Alexander Osterwalder and I spent last week in Salt Lake City, Utah as judges at the 2nd Annual International Business Model Competition, hosted by Professor Nathan Furr, and his team at the BYU Center for Entrepreneurship. The idea of a Business Model competition first emerged when I realized that Business Plan writing ought to be taught in English Departments [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Lean LaunchPad | 7 Comments »
While entrepreneurship is in the news fairly regularly, I seldom make news myself. Today, however there are two important updates for entrepreneurs everywhere. Let me be brief… The “Startup Owner’s Manual” goes On Press Tuesday 2/14 Two years in the making and literally ten years in development, I’m proud to announce that my new book, [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 71 Comments »
The Lean LaunchPad class for the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps is a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part two. Part one is here. Syllabus here. The 21 NSF teams had been out of the classroom for just 15 hours as they filed back in with their business model canvas presentations. Their [...]
Filed under: Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 13 Comments »
Over the last two months the U.S. government has been running one of the most audacious experiments in entrepreneurship since World War II. They launched an incubator for the top scientists and engineers in the U.S. This week we saw the results. 63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks, [...]
Filed under: Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 26 Comments »
Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds SEAL Team saying Over the last 40 years Technology investors have learned that the success of startups are not just about the technology but “it’s about the team.” We spent a year screwing it up in our Lean LaunchPad classes until we figured out it was [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Family/Career/Culture, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 31 Comments »
If you’re an experienced coder and user interface designer you think nothing is easier than diving into Ruby on Rails, Node.js and Balsamiq and throwing together a web site. (Heck, in Silicon Valley even the waiters can do it.) But for the rest of us mortals whose eyes glaze over at the buzzwords, the questions are, [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Lean LaunchPad | 45 Comments »
Silicon Valley was born in an era of applied experimentation driven by scientists and engineers. It wasn’t pure research, but rather a culture of taking sufficient risks to get products to market through learning, discovery, iteration and execution. This approach would shape Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ethos: In startups, failure was treated as experience (until you ran out of money). [...]
Filed under: Lean LaunchPad, Teaching, Venture Capital | 25 Comments »
Scientists and engineers as founders and startup CEOs is one of the least celebrated contributions of Silicon Valley. It might be its most important. ———- ESL, the first company I worked for in Silicon Valley, was founded by a PhD in Math and six other scientists and engineers. Since it was my first job, I [...]
Filed under: Lean LaunchPad, Teaching, Venture Capital | 30 Comments »
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come Victor Hugo 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 haven’t changed since [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching, Venture Capital | 32 Comments »
There are none so blind as those who will not see. Jonathan Swift What’s Wrong With Today’s Board Meetings As 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 1900’s. [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching, Venture Capital | 18 Comments »
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This last post – part nine – highlights the final team presentations. Parts one through eight, the class lectures, are here, Guide for our mentors is here. Syllabus is here. This is the End Class lectures were over last week, but [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 13 Comments »
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post – part eight – was the last formal lecture. Parts one through seven of the lectures are here, Syllabus is here. While this is the last lecture, the teams still have one more week to work on their companies, [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 4 Comments »
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. With one week and one more updates to go, this post is part seven. Parts one through six are here, Syllabus is here. With a week to go the teams are starting to look like opening night before the big play. [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 2 Comments »
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment with a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. With two weeks and two more updates to go, this post is part six. Parts one through five are here, Syllabus is here. While we’ve been pushing hard on the teams, this week the teaching team was about to get its [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 3 Comments »
The Stanford Lean LaunchPad class was an experiment in a new model of teaching startup entrepreneurship. This post is part five. Parts one through four are here, Syllabus is here. Week 5 of the class. Last week the teams were testing their hypotheses about their Customers (who are the users, payers, buyers, etc.) This week they were [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Lean LaunchPad, Teaching | 2 Comments »
Preorder Your Path to Success
For Orders Outside the U.S.
Team, Student and Classroom discounts.
For International Orders
Now In Print! Steve Blank's 30 years of Silicon Valley startup advice.
Follow me on twitter @sgblank
Follow my speaking schedule on Plancast @sgblank
Get the Podcasts for Free
