Posted on February 9, 2012 by steveblank
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 | 53 Comments »
Posted on December 22, 2011 by steveblank
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 | 11 Comments »
Posted on December 20, 2011 by steveblank
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 »
Posted on December 13, 2011 by steveblank
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 | 30 Comments »
Posted on October 10, 2011 by steveblank
I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. (Thanks to Kristo Ovaska and team for the fabulous logistics!) I presented to 1,000’s of entrepreneurs, talked to 17 startups, gave 12 lectures, had 9 interviews, chatted with 8 VC’s, sat on 4 panels, talked policy with 2 government ministers, 2 members of [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Teaching, Venture Capital | 15 Comments »
Posted on October 7, 2011 by steveblank
I spent the month of September lecturing, and interacting with (literally) thousands of entrepreneurs in two emerging startup markets, Finland and Russia. This is the first of two posts about Finland and entrepreneurship. —— I was invited to Finland as part of Stanford’s Engineering Technology Venture Program partnership with Aalto University. (Thanks to Kristo Ovaska and team [...]
Filed under: Business Model versus Business Plan, Customer Development, Teaching, Technology, Venture Capital | 19 Comments »
Posted on September 15, 2011 by steveblank
Foreign visitors to Silicon Valley continually mention how willing we are to help, network and connect strangers. We take it so for granted we never even to bother to talk about it. It’s the “Pay-It-Forward” culture. ——- We’re all in this together – The Chips are Down in 1962 Walker’s Wagon Wheel Bar/Restaurant in Mountain [...]
Filed under: Family/Career/Culture, Secret History of Silicon Valley, Teaching | 31 Comments »
Posted on September 1, 2011 by steveblank
Not understanding and agreeing what “Entrepreneur” and “Startup” mean can sink an entire country’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. ——— I’m getting ready to go overseas to teach, and I’ve spent the last week reviewing several countries’ ambitious attempts to kick-start entrepreneurship. After poring through stacks of reports, white papers and position papers, I’ve come to a couple [...]
Filed under: Big Companies versus Startups: Durant versus Sloan, Business Model versus Business Plan, Teaching, Technology, Venture Capital | 59 Comments »
Posted on July 28, 2011 by steveblank
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 »
Posted on July 25, 2011 by steveblank
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 »
Posted on June 2, 2011 by steveblank
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 »
Posted on June 1, 2011 by steveblank
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 »
Posted on May 29, 2011 by steveblank
In April 2010 I received an email that said, “I’m an incoming Stanford student in the fall and working on a project that a number of people suggested I get in touch with you about.” Ok, I get a lot of these. Is this some grad student or post doc who wanted to do some [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Teaching, Venture Capital | 23 Comments »
Posted on May 27, 2011 by steveblank
Om Malik runs Gigaom, probably the most interesting and technically accurate sites on the blogosphere. He had me in for an interview. We covered a wide range of topics. 0:22 – the Entrepreneurial explosion 1:45 – Are we in a Bubble? 3:20 - The Last Bubble 6:30 – Rules for the New Bubble 8:05 – Metrics [...]
Filed under: Customer Development, Teaching, Venture Capital | 4 Comments »
Posted on May 17, 2011 by steveblank
I am honored to be with you as we gather to celebrate your graduation from Philadelphia University. While I teach at Stanford and Berkeley, to be honest… this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. I realize that my 15 minutes up here is all that’s between you and the rest or [...]
Filed under: Air Force, Family/Career/Culture, Teaching | 26 Comments »
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