Customer Discovery and Validation steps. In addition it explicitly calls for synchronization and confirmation of the steps by the entire team. Surely a checklist [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, E.piphany | 11 Comments »
Over the last 50 years engineers have moved from building computers out of individual transistors to building with prepackaged logic gates. Then they adopted standard microprocessors (e.g. x86, ARM.) At the same time every computer company was writing its own operating system. Soon standard operating systems (e.g. Windows, Linux) emerged. In the last decade open [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Customer Development Manifesto | 51 Comments »
The Kauffman Foundation is the leading private funder of economic research related to growth and innovation in the United States. (Translation: They write checks for $100 Million dollars a year.) The Churchill Club, Silicon Valley’s largest public affairs organization, invited Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation and I to talk about entrepreneurship. (The [...]
Filed under: Customer Development | 2 Comments »
And, when he shall die, Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of Heaven so fine That all the world will be in love with night And pay no worship to the garish sun. William Shakespeare Last week I had my “public servant” hat on in my [...]
Filed under: Air Force, California Coastal Commission, Family/Career/Culture | 19 Comments »
The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation. Pearl S. Buck Ask people what makes entrepreneurs successful and you’ll hear a familiar list of adjectives; agile, tenacious, resilient, opportunistic, etc. What you don’t hear is that often they didn’t know any [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Technology | 50 Comments »
I had breakfast with two of my ex-students from Singapore who were building a really interesting startup. They were deep into Customer Discovery and presented a ton of customer data on the validity of their initial hypothesis – target customers, pricing, stickiness, etc. I was unprepared for what they said next. “We’re going to do [...]
Filed under: Ardent, Customer Development | 22 Comments »
First-Mover Advantage is an idea that just won’t die. I hear it from every class of students, and each time I try to put a stake through its heart. Here’s one more attempt in trying to explain why confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea. First mover advantage – great bad idea The phrase [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Market Types, Marketing | 41 Comments »
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