Steve Blank Podcast

Nowhere is Safe

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:58:02 +0000

Drones in Ukraine and in the War with Iran have made the surface of the earth a contested space. The U.S. has discovered that 1) air superiority and missile defense systems (THAAD, Patriot batteries) designed to counter tens or hundreds of aircraft and missiles is insufficient against asymmetric attacks of thousands of drones. And that 2) undefended high value fixed civilian infrastructure – oil tankers, data centers, desalination plants, oil refineries, energy nodes, factories, et al -are all at risk.

Solving Yesterday’s Problems Will Kill You

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:01:43 +0000

The Department of War is in the midst of the most ambitious acquisition reform in 60 years. It’s just in time as drone and missile warfare lessons (autonomy, Counter UAS, etc.) from Ukraine and the War in Iran are top of mind and reshaping what the DoW is buying. Reorganizing the DoW into Portfolio Acquisition Executives is reforming how the DoW is buying. The new Warfighting Acquisition System is working to reward speed to delivery.

Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 23:58:17 +0000

If you started a company more than two years ago, it’s likely that many of your assumptions are no longer true. You need to stop coding, building, recruiting, fund raising, etc., and take stock of what changed around you. Or your company will die.

Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 27 Feb 2026 01:36:38 +0000

A while ago I wrote about what happens in a startup when a new event creates a wake-up call that makes founding engineers reevaluate their jobs. (It’s worth a read here.) Recently my wife and I had something happen that made us reevaluate a 25-year-old relationship. These two bookends made me realize something larger: reevaluating all types of relationships – romantic, friendship, founders, business partnerships/ventures, and even countries – is a healthy and normal part of growing, getting older and, at times, wiser.

You Only Think They Work For You

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 20:09:46 +0000

When I was a new VP of Marketing I got a painful lesson of who my PR (Public Relations) agency actually worked for. Later I realized that it was true for all of my external vendors. And much later I realized what I really should have been asking them to do. The lessons still apply even though AI Agents will upend all of this and PR will end up being one of the many businesses that will no longer exist in its current form. Here’s why.

Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and Conspiracies

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 16:01:13 +0000

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32

Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and Conspiracies

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 23:55:20 +0000

Every once in a while you learn something new that makes you completely rethink how/why an event actually happened. And then you consider how it affects the rest of our country and our lives. This is one of those stories.

Making the Wrong Things Go Faster at The Department of War

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 02:48:11 +0000

The Department of War (DoW) senior Acquisition leadership (the people who decide what and how the DoW buys equipment and services) now is headed by people from private capital (venture capital and private equity.)

The Department of War Directory

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:23:23 +0000

In November 2025 the Department of War (DoW) unveiled the biggest changes in 60 years of how they will buy weapons and services. This month Congress, with bipartisan support, rapidly made them into law in the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) – 3,096 pages of legislative text and 636-page Joint Explanatory Statement.

The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for Speed

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 23:10:43 +0000

The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for Speed by Steve Blank

It only took 20 years, but the Strategic Management Society now Believes the Lean Startup is a Strategy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 22:17:56 +0000

I’ve always thought of myself as a practitioner. In the startups I was part of, the only “strategy” were my marketing tactics on how to make the VP of Sales the richest person in the company. After I retired, I created Customer Development and co-created the Lean Startup as a simple methodology which codified founders best practices – in a language and process that was easy to understand and implement. All from a practitioner’s point of view.

How to Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory – Now with 500 more names

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 20:40:25 +0000

The October 2025 PEO Directory – Update 2. The Department of War (DoW) is one of the world’s largest organizations. If you’re a startup trying to figure out who to call on and how to navigate the system, it can be – to put it politely – challenging.

No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 15 Oct 2025 06:04:13 +0000

Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists? What do they do? And more importantly, why should anyone (outside of universities) care?

When Sh!t Hits the Fan – Founders in a Crisis

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:23:49 +0000

Great founders shine in a crisis.

How To Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 07:08:26 +0000

How To Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory by Steve Blank

Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 20:10:28 +0000

How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or die. This post tells the story of what happened when 4,000 companies faced a disruptive technology and why only one survived.

Why Investors Don’t Care About Your Business

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 20:22:24 +0000

I’ve been having coffee with lots of frustrated founders (my students and others) bemoaning most VCs won’t even meet with them unless they have AI in their fundraising pitch. And the AI startups they see are getting valuations that appear nonsensical. These conversations brought back a sense of Déjà vu from the Dot Com bubble (at the turn of this century), when if you didn’t have internet as part of your pitch you weren’t getting funded.

Lean Launchpad at Stanford – 2025

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 23:37:33 +0000

We just finished the 15th<>annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions. During the 2025 spring quarter the eight teams spoke to 935 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators. Most students spent 15-20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned Presentations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 18:36:12 +0000

We just finished our 10th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 70 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems. At Stanford this quarter the 8 teams of 41 students collectively interviewed 1106 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, industry partners, etc. – while simultaneously building a series of minimal viable products and developing a path to deployment.

Teaching National Security Policy with AI

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 16:51:17 +0000

International Policy students will be spending their careers in an AI-enabled world. We wanted our students to be prepared for it. This is why we’ve adopted and integrated AI in our Stanford national security policy class – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Here’s what we did, how the students used it, and what they (and we) learned.

How the United States Gave Up Being a Science Superpower

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 27 May 2025 15:44:05 +0000

US global dominance in science was no accident, but a product of a far-seeing partnership between public and private sectors to boost innovation and economic growth.

The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a The Secret History of Silicon Valley

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 18 May 2025 15:06:59 +0000

The U.S. has spent the last 70 years making massive investments in basic and applied research. Government funding of research started in World War II driven by the needs of the military for weapon systems to defeat Germany and Japan. Post WWII the responsibility for investing in research split between agencies focused on weapons development and space exploration (being completely customer-driven) and other agencies charted to fund basic and applied research in science and medicine (being driven by peer-review.)

How the U.S. Became A Science Superpower

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 12 May 2025 04:07:07 +0000

Prior to WWII the U.S was a distant second in science and engineering. By the time the war was over, U.S. science and engineering had blown past the British, and led the world for 85 years.

An MVP is not a Cheaper Product, It’s about Smart Learning

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 06 May 2025 03:27:40 +0000

A minimum viable product (MVP) is not always a smaller/cheaper version of your final product. Defining the goal for a MVP can save you tons of time, money and grief.

The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 14:48:24 +0000

Sometimes financial decisions that are seemingly rational on their face can precipitate mass exodus of your best engineers.

How to get meetings with people too busy to see you

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 21:18:40 +0000

Asking, “Can I have coffee with you to pick your brain?” is probably the worst possible way to get a meeting with someone with a busy schedule. Here’s a better approach.

Lying on your resume

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 02:35:23 +0000

It’s not the crime that gets you, it’s the coverup.

Careers Start by Peeling Potatoes

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 19:35:44 +0000

Listening to my the family talk about dividing up the cooking chores for this Thanksgiving dinner, including who would peel the potatoes, reminded me that most careers start by peeling potatoes.

Nuke’em ‘Till They Glow – Quitting My First Job

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 20:06:58 +0000

I started working when I was 14 (I lied about my age) and counting four years in the Air Force I’ve worked in 12 jobs. I left each one of them when I was bored, ready to move on, got fired, or learned as much as I can. There was only one job that I quit when I feared for my life.

Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Entrepreneurs tend to view adversity as opportunity.

You’ll Be Dead Soon – Carpe Diem

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. - Steve Jobs

Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When I was in my 20’s I worked at Convergent Technologies, a company that was proud to be known as the “Marine Corps of Silicon Valley.” It was a brawling “take no prisoners,” work hard, party hard, type of company. The founders coming out of the DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) and Intel culture of the 1960’s and ‘70’s. As an early employee I worked all hours of the day, never hesitated to jump on a “red-eye” plane to see a customer at the drop of a hat, and did what was necessary to make the company a winner. I learned a lot at Convergent, going from product marketing manager in a small startup to VP of Marketing of the Unix Division as it became a public company. Two of my role models for my career were in this company. (And one would become my mentor and partner in later companies.) But this story is not about Convergent. It’s about entrepreneurship and family.

Entrepreneurship is hard but you can’t die

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We Sleep Peaceably In Our Beds At Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready To Do Violence On Our Behalf. Everyone has events that shape the rest of their lives. This was one of mine.

Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 20 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In 2023 China flying a “spy balloon” over the U.S. created an international incident. It turns out the U.S. did the same to the Soviet Union in the 1950’s.

Vertical Markets 3: Reducing Risk in Startups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Reducing Risk – Simulation versus Customer Development If you remember the first part of this discussion, startups face two types of risk; invention risk and/or customer/market risk. In either type of startup you want to put in place processes in place to reduce risk.

Faith-Based versus Fact-Based Decision Making

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve screwed up a lot of startups on faith. One of the key tenets of entrepreneurship is that you start your company with insufficient resources and knowledge.

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I wrote this “Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters” memo as a board member after I saw our company at a trade show. Part 1 of this post offered some suggestions on going to trade shows to generate awareness. This post offers suggestions if you are going to a trade show to generate leads.

Founders and dysfunctional families

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was having lunch with a friend who is a retired venture capitalist and we drifted into a discussion of the startups she funded. We agreed that all her founding CEOs seemed to have the same set of personality traits – tenacious, passionate, relentless, resilient, agile, and comfortable operating in chaos. I said, “well for me you’d have to add coming from a dysfunctional family.” Her response was surprising, “Steve, almost all my CEO’s came from very tough childhoods. It was one of the characteristics I specifically looked for. It’s why all of you operated so well in the unpredictable environment that all startups face.”

Vertical Markets 2: Customer/Market Risk versus Invention Risk

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One day I was having lunch with a VC sharing what I learned from my students. “Steve,” he said, “you’re missing the most interesting part of vertical markets. Our firm has a portfolio of companies across a broad range of markets and the way we look at it is pretty simple – the deals fall into two types: those with customer/market risk and those with invention risk.”

Vertical Markets 1: Bad Advice – All Startups are the Same

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the past entrepreneurship was viewed (and taught) as a single process, with a single approach to creating a business plan and securing funding for a startup. The best entrepreneurship textbooks and blogs assume that advice to startups is generalizable. But as I learned from my students this “one-size-fits-all” approach does not work for all startups. Different market opportunities present radically different startup risks and costs.

Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ignore This Post If you’re selling via the web and trade shows are something your grandfather told you about, ignore this post. If you’re in markets that still exhibit at them (semiconductors, communications, enterprise software, medical devices, etc.,) you know they’re expensive in time, dollars and resources.

Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It was 1978. Here I was, a very junior employee of ESL, a company with its hands in the heart of our Cold War strategy. Clueless about the chess game being played in Washington, I was just a minion in a corporate halfway house in between my military career and entrepreneurship.

Story Behind “The Secret History” Part III: The Most Important Company You Never Heard Of

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

1978. Two years out of the Air Force, serendipity (which would be my lifelong form of career planning) found me in Silicon Valley working for my first company: ESL. If you’re an entrepreneur, ESL is the most important company you’ve never heard of. If you are a practitioner of Customer Development, ESL was doing it before most us were born. If you think the Cold War turned out the right side up (i.e. Communism being a bad science experiment) ESL’s founder Bill Perry was moving the chess pieces. And no one who really knew could tell you.

Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I love business plan competitions. I hate business plan competitions.

Preparing for Chaos – the Life of a Startup

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I just finished reading Donovan Campbell’s eye-opening book, “Joker One“, about his harrowing combat tour in Iraq leading a Marine platoon. This book may be the Iraq war equivalent of “Dispatches” which defined Vietnam for my generation. (Both reminded me why National Service would be a very good idea.)

Killing Innovation with Corner Cases and Consensus

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was visiting a friend whose company teaches executives how to communicate effectively. He had just filmed the second of a series of videos called, Speaking to the Big Dogs: How mid-level managers can communicate effectively with C-level executives (CEO, VP’s, General Managers, etc.) As we were plotting marketing strategy, I mentioned that the phrase “Speaking to the Big Dogs” might end up as his corporate brand. And that he might want to think about aligning all his video and Internet products under that name.

Change We Can Believe In – Reinventing the US Auto Industry: Open Source the Chevy Volt

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This article in the NY Times about China’s thinking strategically about electric cars was a poignant contrast to our struggles in the U.S. with the auto bailout. It reminded me about the adage, “when you’re up to your neck in alligators, the last thing you remember is that you were supposed to drain the swamp.” Memo to Washington – weren’t we were to be the country innovating here?

The “Good” Student

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I saw an article in the New York Times about Google’s hiring practices that reminded me of the differences between great big successful technology companies and small scrappy startups.

Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential? by Steve Blank

The Curse of a New Building

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Curse of a New Building by Steve Blank

SuperMac War Story 10: The Video Spigot

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was lucky to have been standing in the right place when video became part of the Macintosh. And I got to experience a type of customer buying behavior I had never seen before – the Novelty Effect.

SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While this story is about my experience in packaging for computer retail channels, if you substitute the word “web site” for retail, you’ll get the idea why these lessons were timeless for me.

Supermac War Story 8: Cats and Dogs – Admitting a Mistake

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At SuperMac, I thought I was good VP of marketing; aggressive, relentless and would take no prisoners – even with my peers inside the company. But a series of Zen-like moments helped me move to a different level that changed how I operated. It didn’t make my marketing skills any worse or better, but moved me to play forever on a different field.

SuperMac War Story 7: Rabbits Out of the Hat – Product Line Extensions

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A year after we started repositioning the company, Engineering, which had been working on a family of new products literally for years, came to deliver some good news and bad news.

SuperMac War Story 5: Strategy versus Relentless Tactical Execution — the Potrero Benchmarks

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

SuperMac War Story 5: Strategy versus Relentless Tactical Execution — the Potrero Benchmarks by Steve Blank

How to Flip the Script, Beat China and Russia – And Fix the Broken Department of Defense

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In WW II, the U.S. outsourced advanced weapons systems development to civilians. The weapons they developed won the war. It’s time to do that again. This new administration can make it happen.

Quantum Computing – An Update

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In March 2022 I wrote a description of the Quantum Technology Ecosystem. I thought this would be a good time to check in on the progress of building a quantum computer and explain more of the basics.

How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation–and What to Do About It

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:50:56 +0000

“Only the Paranoid Survive” Andy Grove – Intel CEO 1987-1998 I just had an urgent “can we meet today?” coffee with Rohan, an ex-student. His three-year-old startup had been slapped with a notice of patent infringement from a Fortune 500 company. “My lawyers said defending this suit could cost $500,000 just for discovery, and potentially millions of dollars if it goes to trial. Do you have any ideas?”

What Does Product Market Fit Sound Like? This.

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

What Does Product Market Fit Sound Like? This. by Steve Blank

How To Find Your Customer In the Dept of Defense – The Directory of DoD Program Executive Offices

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 19:18:32 +0000

Finding a customer for your product in the Department of Defense is hard: Who should you talk to? How do you get their attention? Looking for DoD customers? How do you know if they have money to spend on your product? It almost always starts with a Program Executive Office.

Security Clearances at the Speed of Startups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 07:24:08 +0000

Imagine you got a job offer from a company but weren’t allowed to start work – or get paid – for almost a year. And if you can’t pass a security clearance your offer is rescinded. Or you get offered an internship but can’t work on the most interesting part of the project. Sounds like a nonstarter. Well that’s the current process if you want to work for companies or government agencies that work on classified programs.

Why Large Organizations Struggle With Disruption, and What to Do About It

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 23:50:44 +0000

Seemingly overnight, disruption has allowed challengers to threaten the dominance of companies and government agencies as many of their existing systems have now been leapfrogged. How an organization reacts to this type of disruption determines whether they adapt or die.

Lean LaunchPad @Stanford 2024 – 8 Teams In, 8 Companies Out

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 15:53:05 +0000

We just finished the 14th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions. During the quarter the eight teams spoke to 919 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators. Most students spent 15-20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class. In the 14 years we’ve been teaching the class, we had something that has never happened before – all eight teams in this cohort have decided to start a company.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2024 – Lessons Learned Presentations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 03:02:30 +0000

We just finished our 9th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year.

Gordon Bell R.I.P.

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 29 May 2024 02:29:49 +0000

Gordon Bell passed on this month. I was a latecomer in Gordon Bell’s life. But he made a lasting impact on mine.

Secret History – When Kodak Went to War with Polaroid

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 19 May 2024 20:13:42 +0000

Kodak and Polaroid, the two most famous camera companies of the 20th century, had a great partnership for 20+ years. Then in an inexplicable turnabout Kodak decided to destroy Polaroid’s business. To this day, every story of why Kodak went to war with Polaroid is wrong. The real reason can be found in the highly classified world of overhead reconnaissance satellites. Here’s the real story.

The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 18 May 2024 23:22:44 +0000

The connections between the world of national security and commercial companies still has surprises.

Founders Need to Be Ruthless When Chasing Deals

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Apr 2024 04:43:53 +0000

One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a potential customer is, “We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototype?” This can be the beginning of a profitable customer relationship or a disappointing sinkhole of wasted time, money, resources, and a demoralized engineering team. It all depends on one question every startup CEO needs to ask.

Is a $100 Million Enough?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 16:30:00 +0000

Capitalism has been good to me. After serving in the military during Vietnam, I came home and had a career in eight startups. I got to retire when I was 45. Over the last quarter century, in my third career, I helped create the methods entrepreneurs use to build new startups, while teaching 1,000’s of students how to start new ventures.

Apple Vision Pro – Tech in the Search of a Market

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 05:14:02 +0000

If you haven’t been paying attention Apple has started shipping its Apple Vision Pro, its take on a headset that combines Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The product is an amazing technical tour de force. But the product/market fit of this first iteration is a swing and a miss.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 17:02:25 +0000

We just wrapped up the third year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class –part of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe Felter, Mike Brown and I teach the class to: Give our students an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities for the United States in its enduring strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, Russia and other rivals. Offer insights on how commercial technology (AI, autonomy, cyber, quantum, semiconductors, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others) are radically changing how we will compete across all the elements of national power e.g. diplomatic, informational, military, economic, financial, intelligence and law enforcement (our influence and footprint on the world stage). Expose students to experiential learning on policy questions. Students formed teams, got out of the classroom and talked to the stakeholders and developed policy recommendations.

The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 18:34:39 +0000

Silicon Valley emerged from work in World War II led by Stanford professor Fred Terman developing microwave and electronics for Electronic Warfare systems. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, spurred on by Terman, Silicon Valley was selling microwave components and systems to the Defense Department, and the first fledging chip companies (Shockley, Fairchild, National, Rheem, Signetics…) were in their infancy. But there were no computer companies. Silicon Valley wouldn’t have a computer company until 1966 when Hewlett Packard shipped the HP 2116 minicomputer.

The Department of Defense Is Getting Its Innovation Act Together – But More Can Be Done

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Jan 2024 06:53:38 +0000

Despite the clear and present danger of threats from China and elsewhere, there’s no agreement on what types of adversaries we’ll face; how we’ll fight, organize, and train; and what weapons or systems we’ll need for future fights. Instead, developing a new doctrine to deal with these new issues is fraught with disagreements, differing objectives, and incumbents who defend the status quo. Yet change in military doctrine is coming. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks is navigating the tightrope of competing interests to make it happen – hopefully in time.

Even the Smartest VCs Sometimes Get it Wrong – Bill Gurley and Regulated Markets

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:09:37 +0000

Bill Gurley was one of Silicon Valley’s smartest and most successful VCs. He recently gave a talk at the All-In Summit that was really two talks in one. The first part was railing against the consequences of regulatory capture on innovation and a second part, about the consequences of premature government regulation of AI and why the incumbents are all for it. He illustrated his talk with regulatory horror stories in the telecom market, electronic health records, and Covid antigen tests.

Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 30 Oct 2023 18:07:41 +0000

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Reading how she moved in 2021 from CIA ops to a quantum technology company offered insightful career transition advice for those leaving her agency. Most of her lessons were applicable to any government employee venturing out to the private sector.

Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 1

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 02:38:38 +0000

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Reading how she moved in 2021 from CIA ops into a quantum technology company offered insightful career transition advice for those leaving her agency. Most of her lessons were applicable to any government employee venturing out to the private sector. This is the first of her three-part series.

Profound Beliefs

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 22:36:04 +0000

In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opinions loosely held.” You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite of a startup if you don’t hold any. Here’s how I learned why they were critical to successful customer development.

Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 03:17:46 +0000

I just saw the movie Oppenheimer. A wonderful movie on multiple levels. But the Atomic Bomb story that starts at Los Alamos with Oppenheimer and General Grove misses the fact that from mid-1940 to mid-1942 it was Vannevar Bush (and his number 2, James Conant, the president of Harvard) who ran the U.S. atomic bomb program and laid the groundwork that made the Manhattan Project possible. Here’s the story.

Lean Meets Wicked Problems

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:35:13 +0000

I just spent a month and a half at Imperial College London co-teaching a “Wicked” Entrepreneurship class. In this case Wicked doesn’t mean morally evil, but refers to really complex problems, ones with multiple moving parts, where the solution isn’t obvious. (Understanding and solving homelessness, disinformation, climate change mitigation or an insurgency are examples of wicked problems. Companies also face Wicked problems. In contrast, designing AI-driven enterprise software or building dating apps are comparatively simple problems.)

Reorganizing the DoD to Deter China and Win in the Ukraine – A Road Map for Congress

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 30 Apr 2023 17:40:42 +0000

Today, the U.S. is supporting a proxy war with Russia while simultaneously attempting to deter a China cross-strait invasion of Taiwan. Both are wakeup calls that victory and deterrence in modern war will be determined by a state’s ability to both use traditional weapons systems and simultaneously rapidly acquire, deploy, and integrate commercial technologies (drones, satellites, targeting software, et al) into operations at every level.

Playing With Fire – ChatGPT

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:58:04 +0000

Artificial Intelligence has been the technology right around the corner for at least 50 years. Last year a set of specific AI apps caught everyone’s attention as AI finally crossed from the era of niche applications to the delivery of transformative and useful tools – Dall-E for creating images from text prompts, Github Copilot as a pair programming assistant, AlphaFold to calculate the shape of proteins, and ChatGPT 3.5 as an intelligent chatbot. These applications were seen as the beginning of what most assumed would be domain-specific tools. Most people (including me) believed that the next versions of these and other AI applications and tools would be incremental improvements. We were very, very wrong.

Startups that Have Employees In Offices Grow 3½ Times Faster

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 23:42:17 +0000

Data shows that pre-seed and seed startups with employees showing up in a physical office have 3½ times higher revenue growth than those that are solely remote. Let the discussion begin. During the pandemic, companies engaged in one of the largest unintended experiments in how to organize office work – remotely, in offices, or a hybrid of the two. Post-pandemic, startups are still struggling to manage the best way to manage return-to-office issues – i.e. employee’s expectations of continuing to work remotely versus the best path to build and grow a profitable company.

Is a Venture Studio Right for You?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:07:56 +0000

Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. Venture Studios are an “idea factory” with their own employees searching for product/market fit and a repeatable and scalable business model. They do the most to de-risk the early stages of a startup.

Be Where Your Business Is

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 14 Jan 2023 00:19:50 +0000

A CEO running a B-to-B startup in needs to live in the city where their business is – or else they’ll never scale.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2022 Wrap Up

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 07:12:13 +0000

We just wrapped up the second year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class – now part of our Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to 1) give our students an appreciation of the challenges and opportunities for the United States in its enduring strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China, Russia and other rivals, and 2) offer insights on how commercial technology (AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, quantum, semiconductors, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others) are radically changing how we will compete across all the elements of national power e.g. diplomatic, informational, military, economic, financial, intelligence and law enforcement (our influence and footprint on the world stage).

Why The Pentagon Can’t Count: It’s Time to Reinvent the Audit

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 06:38:29 +0000

In the past, headlines about the Pentagon failing its financial audit again would never have caught my attention. But having been in the middle of this conversation when I served on one of the Defense Department’s advisory boards, I understand why the Pentagon can’t count. The experience taught me a valuable lesson about innovation and imagination in large organizations, and the difference visionary leadership – or the lack of it – can make.

The 6th Lean Innovation Educators Summit – Education & Innovation in the Age of Chaos and Disruption

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 21:31:02 +0000

Join Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, and Steve Weinstein for the sixth edition of the Lean Innovation Educators Summit December 14, 1-4 pm Eastern Time, 10 am-1 pm Pacific Time. This virtual gathering will bring together entrepreneurship educators from around the world who are putting Lean Innovation to work in their classrooms, accelerators, venture studios, and student-driven ventures.

The Three Pillars of World-class Corporate Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 12 Nov 2022 00:35:03 +0000

My good friend Alexander Osterwalder, the inventor of the business model canvas (one of foundations of the Lean Methodology) has written a playbook (along with his associate partner Tendayi Viki,) From Innovation Theater to Growth Engine to explain how to build and implement repeatable innovation processes inside a company. Here’s their introduction to the key concepts inside the playbook.

A Simple Map for Innovation at Scale

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:20:58 +0000

I spent last week at a global Fortune 50 company offsite watching them grapple with disruption. This 100+-year-old company has seven major product divisions, each with hundreds of products. Currently a market leader, they’re watching a new and relentless competitor with more money, more people and more advanced technology appear seemingly out of nowhere, attempting to grab customers and gain market share.

Mapping the Unknown – The Ten Steps to Map Any Industry

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 18:39:29 +0000

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lǎozi 老子 I just had lunch with Shenwei, one of my ex-students who had just taken a job in a mid-sized consulting firm. After a bit of catching up I offered he was looking a bit lost. “I just got handed a project to help our firm enter a new industry – semiconductors. They want me to map out the space so we can figure out where we can add value.

National Industrial Policy – Private Capital and The America’s Frontier Fund Steps Up

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 23:14:41 +0000

Last month the U.S. passed the CHIPS and Science Act, one of the first pieces of national industrial policy – government planning and intervention in a specific industry — in the last 50 years, in this case for semiconductors. After the celebratory champagne has been drunk and the confetti floats to the ground it’s helpful to put the CHIPS Act in context and understand the work that government and private capital have left to do.

Finding and Growing the Islands of Innovation inside a large company – Action Plan for A New CTO

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 04:27:43 +0000

How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six months as a new CTO thinking you’re making progress when the status quo is working to keep you at bay?

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning– Explained

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Jun 2022 23:17:50 +0000

Hundreds of billions in public and private capital is being invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning companies. The number of patents filed in 2021 is more than 30 times higher than in 2015 as companies and countries across the world have realized that AI and Machine Learning will be a major disruptor and potentially change the balance of military power.

Lessons for the DoD – From Ukraine and China

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 31 May 2022 13:49:39 +0000

Looking at a satellite image of Ukraine online I realized it was from Capella Space – one of our Hacking for Defense student teams who now has 7 satellites in orbit. National Security is Now Dependent on Commercial Technology They’re not the only startup in this fight. An entire wave of new startups and scaleups are providing satellite imagery and analysis, satellite communications, and unmanned aerial vehicles supporting the struggle.

Cram Down – A Test of Character for VCs and Founders

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 08 May 2022 22:07:21 +0000

Cram downs are back – and I’m keeping a list. At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. Most existing investors (those still in business) hoarded their money and stopped doing follow-on rounds until the rubble had cleared.

What Happened When Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks visited Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 01 May 2022 02:50:35 +0000

It was an honor to host US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. (Think of the Deputy Secretary of Defense as the Chief Operating Officer of a company – but in this case the company has 3 million employees (~1.4 million active duty, 750,000 civilians, ~800,000 in the National Guard and Reserves.)

The Quantum Technology Ecosystem – Explained

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 22:14:33 +0000

Tens of billions of public and private capital are being invested in Quantum technologies. Countries across the world have realized that quantum technologies can be a major disruptor of existing businesses and change the balance of military power. So much so, that they have collectively invested ~$24 billion in in quantum research and applications.

The Semiconductor Ecosystem – Explained

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 04:07:41 +0000

The last year has seen a ton written about the semiconductor industry: chip shortages, the CHIPS Act, our dependence on Taiwan and TSMC, China, etc. But despite all this talk about chips and semiconductors, few understand how the industry is structured. I’ve found the best way to understand something complicated is to diagram it out, step by step. So here’s a quick pictorial tutorial on how the industry works.

What’s Plan B? – The Small, the Agile, and the Many

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 09 Apr 2022 04:50:07 +0000

One of the most audacious and bold manifestos for the future of Naval innovation has just been posted by the Rear Admiral who heads up the Office of Naval Research. It may be the hedge we need to deter China in the South China Sea.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Wrap Up

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 06:19:34 +0000

We just had our final session of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to give our students insights on how commercial technology (AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, quantum, semiconductors, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others) will shape how we employ all the elements of national power (our influence and footprint on the world stage). At the end of the quarter, each of the teams gave a final “Lessons Learned” presentation with a follow-up a 3,000 to 5,000-word team-written paper. By the end the class all the teams realized that the problem they had selected had morphed into something bigger, deeper and much more interesting.

I Can’t See You but I’m Not Blind

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 09 Jan 2022 01:26:07 +0000

If I ask you to think of an elephant do you see an elephant in your head when you close your eyes? I don’t. Regardless of how descriptive the imagery, story or text I can’t create any pictures in my head at all. 2% of people can’t do this either. This inability to visualize is called aphantasia.

The Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 03:58:18 +0000

75 years ago, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) helped kickstart innovation in Silicon Valley with a series of grants to Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford’s Engineering school. Terman used the money to set up the Stanford Electronics Research Lab. He staffed it with his lab managers who built the first electronic warfare and electronic intelligence systems in WWII. This lab pushed the envelope of basic and applied research in microwave devices and electronics and within a few short years made Stanford a leader in these fields. The lab became ground zero for the wave of Stanford’s entrepreneurship and innovation in the 1950’s and 60’s and helped form what would later be called Silicon Valley. 75 years later, ONR just laid down a bet again, one we believe will be equally transformative. They’re the first sponsors of the new Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford that Joe Felter, Raj Shah, and I have started.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 8 – Cyber

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 15:24:14 +0000

We just completed the eighth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment of all instruments of national power. Today’s class: Cyber

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 7 – Space

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 04:52:56 +0000

We just completed the seventh week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment of all instruments of national power. Today’s class: The Second Space Age: Great Power Competition in Space.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 6 – Unmanned Systems and Autonomy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 19:42:16 +0000

We just completed the sixth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment of all instruments of national power....Today’s class: Unmanned Platforms and Autonomy

When There Seems to Be No Way Out – Customer Discovery for Your Head

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 18:06:52 +0000

As an entrepreneur at times you forget that being in charge doesn’t mean you have to know everything. When it feels like you’re trapped facing an unsolvable dilemma, and wrestling with a seemingly intractable problem, remember that “getting out of your head” is the personal equivalent of the Lean Startup mantra “get out of the building.” Learning this was a big step in making me a more effective entrepreneur.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 5 – AI and Machine Learning

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:55:05 +0000

We just completed the fifth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of national power (America’s influence and footprint on the world stage). In class 1, we learned that national power is the combination of a country’s diplomacy, information/intelligence, its military capabilities, economic strength, finance, intelligence, and law enforcement. This “whole of government approach” is known by the acronym DIME-FIL. Class 2 focused on China, the U.S.’s primary great power competitor. China is using all elements of national power: diplomacy (soft power, alliances, coercion), information/ intelligence, its military might and economic strength (Belt and Road Initiative) as well as exploiting Western finance and technology. China’s goal is to challenge and overturn the U.S.-led liberal international order and replace it with a neo-totalitarian model. The third class focused on Russia, which since 2014 has asserted itself as a competing great power. We learned how Russia pursues security and economic interests in parallel with its ideological aims. At times, these objectives complement each other. At other times they clash, as Russian policy is run by Vladimir Putin and his political institutions. The fourth class shifted our focus to the impact commercial technologies have on DIME-FIL. The first technology we examined were semiconductors, the oil of the 21st century. The U.S. is dependent on TSMC, located in Taiwan, for its most advanced logic chips. This is problematic as China claims Taiwan is a province of China.

How to Find a Market? Use Jobs-To-Be-Done as the Front End of Customer Discovery

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 01:23:43 +0000

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of the 21st century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures...

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 4- Semiconductors

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 05:02:36 +0000

We just completed the fourth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of national power (America’s influence and footprint on the world stage). In class 1, we learned that national power is the combination of a country’s diplomacy (soft power and alliances), information/intelligence, military power, economic strength, finance, intelligence, and law enforcement. This “whole of government approach” is known by the acronym DIME-FIL. And after two decades focused on counter terrorism, the U.S. is now engaged in great power competition with both China and Russia. In class 2 the class focused on China, the U.S.’s primary great power competitor. China is using all elements of national power: diplomacy (soft power, alliances, coercion), information/ intelligence (using its economic leverage over Hollywood, controlling the Covid narrative), its military might and economic strength (Belt and Road Initiative) as well as exploiting Western finance and technology. China’s goal is to challenge and overturn the U.S.-led liberal international order and replace it with a neo-totalitarian model. The third class focused on Russia, which is asserting itself as a great power challenger. We learned how Russia pursues security and economic interests in parallel with its ideological aims. At times, these objectives complement each other. At other times they clash, Putin’s desire to restore Russia into a great power once again leads to a foreign policy that is opposite the interests of the Russia people. As Putin himself has said, “The collapse of the Soviet Union was a major geopolitical disaster of the century,” and that quote offers a window to his worldview as he tries to remake Russia into a great power once again.” Having covered the elements of national power (DIME-FIL) and China and Russia, the class now shifts to the impact commercial technologies have on DIME-FIL. Today’s topic – Semiconductors.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 3 – Russia

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 31 Oct 2021 22:08:04 +0000

We just had our third week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of national power (our influence and footprint on the world stage). In class 1, we learned that national power is the combination of a country’s diplomacy (soft power and alliances), information/intelligence, its military, economic strength, finance, intelligence, and law enforcement. This “whole of government approach” is known by the acronym DIME-FIL. And after two decades focused on counter terrorism the U.S. is engaged in great power competition with both China and Russia. In class 2, we learned how China is using all elements of national power: diplomacy (soft power, alliances, coercion), information/intelligence (using its economic leverage over Hollywood, controlling the Covid narrative), its military might and economic strength (Belt and Road Initiative,) to exploit Western finance and technology. This has resulted in Western democracies prioritizing economic cooperation and trade with China above all else. China’s goal is to challenge and overturn the U.S.-led liberal international order and replace it with a neo-totalitarian model. Going forward, coexistence with China will involve competition but also cooperation. But it’s going to take the demonstrated resolve of the U.S. and its allies to continue to uphold a rules-based order where nations share a vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific where the sovereignty of all countries are respected. All which leads to today’s topic, the other great power – Russia.

Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 03:41:14 +0000

We just had our second week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of national power (our influence and footprint on the world stage). A key focus of the class is the return of Great Power competition. This isn’t an issue of which nation comes in first, it’s about what the world-order will look like for the rest of the century and beyond. Will it be a rules-based order where states cooperate to pursue a shared vision for a free and open region and where the sovereignty of all countries large and small is protected under international law? Or will an alternative vision for an autocratic and dystopian future be coerced and imposed by revisionist powers set on disrupting the U.S. led international order- an order that has brought the world unprecedented peace and prosperity since the end of the Second World War? All of which leads to today’s topic – China.

Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 02:51:45 +0000

For 25 years as the sole Superpower, the U.S. neglected strategic threats from China and a rearmed Russia. The country, our elected officials, and our military committed to a decades-long battle to ensure that terrorists like those that executed the 9/11 attacks are not able to attack us on that scale again. Meanwhile, our country’s legacy weapons systems have too many entrenched and interlocking interests (Congress, lobbyists, DOD/contractor revolving door, service promotion of executors versus innovators) that inhibit radical change. Our economic and foreign policy officials didn’t notice the four-alarm fire as we first gutted our manufacturing infrastructure and sent it to China (profits are better when you outsource); then passively stood by as our intellectual property was being siphoned off; and had no answer to China’s web of trade deals (China’s Belt and Road). The 2018 National Defense Strategy became a wakeup call for our nation.

Lead and Disrupt

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 13:08:30 +0000

You think startups are hard? Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Charles O’Reilly and Michael Tushman coined the term an “Ambidextrous Organization” to describe how some companies get this simultaneous execution and innovation process right. Their book Lead and Disrupt describes how others can learn how to do so. I was honored to write the forward to their second edition. Here it is in its entirety.

Why Innovation Heroes are a Sign of a Dysfunctional Organization

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 18:43:18 +0000

A week ago I got invited to an “innovation hero” award ceremony at a government agency. I don’t know how many of these I’ve been to in the last couple years, but this one just made my head explode.

The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 08:09:33 +0000

Revolutions start by overturning the status quo. By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. Here’s why and what we did about it.

Lean LaunchPad – For Deep Science and Technology

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 15:12:00 +0000

We just finished the 11th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford — our first version focused on deep science and technology. I’ve always thought of the class as a minimal viable product – testing new ideas and changing the class as we learn. This year was no exception as we made some major changes, all of which we are going to keep going forward.

You Don’t Need Permission

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 04:28:53 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Suresh, an ex-student I’ve known for a long time. A U.S. citizen he was now the head of sales and marketing for a company in London selling medical devices to hospitals in the UK National Health Service. His boss had identified the U.S. as their next market and wanted him to set up a U.S. salesforce. Suresh understood that the U.S. health system was very different from the system in the UK, not just the regulatory regime through the FDA, but the reimbursement process and the entire sales process.

Your Product is Not Their Problem

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 05 Jun 2021 16:26:53 +0000

There are no facts inside your building, so get the heck outside: I just had a call with Lorenz, a former business school student who started a job at a biotech startup making bacteria to take CO2 out of the air. His job was to find new commercial markets for this bacteria at scale. And he wanted to chat about how to best enter a new market.

These Five Principles Will Accelerate Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 26 May 2021 05:23:32 +0000

These Five Principles Will Accelerate Innovation by Steve Blank

Why Defense Could Now Be a Market for Startups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 21 May 2021 03:45:18 +0000

The U.S. Department of Defense is coming to grips with the idea that the technologies it needs to keep the country safe and secure are no longer exclusively owned by the military or its prime contractors. AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, quantum, access to space, semiconductors, biotech are all being driven by commercial companies. At the front-end of these innovations are startups – organizations the Department of Defense hasn’t previously dealt with at scale. They’re now learning how.

A Path to the Minimum Viable Product

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 01 May 2021 17:32:28 +0000

I first met Shawn Carolan and his wife Jennifer at the turn of the century at 11,000 feet. I was hiking with my kids between the Yosemite High Sierra camps. Having just retired from a career as an entrepreneur I had started thinking about why startups were different from large companies. The ideas were bouncing around my head so hard that I shared them with these strangers around a campfire, drawing out the four steps with a stick in the dirt. Shawn immediately said the name I had given the four steps was confusing – I had called it market development – he suggested that I call it Customer Development – and the name stuck. What I didn’t realize was that both were graduate students at Stanford and later both would become great VCs – Shawn at Menlo Ventures and Jennifer at Reach Capital. (And Jennifer is now my co-instructor in the Stanford Lean LaunchPad class.)

E Pluribus Unum – A Rallying Cry for National Service

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 02:17:20 +0000

The Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One – is our de facto national motto. It was a rallying cry of our founders as they built a single unified nation from a collection of states. It’s a good reminder of where we need to go. Today as our country struggles to find the common threads that bind us, we need unifying, cohesive, collective, and shared national experiences to bring the country together again. Here’s what we’ve done to get started. And why I did it.

Software Once Led Us to the Precipice of Nuclear War. What Will AI Do?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 00:54:43 +0000

The story of RYAN and Able Archer is an oft-told lesson of a U.S. intelligence failure, miscalculation, and two superpowers unaware they were on the brink of an accidental nuclear war — all because the Soviet Union relied on a software program to make predictions that were based on false assumptions. As more of our weapons systems and analytical and predictive systems become enabled by AI and Machine Learning, the lessons of RYAN and Able Archer is a cautionary tale for the DoD.

Hacking for Allies

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 04 Apr 2021 18:57:24 +0000

During the Cold War U.S. diplomatic and military alliances existed to defend freedom around the world. Today, these alliances are being reshaped to respond to Russian threats to the Baltics and Eastern Europe and to China’s economic, military, and technological influence worldwide.

When National Security Falls Between the Cracks

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 15 Mar 2021 20:59:44 +0000

Regaining America’s Technological Edge: Build a Civil-Military Alliance

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 17:30:20 +0000

After hearing from 20+ guest speakers, including two Secretaries of Defense, Generals, Admirals and Policy makers in our Technology, Innovation and Modern War class – the direction of technology and the future of national security came into sharper focus. This series of articles will offer suggestions to transform the DoD to face the challenges ahead. — “We need to couple the $150 billion a year U.S. Venture capitalists (VCs) spend to fund new ventures with the speed and urgency that the DOD now requires.”

Pentagon Advisory Boards Need to Offer 10X Ideas, Not 10% Ones – P.S. You’re Fired

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 15:59:00 +0000

Last week the Biden administration delayed seating several Trump appointees to defense advisory boards. It’s a welcome signal that incoming leaders recognize these groups are essential, not just patronage jobs. But the review needs to go much further than that. After this article was written the Secretary of Defense fired every member of all 40+ defense advisory boards and will start anew. Hopefully the suggestions in this post will help inform how they reconstitute the boards.

Lessons for the New Administration – Technology, Innovation, and Modern War

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Mar 2021 02:06:57 +0000

Our recent national security class at Stanford, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others have the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Wrap Up

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 05:27:03 +0000

This class, Technology, Innovation, and Modern War was designed to give our students insights on how the onslaught of new technologies like AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, access to space, biotech, hypersonics, and others has the potential to radically change how countries fight and deter threats. Our 20+ guest speakers were an extraordinary collection of military and policy leaders including two Secretaries of Defense, Generals, Admirals and Policy makers.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 18 – General James Mattis

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 14:58:02 +0000

We just held our eighteenth and final session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today General James Mattis addressed the class.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 17 – Organizational Design – Safi Bahcall

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 13:46:03 +0000

We just held our seventeenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Organizational Design and Modern War. And Finals Prep. Our guest speaker was Safi Bahcall,author of Loonshots.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 16 – Acquisition & Sustainment – Ellen Lord

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 14:15:59 +0000

We just held our sixteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Acquisition and Sustainment and Modern War. Our guest speaker was the Honorable Ellen Lord the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment.

The Rapture Happened but I Wasn’t Called

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:51:53 +0000

Last Friday the Secretary of Defense abruptly fired half of the Defense Business Board. For some reason, he forgot me. Over the last year the administration began replacing members of every defense advisory board with party loyalists. Below is my resignation letter to the Secretary of Defense.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 15 – Mid Term– Congressman Mike Gallagher

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 14:38:52 +0000

We just held our fifteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Midterms with Congressman Mike Gallagher. Our guest speaker Congressman Mike Gallagher, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 13 – ONR– Rear Admiral Lorin Selby

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 10:26:55 +0000

We just held our thirteenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was The Navy and Modern War. Our guest speaker was Rear Admiral Lorin Selby, Chief of Naval Research, United States Navy.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 12 –The Space Force– General John Raymond

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 19:47:47 +0000

We just held our twelfth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Today’s topic was The Space Force and Modern War. Our guest speaker was Gen. John Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 11 – Cyberwarfare –– Sumit Agarwal

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 13:10:08 +0000

We just held our eleventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Military Applications of Cyber. Our guest speaker was Sumit Agarwal, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and Senior Advisor for Cyber Innovation.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 10 – The DOD and Modern War –– Michèle Flournoy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:06:16 +0000

We just held our tenth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was The DoD and Modern War. With Michèle Flournoy, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy joining us, we also assigned her recent article in Foreign Affairs, “How to Prevent a War in Asia”and CNAS report “Sharpening the US Military’s Edge: Critical Steps for the Next Generation”

Technology, Innovation and Modern War – Class 9 – Autonomy – Maynard Holliday

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 15 Nov 2020 14:31:42 +0000

We just held our ninth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Autonomy and Modern War. In this class session Maynard Holliday of RAND describes the potential of autonomy in the DoD.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 8 – AI – Chris Lynch and Nand Mulchandani

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 16:24:37 +0000

We just held our eighth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Today’s topic was Artificial Intelligence and Modern War. In this class session Nand Mulchandani, JAIC CTO who just completed an extended stint as Acting Director, continued the discussion of AI and the role of the JAIC. In addition to Nand, the class also heard from Chris Lynch, founder of the Defense Digital Service (DDS), now the CEO of Rebellion Defense, a new vendor of AI to the DOD.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 7 – Jack Shanahan

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 14 Nov 2020 00:49:36 +0000

We just held our seventh session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Military Applications of Artificial Intelligence; our guest speaker was General Jack Shanahan LTG (ret), former Director of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC).

Technology, Innovation and Modern War – Class 6 – Will Roper

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 04:21:58 +0000

We just held our sixth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Innovations in Acquiring Technologies for Modern War.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 5 – Chris Brose

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 08 Nov 2020 17:57:11 +0000

We just held our fifth session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was The Challenges of Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 4 – Bridge Colby

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 07 Nov 2020 00:45:28 +0000

We just held our fourth sessions of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Defense Strategies and Military Plans in an Era of Great Power Competition.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 3 – Anja Manuel

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 04 Nov 2020 18:30:04 +0000

We just held our third session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy. Today’s topic was Sourcing, Acquiring and Deploying Technology for Modern War.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 2 – Max Boot

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 18:47:08 +0000

We just held our second session of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Given the tech-centricity of Stanford and Silicon Valley, Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 1 - Ash Carter

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 15:06:11 +0000

We just had our first week of our new national security class Technology, Innovation and Modern War. Given the tech-centricity of Stanford and Silicon Valley, Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I thought it was natural to design a class to examine the new military systems, operational concepts and doctrines that will emerge from 21st century technologies – Space, Cyber, AI & Machine Learning and Autonomy.

Technology, Innovation, and Modern War

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 12 Sep 2020 19:35:01 +0000

I’m teaching my first non-lean start up class in a decade at Stanford next week; Technology, Innovation and Modern War: Keeping America’s Edge in an Era of Great Power Competition. The class is joint listed in Stanford’s International Policy department as well as in the Engineering School, in the department of Management Science and Engineering.

Hacking 4 Recovery – Time to Take A Shot

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 16:34:22 +0000

“Let’s do something to help with the pandemic.” In April, with the economy crashing, and the East Coast in lockdown, I heard this from Stanford instructors Tom Bedecarre and Todd Basche, both on the same day. And my response to them was the same, “I can’t sew masks and I don’t know how to make ventilators.” But after thinking about it, it dawned on to me that we could contribute – by creating a class to help existing businesses recover and new ones to start.

Teaching Lean Innovation in the Pandemic

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 16:24:24 +0000

Remote education in the pandemic has been hard for everyone. Hard for students having to deal with a variety of remote instructional methods. Hard for parents with K through 12 students at home trying to keep up with remote learning, and hard for instructors trying to master new barely functional tools and technology while trying to keep students engaged gazing at them through Hollywood Squares-style boxes.

Rising out of the Crisis: Where to Find New Markets and Customers

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 03:16:17 +0000

The pandemic has upended the business models of most startups and existing companies. As the economy reopens companies are finding that customers may have disappeared or that their spending behavior has changed. Suppliers are going out of business or requiring cash-up-front terms. Accounts receivables are stretching way out. Revenue models and forecasts are no longer valid.

The Coming Chip Wars

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 20 Jun 2020 03:11:44 +0000

Controlling advanced chip manufacturing in the 21st century may well prove to be like controlling the oil supply in the 20th. The country that controls this manufacturing can throttle the military and economic power of others. The United States just did this to China by limiting Huawei’s ability to outsource its in-house chip designs for manufacture by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), a Taiwanese chip foundry. If negotiations fail, China may respond and escalate, via one of many agile strategic responses short of war, perhaps succeeding in coercing the foundry to stop making chips for American companies – turning the tables on the United States

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2020 Lesson Learned Presentations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 13 Jun 2020 22:56:43 +0000

We just finished our 5th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. At the end of the quarter each of the eight teams give a final “Lessons Learned” presentation. Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are, “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells the teams’ stories of a 10-week journey of hard-won learning and discovery. For all the teams in a normal year it’s a roller coaster narrative of what happens when you discover that everything you thought you knew on day one was wrong and how they eventually got it right.

The Covid-19 virus is not politically correct

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 22 May 2020 06:56:43 +0000

The Covid-19 virus is not politically correct. It discriminates against the old and the unhealthy. The biggest risk factor in dying from the virus is age. If you’re 60 to 70 years old, you’re 30 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than if you’re under 40. And if you’re over 80, you’re 180 times more likely. It’s not that the young don’t get sick or die, but the odds are dramatically different.

Seven Steps to Small Business Recovery

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 22 May 2020 06:50:23 +0000

The world is a different place than it was 90 days ago. Countries traded saving lives by shutting down most of their economy. Tens of millions who had jobs are now unemployed worrying about their future. Business owners large and small are struggling to find their footing, wondering what will be the new normal when the recovery happens. For the majority of companies, the business models of the past will not return.

What’s Missing From Zoom Reminds Us What It Means to Be Human

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 03:52:49 +0000

Over the last month billions of people have been unwilling participants in the largest unintentional social experiment ever run – testing how video conferencing replaced face-to-face communication. While we’ve discovered that in many cases it can, more importantly we’ve discovered that, regardless of bandwidth and video resolution, these apps are missing the cues humans use when they communicate. While we might be spending the same amount of time in meetings, we’re finding we’re less productive, social interactions are less satisfying and distance learning is less effective. And we’re frustrated that we don’t know why. Here’s why video conferencing apps don’t capture the complexity of human interaction.

In a Crisis – An Opportunity For A More Meaningful Life

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 18 Apr 2020 17:50:47 +0000

Sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, my coffees with current and ex-students (entrepreneurs, as well as employees early in their careers) have gone virtual. Pre-pandemic these coffees were usually about what startup to join or how to find product/market fit. Though in the last month, even through Zoom I could sense they were struggling with a much weightier problem. The common theme in these calls were that many of them were finding this crisis to be an existential wakeup call. “My job feels pretty meaningless in the big picture of what matters. I’m thinking about what happens when I can go back to work. I’m no longer sure my current career path is what I want to do. How do I figure it out?” Here’s what I’ve told them.

Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 23:55:29 +0000

With in-person classes canceled, we’re about to start our online versions of Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Oceans (and here). The classes are built on the Lean Startup methodology: Customer Discovery, Agile Engineering and the Business/Mission Model Canvas. So how do our students get out of the building to talk to customers to do Customer Discovery when they can’t get out of the building? How do should startups do it?

The Virus Survival Strategy For Your Startup

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 19:45:49 +0000

This is the one blog post that I hope I’m completely wrong about. With the Covid-19 virus a worldwide pandemic, if you’re leading any startup or small business, you have to be asking yourself, “What’s Plan B? And what’s in my lifeboat?” Here are a few thoughts about operating in uncertainty in a pandemic.

How To Keep Your Company Alive – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Apr 2020 02:11:20 +0000

What cashflow-negative companies must do to survive We’re in uncharted territory with the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s increasingly looking grim. Companies that outlast this crisis will have CEOs who can rapidly assess these new circumstances, recognize new patterns and opportunities, and act with urgency to take immediate action to pivot and restructure their companies. Those that don’t may not survive. So here’s a five-day playbook to help CEOs of cash-flow negative startups, or ones about to go negative, assess the new normal and respond with speed and urgency.

Action Today for CFO’s

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 22 Mar 2020 18:21:59 +0000

Jeff Epstein is on the board of Shutterstock, Twilio, Kaiser Permanente, and was the CFO of Oracle, DoubleClick, Nielsen and King World and is an operating partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. He teaches the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford with me. And the minute he talks about financing I shut up and take notes.

You’re Not Important to Me but I Want To Meet With You

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 23:55:07 +0000

If you’re a busy startup founder, you’re likely delegating the task of scheduling key meetings about things you want/need to your admin. This is a mistake. That’s because the dialog you have in setting up the meeting is actually the first part of your meeting, not some clerical task. Treat it this way and you’re much more likely to achieve the objective you’re hoping to. Here’s why...

How to Raise Money – It’s a Journey Not An Event

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 23:16:40 +0000

Every year I teach classrooms full of students who leave class understanding the basics of how to search for product/market fit—and thinking their next goal is to “get funded.” That’s a mistake. There are two reasons to raise money...

Clayton Christensen

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 07 Mar 2020 23:14:51 +0000

If you’re reading my blog, odds are you know who Clayton Christensen was. He passed away this week and it was a loss to us all. Everyone who writes about innovation stood on his shoulders. His insights transformed the language and the practice of innovation. Christensen changed the trajectory of my career and was the guide star for my work on innovation. I never got to say thank you.

Why The Government is Isn’t a Bigger Version of a Startup

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

There was a time when much of U.S. academia was engaged in weapon systems research for the Defense Department and intelligence community. Some of the best and brightest wanted to work for defense contractors or corporate research and development labs. And the best startups spun out of Stanford were building components for weapon systems.

How to Convince Investors You’re the Future not the Past

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I just had a coffee with Mei and Bill, two passionate students who are on fire about their new startup idea. It’s past the “napkin-sketch” stage with a rough minimum viable product and about 100 users. I thought they had a great insight about an application space others had previously tried to crack. But they needed to convince investors that they are Facebook not Friendster. Here’s what I suggested they do...

Why Companies and Government Do “Innovation Theater” Instead of Actual Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 05:07:19 +0000

The type of disruption most companies and government agencies are facing is a once-in-every-few-centuries event. Disruption today is more than just changes in technology, or channel, or competitors – it’s all of them, all at once. And these forces are completely reshaping both commerce and defense.

Who Ever Thought? The Lean Educators Summit

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 03:25:39 +0000

It’s been almost a decade since we first started teaching the Lean Methodology. It’s remade entrepreneurship education, startup practice and innovation in companies and the government. But in all that time, we haven’t gotten a large group of educators together to talk about what it’s been like to teach Lean or the impact it’s had in their classrooms and beyond. It dawned on us that with 10 years of Lessons Learned to explore, now would be a good time.

AgileFall – When Waterfall Sneaks Back Into Agile

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 20:15:13 +0000

AgileFall is an ironic term for program management where you try to be agile and lean, but you keep using waterfall development techniques. It often produces a result that’s like combining a floor wax and dessert topping.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2019

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 01:06:08 +0000

We just finished our 4th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. At the end of each class we have each team give a Lessons Learned presentation. Unlike traditional demo days or Shark Tanks which are “here’s how smart I am, please give me money,” a Lessons Learned presentation tells a story of a journey of hard-won learning and discovery. For all the teams it’s a roller coaster narrative of what happens when you discover that everything you thought you knew was wrong and how they eventually got it right.

The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Education and Corporate Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 17:57:53 +0000

I was interviewed by Philip Bouchard, Executive Director of TrustedPeer Entrepreneurship Advisory, about how entrepreneurship education has changed, mission-driven entrepreneurship, and what we’ve learned about corporate innovation.

How to Stop Playing “Target Market Roulette”: A new addition to the Lean toolset

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 10 May 2019 12:43:54 +0000

Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of this century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. Lean Methodology consists of three tools designed for entrepreneurs building new ventures...

Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 03:54:42 +0000

VC’s have just changed the ~50-year old social contract with startup employees. In doing so they may have removed one of the key incentives that made startups different from working in a large company. For most startup employee’s startup stock options are now a bad deal. Here’s why.

The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 29 Mar 2019 01:04:16 +0000

We just finished the 8th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The team presentations are at the end of this post. It’s hard to imagine, but only a decade ago, the capstone entrepreneurship class in most universities was how to write – or pitch- a business plan. As a serial entrepreneur turned educator, this didn’t make sense to me. In my experience, I saw that most business plans don’t survive first contact with customers.

Fast Time in Three Horizon High

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 02 Mar 2019 20:19:57 +0000

I’m a big fan of McKinsey’s Three Horizons Model of innovation. (if you’re not familiar with it there’s a brief description a few paragraphs down.) It’s one of the quickest ways to describe and prioritize innovation ideas in a large company or government agency.

How to Keep Your Job As Your Company Grows

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 14:42:39 +0000

If you’re an early employee at a startup, one day you will wake up to find that what you worked on 24/7 for the last year is no longer the most important thing – you’re no longer the most important employee, and process, meetings, paperwork and managers and bosses have shown up. Most painfully, you’ll learn that your role in the company has to change.

Driven to Distraction – the future of car safety

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 06:11:55 +0000

If you haven’t gotten a new car in a while you may not have noticed that the future of the dashboard looks like this... That’s it. A single screen replacing all the dashboard gauges, knobs and switches. But behind that screen is an increasing level of automation that hides a ton of complexity.

What Your Startup Needs to Know About Regulated Markets

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 16:00:34 +0000

Often the opposite of disruption is the status quo. If you’re a startup trying to disrupt an existing business you need to read The Fixer by Bradley Tusk and Regulatory Hacking by Evan Burfield. These two books, one by a practitioner, the other by an investor, are must-reads. The Fixer is 1/3rd autobiography, 1/3rd case studies, and 1/3rd a “how-to” manual. Regulatory Hacking is closer to a “step-by-step” textbook with case studies. Here’s why you need to read them.

The Apple Watch – Tipping Point Time for Healthcare

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 14:50:33 +0000

I don’t own an Apple Watch. I do have a Fitbit. But the Apple Watch 4 announcement intrigued me in a way no other product has since the original IPhone. This wasn’t just another product announcement from Apple. It heralded the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) entrance into the 21stcentury. It is a harbinger of the future of healthcare and how the FDA approaches innovation.

The End of More – The Death of Moore’s Law

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 14:32:11 +0000

For most of our lives the idea that computers and technology would get, better, faster, cheaper every year was as assured as the sun rising every morning. The story “GlobalFoundries Stops All 7nm Development“ doesn’t sound like the end of that era, but for anyone who uses an electronic device, it most certainly is. Technology innovation is going to take a different direction.

Is the Lean Startup Dead?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 22:36:28 +0000

Reading the NY Times article “Jeffrey Katzenberg Raises $1 Billion for Short-Form Video Venture,” I realized it was time for a new startup heuristic: the amount of customer discovery and product-market fit you need to find is inversely proportional to the amount and availability of risk capital. And while the “first mover advantage” was the rallying cry of the last bubble, today’s is: “Massive capital infusion can own the entire market.”

This 1 Piece of Advice Could Make Or Break Your Career

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 13:48:33 +0000

There’s no handbook on how to evaluate and process “suggestions” and “advice” from a boss or a mentor. But how you choose to act on these recommendations can speed up your learning and make or break your career. Here’s what to keep in mind...

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2018 – wonder and awe

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 08 Jun 2018 21:21:19 +0000

We just finished our 3rd annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. Six teams presented their Lessons Learned presentations. Watching them I was left with wonder and awe about what they accomplished in 10 weeks. Six teams spoke to over 600 beneficiaries, stakeholders, requirements writers, program managers, warfighters, legal, security, customers, etc. By the end the class all of the teams realized that the problem as given by the sponsor had morphed into something bigger, deeper and much more interesting.

The Innovation Stack: How to make innovation programs deliver more than coffee cups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 16:26:50 +0000

Is your organization full of Hackathons, Shark Tanks, Incubators and other innovation programs, but none have changed the trajectory of your company/agency? Over the last few years Pete Newell and I have helped build innovation programs inside large companies, across the U.S. federal science agencies and in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. But it is only recently that we realized why some programs succeed and others are failing.

Why the Future of Tesla May Depend on Knowing What Happened to Billy Durant

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 03 May 2018 16:41:42 +0000

Elon Musk, Alfred Sloan, and entrepreneurship in the automobile industry. The entrepreneur who founded and grew the largest startup in the world to $10 billion in revenue and got fired is someone you have probably never heard of. The guy who replaced him invented the idea of the modern corporation. If you want to understand the future of Tesla and Elon Musk’s role – something many want to do, given the constant stream of headlines about the company — you should start with a bit of automotive history from the 20th Century.

Why Entrepreneurs Start Companies Rather Than Join Them

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you asked me why I gravitated to startups rather than work in a large company I would have answered at various times: “I want to be my own boss.” “I love risk.” “I want flexible work hours.” “I want to work on tough problems that matter.” “I have a vision and want to see it through.” “I saw a better opportunity and grabbed it. …”

The Difference Between Innovators and Entrepreneurs

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I just received a thank-you note from a student who attended a fireside chat I held at the ranch. Something I said seemed to inspire her: “I always thought you needed to be innovative, original to be an entrepreneur. Now I have a different perception. Entrepreneurs are the ones that make things happen. (That) takes focus, diligence, discipline, flexibility and perseverance. They can take an innovative idea and make it impactful. … successful entrepreneurs are also ones who take challenges in stride, adapt and adjust plans to accommodate whatever problems do come up.”

Leadership is More Than a Memo

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Leadership is More Than a Memo by Steve Blank

CoinOut Gets Coin In

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It’s always fun to see what happens to my students after they leave class. Jeff Witten started CoinOut four years ago in my Columbia University 5-day Lean LaunchPad class. CoinOut eliminates the hassle of getting a pocket full of loose change from merchants by allowing you to put it in a digital wallet. Jeff just appeared on Shark Tank and the Sharks funded him. We just caught up and I got to do a bit of customer discovery on Jeff’s entrepreneurial journey to date.

Innovation at Speed – when you have 2 million employees

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 13 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Success no longer goes to the country that develops a new fighting technology first, but rather to the one that better integrates it and adapts its way of fighting…Our response will be to prioritize speed of delivery, continuous adaptation, and frequent modular upgrades. We must not accept cumbersome approval chains, wasteful applications of resources in uncompetitive space, or overly risk-averse thinking that impedes change. If you read these quotes, you’d think they were from a CEO who just took over a company facing disruption from agile startups and a changing environment. And you’d be right. Although in this case the CEO is the Secretary of Defense. And his company has 2 million employees.

Janesville – A Story About the Rest of America

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I just read book – Janesville – that reminded me again of life outside the bubble. Janesville, tells the story of laid-off factory workers of a General Motors factory that’s never going to reopen. It’s a story about a Midwest town and the type of people I knew and worked alongside.

Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job – Disruption and Activist Investors

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Nov 2017 00:39:39 +0000

Jeff Immelt ran GE for 16 years. He radically transformed the company from a classic conglomerate that did everything to one that focused on its core industrial businesses. He sold off slower-growth, low-tech, and nonindustrial businesses — financial services, media, entertainment, plastics, and appliances. He doubled GE’s investment in R&D.

The Red Queen Problem – Innovation in the DoD and Intelligence Community

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Oct 2017 04:12:11 +0000

“…it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. ” - The Red Queen Alice in Wonderland Innovation, disruption, accelerators, have all become urgent buzzwords in the Department of Defense and Intelligence community. They are a reaction to the “red queen problem” but aren’t actually solving the problem. Here’s why.

Office of Naval Research (ONR) Goes Lean

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 18:11:14 +0000

The Office of Naval Research (ONR) has been one of the largest supporters of innovation in the U.S. Now they are starting to use the Lean Innovation process (see here and here) to turn ideas into solutions. The result will be defense innovation with speed and urgency.

Removing the Roadblocks to Corporate Innovation – When Theory Meets Practice

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 23:47:20 +0000

Innovation theory and innovation in practice are radically different. Here are some simple tools to get your company’s innovation pipeline through the obstacles it will encounter.

How companies strangle innovation – and how you can get it right

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 17:40:04 +0000

I just watched a very smart company try to manage innovation by hiring a global consulting firm to offload engineering from “distractions.” They accomplished their goal, but at a huge, unanticipated cost: the processes and committees they designed ended up strangling innovation. There’s a much better way.

Working Outside the Tech Bubble

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 17 Aug 2017 03:47:21 +0000

Annual note to self – most of the world exists outside the tech bubble. —– We have a summer home in New England in a semi-rural area, just ~10,000 people in town, with a potato farm across the street. Drive down the road and you can see the tall stalks of corn waving on other farms. Most people aren’t in tech or law or teaching in universities; they fall solidly in what is called working-class. They work as electricians, carpenters, plumbers, in hospitals, restaurants, as clerks, office managers, farmers, etc. They have solid middle-class values of work, family, education and country – work hard, own a home, have a secure job, and save for their kids’ college and their retirement.

National Security Innovation just got a major boost in Washington

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:20:46 +0000

Two good things just happened in Washington – these days that should be enough of a headline. First, someone ideal was just appointed to be Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense. Second, funding to teach our Hacking for Defense class across the country just was added to the National Defense Authorization Act. Interestingly enough, both events are about how the best and brightest can serve their country – and are testament to the work of two dedicated men.

Why good people leave large tech companies

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:44:36 +0000

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I was visiting with an ex-student who’s now the CFO of a large public tech company. The company is still one of the hottest places to work in tech. They make hardware with a large part of their innovation in embedded software and services. The CFO asked me to stay as one of the engineering directors came in for a meeting. I wish I hadn’t.

Why a Company Can’t “Be More Like a Startup”

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 30 Jun 2017 02:15:51 +0000

As more and more companies face disruption from globalization, new technology, and startups that have more capital than the incumbents, the continuing cry from Wall Street investors is, “Why can’t companies be as innovative as startups?” Here’s one reason why: Startups can do anything. Companies can only do what’s legal.

Tesla Lost $700 Million Last Year, So Why Is Tesla’s Valuation $60 Billion?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 19:03:46 +0000

Automobile manufacturers shipped 88 million cars in 2016. Tesla shipped 76,000. Yet Wall Street values Tesla higher than any other U.S. car manufacturer. What explains this more than 1,000 to 1 discrepancy in valuation? The future.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2017 – Lessons Learned Presentations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 18:48:56 +0000

We just finished our second Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. Eight teams presented their Lessons Learned presentations. Hacking for Defense is a battle-tested problem-solving methodology that runs at Silicon Valley speed. It combines the same Lean Startup Methodology used by the National Science Foundation to commercialize science, with the rapid problem sourcing and curation methodology developed on the battlefields in Afghanistan and Iraq by Colonel Pete Newell and the US Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.

Innovation, Change and the Rest of Your Life

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 11 May 2017 08:06:00 +0000

I gave the Alumni Day talk at U.C. Santa Cruz and had a few things to say about innovation...Even though I live just up the coast, I’ve never had the opportunity to start a talk by saying “Go Banana Slugs.” I’m honored for the opportunity to speak here today. We’re standing 15 air miles away from the epicenter of technology innovation. The home of some of the most valuable and fastest growing companies in the world. I’ve spent my life in innovation, eight startups in 21 years, and the last 15 years in academia teaching it.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Marketing Communications

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 10:48:14 +0000

I was having coffee with the CEO of a new startup, listening to her puzzle through how to communicate to potential customers. She was an academic on leave from Stanford now selling SAAS software to large companies, but was being inundated with marketing communications advice. “My engineers say our website is old school, and we need to be on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, my VP of Sales says we’re wasting our marketing dollars not targeting the right people and my board keeps giving me their opinions of how we should describe our product and company. How do I sort out what to do?”

Herding Cats – Using Lean to Work Together

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 14:20:03 +0000

When Colonel Peter Newell headed up the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force (REF) he used lean methods on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan to provide immediate technology solutions to urgent problems. Today, his company BMNT does for government and commercial customers what the Rapid Equipping Force did for the U.S. Army. Pete and I created the Hacking for Defense class (with Joe Felter and Tom Byers.) One of the problems our students run into is that there are always multiple beneficiaries and stakeholders associated with a problem, often with conflicting value propositions and missions. So how do you figure out whose needs to satisfy? Here’s Pete’s view of how you do it.

Why Some Startups Win

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 20 Mar 2017 18:23:38 +0000

I was having a second coffee with an ex student, now the head of a marketing inside a rapidly growing startup. His company had marched through customer discovery, learning about the customer problem, validated solutions and was now scaling sales and marketing. All good news.

The No Excuses Culture

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 12:44:51 +0000

Getting ready for our next semester’s class, I asked my Teaching Assistant why I hadn’t seen the posters for our new class around campus. Hearing the litany of excuses that followed –“It was raining.” (The posters go inside the building.) “We still have time.” (We had agreed they were to go up a week ago) — I had a strong sense of déjà vu. When I took the job of VP of Marketing in a company emerging from bankruptcy, excuses seemed to be our main product. So we created The No Excuses Culture.

Don’t let process distract you from finding the strategy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:27:04 +0000

The latest “aha” moment for me when I was at Columbia University teaching an intensive 5-day version of the Lean LaunchPad/I-Corps class. The goal of the class is to expose students to the basics of the Lean Methodology – Business Model Design, Customer Development and Agile Engineering.

Innovation – something both parties can agree on

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:17:02 +0000

On the last day Congress was in session in 2016, Democrats and Republicans agreed on a bill that increased innovation and research for the country. For me, seeing Congress pass this bill, the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, was personally satisfying. It made the program I helped start, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) a permanent part of the nation’s science ecosystem. I-Corps uses Lean Startup methods to teach scientists how to turn their discoveries into entrepreneurial, job-producing businesses. I-Corps bridges the gap between public support of basic science and private capital funding of new commercial ventures. It’s a model for a government program that’s gotten the balance between public/private partnerships just right. Over 1,000 teams of our nation’s best scientists have been through the program.

The Innovation Insurgency Gets Educated: Hacking for Defense, Diplomacy, Development

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 21:43:21 +0000

We’re holding our 2nd Hacking for Defense, Diplomacy,… educators and sponsors class January 17-19 at Georgetown University.

Hacking for Diplomacy @ Stanford –What We Learned With the State Department

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 21:33:08 +0000

We just held our final week of the Hacking for Diplomacy class, teaching students entrepreneurship and “Lean Startup” principles while they engaged in national public service applying advanced technologies to solve global challenges. Seven student teams delivered their final Lessons Learned presentations documenting their intellectual journey over just 10 short weeks in front of several hundred people in person and online. And what a journey it’s been.

What the Harvard Business Review and The People’s Daily think about leadership succession

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:45:29 +0000

I had to laugh when my post about what happens when innovative CEOs retire or die appeared in both the bastion of capitalism– the Harvard Business Review— and in the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party – The People’s Daily.Then I didn’t.

Machine Learning Meets the Lean Startup

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 20:42:14 +0000

We just finished our Lean LaunchPad class at UC Berkeley’s engineering school where many of the teams embedded machine learning technology into their products. It struck me as I watched the teams try to find how their technology would solve real customer problems, is that machine learning is following a similar pattern of previous technical infrastructure innovations. Early entrants get sold to corporate acquirers at inflated prices for their teams, their technology, and their tools. Later entrants who miss that wave have to build real products that people want to buy.

Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 23 Nov 2016 20:32:46 +0000

We’ve just held our seventh and eighth weeks of Hacking for Diplomacy at Stanford, and the attention our course is getting from Washington – and around the world – has been interesting. Following Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting with the students early in the quarter, Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken paid a visit to the class in Week 7 and four foreign ministers in week 8.

How The Marine Corps Builds an Innovation Culture

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 13 Nov 2016 16:42:41 +0000

Jennifer Edgin is the Chief Technology Officer of the Intelligence Division at the Headquarters of the Marine Corps. As the Senior Technical Advisor to the Director of Intelligence, she is and is responsible for building and infusing new technologies within the Marine Corps Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Enterprise (MCISRE). Jennifer is one the “innovation insurgents” inside the Department of Defense driving rapid innovation. Here’s her story of the Lean innovation accelerator she’s built for the Marines.

Hacking for Diplomacy at the State Department – Breakthroughs, breakdowns

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 09 Nov 2016 06:47:35 +0000

Time flies. We are already past the midway mark in our new Hacking for Diplomacy course at Stanford, and for both students and instructors, it’s an intellectually and emotionally charged period.

The State Department Meets the Lean Startup – Hacking For Diplomacy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 16:36:45 +0000

The academic year is in full swing at Stanford and already we’re deep into our new Hacking for Diplomacy course. Building off last spring’s pioneering Hacking for Defense class, which sought to connect Silicon Valley’s innovation culture and mindset to the Pentagon and the intelligence community, we’ve now expanded our horizons to the Department of State.

Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:56:39 +0000

What happens to a company when a visionary CEO is gone? Most often innovation dies and the company coasts for years on momentum and its brand. Rarely does it regain its former glory. Here’s why.

The 11 Bad Habits Killing Innovation in Your Company

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 03:22:02 +0000

Alexander Osterwalder invented the Business Model Canvas, co-founded strategyzer.com and was the lead author of Business Model Generation which sold a million copies in 30 languages. Alexander and I often collaborate on new ideas for corporate innovation. Here’s his guest post on what bad habits to avoid inside of a company.

The Innovation Insurgency Scales – Hacking For Defense (H4D)

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 13:29:09 +0000

Hacking for Defense is a battle-tested problem-solving methodology that runs at Silicon Valley speed. We just held our first Hacking for Defense Educators Class with 75 attendees.

Working Hard is not the same as working smart

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 13:23:08 +0000

Measuring how hard your team is working by counting the number of hours they work or what time they get in and leave is how amateurs run companies. The number of hours worked is not the same as how effective they (and you) are.

Hacking for Diplomacy – Solving Foreign Policy Challenges with the Lean LaunchPad

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 13:17:16 +0000

Hacking for Diplomacy is a new course from the Management Science and Engineering department in Stanford’s Engineering school and Stanford’s International Policy Studies program that will be first offered in the Fall of 2016.

The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 12:54:07 +0000

We tend to associate the government with words like bureaucracy rather than lean innovation. But smart people within government agencies are working to change the culture and embrace new ways of doing things. The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a great example.

Hacking for Defense & Hacking for Diplomacy – Educator/Sponsor Class

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 03:56:43 +0000

On September 7th – 9th we are holding our first Hacking for Defense & Diplomacy – class for Educators and Sponsors, training educators how to teach these classes in their universities and sponsors how to select problem sets and manage their teams.

Why the Navy Needs Disruption Now (part 2 of 2)

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 17:40:00 +0000

This is the second of a two-part post following my stay on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson. Part 1 talked about what I saw and learned – the layout of a carrier, how the air crew operates and how the carrier functions in context of the other ships around it (the strike group.) But the biggest learning was the realization that disruption is not just happening to companies, it’s also happening to the Navy. And that the Lean Innovation tools we’ve built to deal with disruption and create continuous innovation for large commercial organizations were equally relevant here.

Why the Navy Needs Disruption Now (part 1 of 2)

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 13:24:09 +0000

Sitting backwards in a plane with no windows, strapped in a 4-point harness, wearing a life preserver, head encased in a helmet, eyes covered by googles, your brain can’t process the acceleration. As the C-2 A Greyhound is hurled off an aircraft carrier into the air via a catapult, your body thrown forward in the air, until a few seconds later, hundreds of feet above the carrier now at 150 miles per hour you yell, “Holy Shxt.” And no one can hear you through the noise, helmet and ear protectors.

Intel Disrupted: Why large companies find it difficult to innovate, and what they can do about it

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 13:12:09 +0000

In the 21st century it’s harder for large corporations to create disruptive breakthroughs. Disruptive innovations are coming from startups – Telsa for automobiles, Uber for taxis, Airbnb for hotel rentals, Netflix for video rentals and Facebook for media.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Lessons Learned Presentations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 14:52:48 +0000

We just held our tenth and final week of the Hacking for Defense class. Today the eight teams presented their Lessons Learned presentations. We’re a little stunned about how well the first prototype of this class went. Over half the student teams have decided to continue working on national security projects after this class. Other colleges and universities have raised their hand and said they want to offer this at their school.

Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Weeks 8 and 9

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 13:07:35 +0000

We just held our eighth and ninth weeks of the Hacking for Defense class. Now with over 917 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.), the teams spent the last two weeks learning what activities, resources and partners they would need to actually deliver their solution. And they’re getting a handle on what it costs to build a company to deliver it.

NYU Commencement Speech 2016

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 25 May 2016 14:11:46 +0000

Thank you for the opportunity to address you on your graduation from this esteemed engineering school. I’m honored to help you celebrate this important milestone. Your life is already full of milestones: Your first steps, your first kiss, passing a driving test, this graduation. And there are more to come: your first job, getting married, buying a house, having a child, becoming a manager, starting a company, retirement – and eventually commencement speaker:-)

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 7

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 18 May 2016 14:08:07 +0000

We just held our seventh week of the Hacking for Defense class. Now with over 750 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.) almost all the teams are beginning to pivot from their original understanding of their sponsor’s problem and their hypotheses about how to solve them. Minimal viable products are being demo’d to sponsors and sponsors are reacting to what the teams are learning. This week teams figured out how to measure mission achievement and success, and our advanced lectures were on activities, resources and partners.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 6

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 17 May 2016 12:40:09 +0000

We just held our sixth week of the Hacking for Defense class. Now with over 660 interviews of beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.) the teams are getting deep into problem understanding and their minimal viable products are getting sophisticated enough to generate detailed customer feedback; we gave them advice on how to “stand and deliver” in class; and our advanced lecture explained how to find and measure mission achievement.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 5

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 04 May 2016 20:39:33 +0000

We just held our fifth week of the Hacking for Defense class. This week the teams passed the half way mark in the class. They’ve collectively talked to over 550 beneficiaries (users, program managers, stakeholders, etc.) Their focus for this week was to figure out how to get products rapidly deployed into their sponsors organization. Our advanced lecture explained how to get buy-in for your solution by creating an insurgency among your supporters and advocates.

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 4

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 14:39:31 +0000

We just held our fourth week of the Hacking for Defense class. This week the teams turned the corner on understanding beneficiaries and finding product/market fit. The 8 teams spoke to 115 beneficiaries (users, program managers, etc.); we sent each team a critique of their mission model canvas; we started streaming the class live to DOD/IC sponsors and other educators; our advanced lecture explained how to go from concept to deployment in the DOD/IC; and we watched as the students got closer to understanding the actual problems their customers have.

Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 3

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 22 Apr 2016 13:16:23 +0000

We just held our third week of the Hacking for Defense class. This week the 8 teams spoke to 108 beneficiaries (users, program mangers, etc.), we held a Customer Discovery workshop, we started streaming the class live to DOD/IC sponsors and other educators, our advanced lecture was on Product/Market fit for the DOD/IC and we watched as the students solved their customer discovery obstacles and started getting closer to their customers.

Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 15 Apr 2016 13:39:54 +0000

We just held our second week of the Hacking for Defense class. This week the 8 teams spoke to 106 beneficiaries (users, program mangers, etc.), we held a DOD/IC 101 workshop, our advanced lecture was on the Value Proposition Canvas, and we watched as the students ran into common customer discovery obstacles and found new ones.

Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 1

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 13:50:18 +0000

Hacking for Defense is a new class in Stanford’s School Engineering, where students learn about the nation’s security challenges by working with innovators inside the Department of Defense (DoD) and Intelligence Community. The class teaches students the Lean Startup approach to entrepreneurship while they engage in what amounts to national public service.

What Founders Need to Know: You Were Funded for a Liquidity Event – Start Looking

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 16:59:08 +0000

To most founders a startup is not a job, but a calling. But startups require money upfront for product development and later to scale. Traditional lenders (banks) think that startups are too risky for a traditional bank loan

Learning Through Reflection

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 25 Mar 2016 13:17:06 +0000

We just finished the 6th annual Lean LaunchPad class. This year we made a small but substantive addition to way we teach the class, adding a week for reflection. The results have made the class massively better.

The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 13:48:20 +0000

As we prepared for the new Hacking for Defense class at Stanford, we had to stop and ask ourselves: How do we use the Business Model Canvas if the primary goal is not to earn money, but to fulfill a mission? In other words, how can we adapt the Business Model Canvas when the metrics of success for an organization is not revenue?

Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Making the World a Safer Place

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 09:34:28 +0000

Introducing Hacking for Defense – Connecting Silicon Valley Innovation Culture and Mindset to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community Hacking for Defense is a new course at Stanford’s Engineering School in the Spring of 2016. It is being taught by Tom Byers, Steve Blank, Joe Felter and Pete Newell and is advised by former Secretary of Defense Bill Perry. Join a select cross-disciplinary class that will put you hands-on with the masters of lean innovation to help bring rapid-fire innovative solutions to address threats to our national security. Why?

How to Avoid Innovation Theater: The Six Decisions To Make Before Establishing an Innovation Outpost

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 21 Jan 2016 14:11:30 +0000

This is the third in a series about the changing models of corporate innovation co-authored with Evangelos Simoudis. Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship.

Blank’s Rule – To predict the future 1/3 of you need to be crazy

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 26 Dec 2015 04:35:07 +0000

When companies or agencies search for disruptive and innovative strategies they often assemble a panel of experts to advise them. Ironically the panel is often made up of people whose ideas about innovation were relevant in the past.

How to Set Up a Corporate Innovation Outpost That Works

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 19:48:48 +0000

This is the fourth in a series about corporate innovation co-authored with Evangelos Simoudis. Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship. In our last post, we addressed the six key questions that senior management should address to determine if an Innovation Outpost makes sense for a company. If the answer is yes, here’s a step-by-step guide to help set one up.

Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley – Going to Where the Action Is

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 19:40:01 +0000

This is the second in a series about the changing models of corporate innovation co-authored with Evangelos Simoudis. Evangelos and I are working on what we hope will become a book about the new model for corporate entrepreneurship.

Innovation Outposts and The Evolution of Corporate R&D

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 19:32:31 +0000

I first met Evangelos Simoudis when he ran IBM’s Business Intelligence Solutions Division and then as CEO of his first startup Customer Analytics. Evangelos has spent the last 15 years as a Venture Capitalist, first at Apax Partners and later at Trident Capital. During the last three years he’s worked with over 100 companies, many of which established Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley. He’s now helping companies get the most out of their relationships with Silicon Valley.

Pixar, Artists, Founders and Corporate Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 20 Dec 2015 19:13:17 +0000

In a recent workshop with a large company focused on the Innovation@50x process, I mentioned that founders and intraprenuers operate more like artists than accountants – on day one they see something no one else does. One of the innovators in the room said, “It sounds like you’re describing exactly what Ed Catmull the CEO of Pixar wrote in Creativity, Inc.”

Hacking a Corporate Culture: Stories, Heroes and Rituals in Startups and Companies

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 06:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. One of the interesting innovation challenges I’ve encountered centers on a company’s culture. While startups have the luxury of building values and culture from scratch, existing companies that want to (re)start corporate innovation must reboot an existing –and at times deeply rooted- corporate culture. It’s not an easy task, but failing to change the culture will doom any innovation efforts the company attempts.

Why Corporate Entrepreneurs are Extraordinary – the Rebel Alliance

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 27 Aug 2015 06:55:22 +0000

I’ve spent this year working with corporations and government agencies that are adopting and adapting Lean Methodologies. The biggest surprise for me was getting schooled on how extremely difficult it is to be an innovator inside a company of executors.

The 7 Deadly Healthcare Startup Sins

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 10:57:07 +0000

Todd Dunn is the Director of Innovation and runs the Intermountain Healthcare Transformation Lab, which is working to foster innovation in the healthcare industry. Todd DunnHe’s now run several Lean LaunchPad classes and has seen a ton of healthcare startups. Here’s his advice for startups in this space.

Lean Innovation Management – Making Corporate Innovation Work

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 22:15:19 +0000

I’ve been working with large companies and the U.S. government to help them innovate faster– not just kind of fast, but 10x the number of initiatives in 1/5 the time. A 50x speedup kind of fast. Here’s how.

Organizational Debt is like Technical debt – but worse

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 21 May 2015 03:25:37 +0000

Startups focus on speed since they are burning cash every day as they search for product/market fit. But over time code/hardware written/built to validate hypotheses and find early customers can become unwieldy, difficult to maintain and incapable of scaling. These shortcuts add up and become what is called technical debt. And the size of the problem increases with the success of the company.

Doubling Down On a Good Thing: The National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Lite

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 14 May 2015 23:25:32 +0000

I’ve known Edmund Pendleton from the University of Maryland as the Director of the D.C. National Science Foundation (NSF) I-Corps Node (a collaboration among the University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, George Washington, and Johns Hopkins). But it wasn’t until seeing him lead the first I-Corps class at the National Institutes of Health that I realized Edmund could teach my class better than I can.

Why Build, Measure, Learn – isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 08 May 2015 16:48:32 +0000

I am always surprised when critics complain that the Lean Startup’s Build, Measure, Learn approach is nothing more than “throwing incomplete products out of the building to see if they work.” Unfortunately the Build, Measure, Learn diagram is the cause of that confusion. At first glance it seems like a fire-ready-aim process.It’s time to update Build, Measure, Learn to what we now know is the best way to build Lean startups. Here’s how.

How One Startup Figured Out What Could Really Help Deaf People

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 01 May 2015 22:29:33 +0000

Thibault Duchemin and his team applied for our Lean LaunchPad class at UC Berkeley in 2014. We accepted them because it was clear Thibault was driven to solve a very personal problem – he grew up in a Deaf family, the only one who could hear. His team project was to provide automated aids for the hearing impaired. Here’s his story.

Hacking For Defense In Silicon Valley

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 17:37:51 +0000

In peacetime the U.S. military is an immovable and inflexible bureaucracy. In wartime it can adapt and adopt organizational change with startling speed. BMNT, a new Silicon Valley company, is combining the Lean Methods it learned in combat with the technology expertise and speed of startups.

Getting to “Yes” for Corporate Innovation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 16:55:42 +0000

I’ve been working with Roberto, the Chief Innovation Officer of a diversified company I’ll call Sprocket Industries. I hadn’t heard from Roberto in awhile and when we caught up, it was clear his initial optimism had faded. I listened as Roberto listed the obstacles to the new innovation program at Sprocket...

Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed In a Large Corporation

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 23:13:39 +0000

I just spent a day working with Bob, the Chief Innovation Officer of a very smart large company I’ll call Acme Widgets. Bob summarized Acme’s impediments to innovation. “At our company we have a culture that fears failure. A failed project is considered a negative to a corporate career. As a result, few people want to start a project that might not succeed. And worse, even if someone does manage to start something new, our management structure has so many financial, legal and HR hurdles that every initiative needs to match our existing business financial metrics, processes and procedures.

Blowing up the Business Plan at U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 01:05:26 +0000

During the Cold War with the Soviet Union, science and engineering at both Stanford and U.C. Berkeley were heavily funded to develop Cold War weapon systems. Stanford’s focus was Electronic Intelligence and those advanced microwave components and systems were useful in a variety of weapons systems. Starting in the 1950’s, Stanford’s engineering department became “outward facing” and developed a culture of spinouts and active faculty support and participation in the first wave of Silicon Valley startups.

Life Science Startups Rising in the UK

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:19:57 +0000

Stephen Chambers spent 22 years in some of the most innovative companies in life science as the director of gene expression and then as a co-founder of his own company. Today he runs SynbiCITE, the UK’s synthetic biology consortium of 56 industrial partners and 19 Academic institutions located at Imperial College in London. Stephen and SynbiCITE, just launched the world’s first Lean LaunchPad for Synthetic Biology program. Here’s his story.

What Do I Do Now? The Startup Lifecycle

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 16:06:05 +0000

Last week I got a call from Patrick an ex-student I hadn’t heard from for 8 years. He was now the CEO of a company and wanted to talk about what he admitted was a “first world” problem. Over breakfast he got me up to date on his life since school (two non-CEO roles in startups,) but he wanted to talk about his third startup – the one he and two co-founders had started.

When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 04 Feb 2015 19:30:44 +0000

I remind my students that I’m teaching them a methodology they can use the rest of their careers, not running an incubator. Every once in awhile a team ignores my advice and builds a company worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s About Women Running Startups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 16:54:54 +0000

“Why is it so hard for a woman to still get taken seriously by a venture capitalist?”

Getting out of the building…by staying in the building!

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 16:51:19 +0000

The landscape for how to turn life science and health care technologies into viable companies has changed more in the last 3 years than in the last 30. New approaches to translational medicine have emerged. Our Lean Launchpad® for Life Sciences is one of them. But a new class of life science/healthcare co-working and collaboration space is another.

I-Corps at the NIH: Evidence-based Translational Medicine

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 17:07:43 +0000

Over the last three years the National Science Foundation I-Corps has taught over 700 teams of scientists how to commercialize their technology and how to fail less, increasing their odds for commercial success.

The Big Bang. The Lean LaunchPad explodes at University of Maryland

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 18:32:27 +0000

The University of Maryland is now integrating the Lean LaunchPad® into standard innovation and entrepreneurship courses across all 12 colleges within the University. Over 44 classes have embedded the business model canvas and/or Customer Discovery including a year-long course taken by every single one of its bioengineering majors. It’s made a big bang.

Impact! NYU Scales the Lean LaunchPad

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 22 Nov 2014 02:10:48 +0000

NYU has adopted the Lean LaunchPad® class as a standard entrepreneurship course across twelve different schools/colleges within the University. Over 1,000 students a year are learning lean startup concepts. Impact!

Why Corporate Skunk Works Need to Die

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:13:13 +0000

In the 20th century corporate skunk works were used to develop disruptive innovation separate from the rest of the company. They were the hallmark of innovative corporations. By the middle of the 21st century the only companies with skunk works will be the ones that have failed to master continuous innovation. Skunk works will be the signposts of companies that will be left behind.

Born Global or Die Local – Building a Regional Startup Playbook

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 13:46:15 +0000

Entrepreneurship is everywhere, but everywhere isn’t a level playing field. What’s the playbook for your region or country to make it so? Scalable startups are on a trajectory for a billion dollar market cap. They grow into companies that define an industry and create jobs. Not all start ups want to go in that direction – some will opt instead to become a small business. There’s nothing wrong with a business that supports you and perhaps an extended family. But if you want to build a scalable startup you need to be asking how you can you get enough customers/users/payers to build a business that can grow revenues past several $100M/year.

The Business Model Canvas Gets Even Better – Value Proposition Design

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 21:13:05 +0000

Product/Market fit now has its own book. Alexander Osterwalder wrote it. Buy it.

Watching My Students Grow

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 01:43:09 +0000

One of the great things about teaching is that while some students pass by like mist in the night others remain connected forever. I get to watch them grow into their careers and cheer them on. Its been three and a half years since I first designed and taught the Lean LaunchPad class and lots of water has gone under the bridge since then. I’ve taught hundreds of teams, the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps has taught close to 400 teams led by our nations top scientists, and the class is being taught around the world.

Watching Larry Ellison become Larry Ellison — The DNA of a Winner

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 02:52:36 +0000

In Oracle’s early days Kathryn Gould was the founding VP of Marketing, working there from 1982 to 1984. When I heard that Larry Ellison was stepping down as Oracle’s CEO I asked Kathryn to think about the skills she saw in a young Larry Ellison that might make today’s founders winners.

The Woodstock of K-12 Education

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 15:28:06 +0000

Describing something as the “Woodstock of…” has taken to mean a one-of-a-kind historic gathering. It happened recently when a group of educators came to the ranch to learn how to teach Lean entrepreneurship to K-12 students.

How To Find the Right Co-Founders?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 20:29:09 +0000

How do you figure out what’s the right mix of skills for the co-founders of your startup? Surprisingly if you’ve filled out the business model canvas you already know who you need. I was having breakfast with Radhika, an ex-grad student of mine who wanted to share her Customer Discovery progress for her consumer hardware startup. She started by sketching her business model canvas on a napkin, but somehow the conversation quickly shifted to what was really on her mind.

Why Translational Medicine Will Never be The Same

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 20:12:25 +0000

For the past three years the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps has been teaching our nations best scientists how to build a Lean Startup. Close to 400 teams in robotics, computer science, materials science, geoscience, etc. have learned how to use business models, get out of the building to test their hypotheses and minimum viable product.

How To Think Like an Entrepreneur: the Inventure Cycle

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 22:07:32 +0000

The Lean Startup is a process for turning ideas into commercial ventures. Its premise is that startups begin with a series of untested hypotheses. They succeed by getting out of the building, testing those hypotheses and learning by iterating and refining minimal viable products in front of potential customers.

Why Founders Should Know How to Code

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 23:42:30 +0000

“By knowing things that exist, you can know that which does not exist.” - Book of Five Rings...A startup is not just about the idea, it’s about testing and then implementing the idea.A founding team without these skills is likely dead on arrival.

Pioneering Women in Venture Capital: Kathryn Gould

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 09 Aug 2014 21:09:14 +0000

I met Kathryn Gould longer ago than either of us want to admit. Kathryn has been the founding VP of Marketing of Oracle, a successful recruiter, a world class Venture Capitalist, a co-founder of a Venture Capital firm, a great board member, one of my mentors and most importantly a wonderful friend. During her career she made a big point of not telling you: she was one of the first women Venture Capitalist’s in Silicon Valley (along with M.J. Elmore and Ann Winblad) – “I’m just a VC.”

Driving Corporate Innovation: Design Thinking vs. Customer Development

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 03:03:50 +0000

Startups are not smaller versions of large companies, but interestingly we see that companies are not larger versions of startups.

Getting Lean in Education – By Getting Out of the Classroom

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 30 Jul 2014 06:30:00 +0000

This week the National Science Foundation goes Lean on education by providing $1.2 million to educators who want to bring their classroom innovations to a wider audience.

The Path of Our Lives

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 16:32:51 +0000

I got a call that reminded me that most people live their life as if it’s predestined – but some live theirs fighting to change it.

How Investors Make Better Decisions: The Investment Readiness Level

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 01:53:44 +0000

Investors sitting through Incubator or Accelerator demo days have three metrics to judge fledgling startups – 1) great looking product demos, 2) compelling PowerPoint slides, and 3) a world-class team. Other than “I’ll know it when I see it”, there’s no formal way for an investor to assess project maturity or quantify risks. Other than measuring engineering progress, there’s no standard language to communicate progress.

I-Corps @ NIH – Pivoting the Curriculum

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 11:00:36 +0000

We’ve pivoted our Lean LaunchPad / I-Corps curriculum. We’re changing the order in which we teach the business model canvas and customer development to better-fit therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices.

Why Lean May Save Your Life – The I-Corps @ NIH

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 21 Jun 2014 04:11:56 +0000

Today the National Institutes of Health announced they are offering my Lean LaunchPad class (I-Corps @ NIH ) to commercialize Life Science. There may come a day that one of these teams makes a drug, diagnostic or medical device that saves your life.

Hostages Strapped to the Tank: Coastal Commission Stories – Lesson 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 15:25:19 +0000

For six and a half years I served as a public official on the California Coastal Commission.Commissoner Badge Since it’s been a year since I resigned, it’s time to tell a few stories about what I learned as a Coastal Commissioner. Each and every month I learned something new about human nature, deception and greed.

Farming for Developers: Coastal Commission Stories – Lesson 1

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:40:27 +0000

Last week I got an email last week from a New York VC asking for advice about building a house in the California Coastal Zone. For six and a half years I served as a public official on the California Coastal Commission. The call reminded me that it’s been a year since I resigned, and it’s time to tell a few stories of what I learned as a Coastal Commissioner. Each and every month I learned that not everything was how it seemed.

Three Things I Learned on Commencement Day

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 31 May 2014 07:20:07 +0000

In the last five years I’ve been at Commencement Day at universities around the world – a few times to receive awards and three times as the commencement speaker. But attending both my daughters’ college graduations this year helped me to see how things look from the other side of the podium.

Innovating Municipal Government Culture

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 19:15:54 +0000

D.R. Widder is the Vice President of Innovation and holds the Steve Blank Innovation Chair at Philadelphia University. He’s helping city government in Philadelphia become more innovative by applying Lean startup methods and Philadelphia University’s innovation curriculum. I asked him to share an update on his work on teaching lean techniques to local governments. Subscribe at http://j.mp/1iyL7tW.

New Lessons Learned from Berkeley & Stanford Lean LaunchPad Classes

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 16:44:09 +0000

Our Stanford and Berkeley Lean LaunchPad classes are over for this year, and as usual we learned as much from teaching the teams as the teams did from us. Here are a few of the Lessons Learned from these two classes.

Corporate Acquisitions of Startups: Why Do They Fail?

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 16:39:40 +0000

For decades large companies have gone shopping in Silicon Valley for startups. Lately the pressure of continuous disruption has forced them to step up the pace. More often than not the results of these acquisitions are disappointing. What can companies learn from others’ failed efforts to integrate startups into large companies? The answer - there are two types of integration strategies, and they depend on where the startup is in its lifecycle.

If I Told You I’d Have to Kill You: The Story Behind “The Secret History of Silicon Valley”

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 14:35:40 +0000

About a month ago I had one of the strangest phones call of my life. “Steve my name is Donald xx, and I’m the head of external affairs of the CIA’s venture capital firm and we’d like you to keynote our conference.” CIA?

SuperMac War Story 4: Repositioning SuperMac – “Market Type” at Work

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:14:57 +0000

With insight into our customers, the first part of our strategy was to understand what kind of positioning problem we had. Was SuperMac attempting to introduce radically new products and create a new market? No, not really.

SuperMac War Story 3: Customer Insight Is Everyone’s Job

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 29 Mar 2014 12:43:46 +0000

After my first month we knew a lot, we knew more about our customers than anyone in the company. In this one month we had learned more about desktop publishing on the Mac than any one of our competitors. Now the question was what to do with it. First I need to make sure what we really learned was information we could base a company strategy on.

SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions Reside Within

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 22:27:48 +0000

A week before I started I got inkling of really how deep I was in. While I was waiting in the lobby to pick up my offer letter, the head of marketing communications (who was to be one of my direct reports) came up to me as I held my just signed employment agreement. She said, “Oh I’m glad you’re coming, and I wanted to grab you before you started because we need to resolve the company’s biggest marketing problem.” I was impressed; this was something so important that she couldn’t wait for my first day. Was she going to propose a coherent communications strategy? An in-depth reseller survey? Or offer some real insights into our customers? No. “We need to decide immediately between which version of the new logo to use.” Ignoring my dropping jaw, she pointed out the key differences in the Pantone colors between what appeared to me o be the two indistinguishable alternatives.

Why Internal Ventures are Different from External Startups

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:46:55 +0000

Henry Chesbrough is known as the father of Open Innovation and wrote the book that defined the practice. Henry is the Faculty Director of the Garwood Center for Corporate Innovation, at U.C. Berkeley in the Haas Business School. Henry and I teach a corporate innovation class together.

SuperMac War Story 1: Joining SuperMac

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:19:49 +0000

After leaving Ardent (a supercomputer company I’ll blog about later) in 1988, I consulted for Pixar when they were still in San Rafael and were a hardware company trying to make software and commercials. While I was consulting for them, I got a call from a recruiter for a company called SuperMac, which made add-on products for the Macintosh.

There’s a Pattern Here

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 17:58:16 +0000

After my eighth and likely final startup, E.piphany, sitting in a ski cabin, it became clear that there is a better a way to manage startups. Joseph Campbell’s insight of the repeatable patterns in mythology is equally applicable to building a successful startup.

Out of the Ashes – Something Isn’t Quite Right

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 23 Mar 2014 15:39:28 +0000

“Customer Development” was born four years earlier and 200 miles away on Sandhill Road. I was between my 7th and 8th and final startup; licking my wounds from Rocket Science, the company I had cratered as my first and last attempt as a startup CEO. I was consulting for the two venture capital firms who between them put $12 million into my last failed startup.

The Product Development Model

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 17:47:43 +0000

I realized that traditional ways to think about startups – have an idea, raise some money, do product development, go through an alpha test, beta test and first customer ship was the canonical model of how entrepreneurs thought about early stage ventures.

Retirement and Redemption

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:10:49 +0000

In 1999 I retired and began to reflect about my career and what had happened in the previous 21 years and eight startups in Silicon Valley. Alone in a ski cabin with the snow coming down outside, and my wife and daughters out on the slopes all day, I started collecting my thoughts by writing a series of “lessons learned” stories that I had hoped would become my memoirs.

You’re Just the Founder

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:35:38 +0000

At times VC’s forget who their business is built on. Last week in a car showroom of all places I ran into a VC who I hadn’t seen in ten years. He had sat on the board of my last company and we chatted and made small talk as he was admiring a new car. It was clear that he had no memory of a phone conversation my partner and I have never forgotten.

Get the Heck Out of the Building in Founder’s School: Part 2

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 21:55:19 +0000

With a ~$2 billion endowment the Kauffman Foundation is the largest non-profit focused on entrepreneurship in the world. Giving away $80 million to every year (~$25 million to entrepreneurial causes) makes Kauffman the dominant player in the entrepreneurship space.

The Seven Days of Christmas

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 14:30:19 +0000

I’m sitting next to the fireplace in my favorite chair listening to holiday music, looking at the ocean and making occasional attempts to “help” get ready for Christmas dinner. We went for a hike checking out our new trail signs and playing “spot the bobcat.” Our kids are home for the school break, some friends are visiting from the east coast and we have everything for the holidays but snow on the California coast.

The End of Innocence

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 17:40:04 +0000

I love TechCrunch. If you’re a startup raising money or just want to see your name online, there’s not a better blog on the web. Reading this TechCrunch post made me remember the first time I saw someone confront a worldview they didn’t expect.

He’s Only in Field Service

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:48:32 +0000

The most important early customers for your startup usually turn out to be quite different from who you think they’re going to be. When I was at Zilog, the Z8000 peripheral chips included the new “Serial Communications Controller” (SCC). As the (very junior) product marketing manager I got a call from our local salesman that someone at Apple wanted more technical information than just the spec sheets about our new (not yet shipping) chip.

Epitaph for an Entrepreneur

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 17:08:57 +0000

Raising our kids and being an entrepreneur wasn’t easy. Being in a startup and having a successful relationship and family was very hard work. But entrepreneurs can be great spouses and parents. This post is not advice, nor is it recommendation of what you should do, it’s simply what my wife and I did to raise our kids in the middle of starting multiple companies. Our circumstances were unique and your mileage will vary.

Rocks in the Rocket Science Lobby

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 20:28:39 +0000

In 1994 Rocket Science Games was the only video game company with a rock in its lobby. We had moved our game development facilities from Berkeley and Palo Alto and consolidated into one building on Townsend Street in the “South of Market” neighborhood in San Francisco. (We’re were just around the corner from the future home of SF Giants AT&T Baseball Park, which then was just a rubble-strewn parking lot in a sketchy neighborhood.)

Gravity Will be Turned Off

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 03:05:06 +0000

Part of marketing is the ability to communicate a message to thousands of people and convince them to believe your version of reality. When I was 19 I accidentally had a test run of my ability to do so. I created havoc at an air force base by convincing thousands of airman that gravity would be turned off so that the Air Force could make repairs under their buildings.

When Hell Froze Over – in the Harvard Business Review

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 04:11:52 +0000

In my 21 years as an entrepreneur, I would come up for air once a month to religiously read the Harvard Business Review. It was not only my secret weapon in thinking about new startup strategies, it also gave me a view of the management issues my customers were dealing with...

Making a Dent in the Universe – Results from the NSF I-Corps

startups@clearshore.us (Steve Blank) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 05:51:21 +0000

Our goal teaching for the National Science Foundation was to make a dent in the universe. Could we actually teach tenured faculty how to turn an idea into a company? And if we did, could it change their lives? We can now answer these questions. Hell yes.