Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur based in Pescadero, California.Blank is recognized for developing the customer development method that launched the lean startup movement, a methodology which recognized that startups are not smaller versions of large companies, but require their own set of processes and tools to be successful. His Lean Launchpad class has become the standard for commercialization for all federal research.Blank writes and teaches about customer development and the lean startup method. He is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford; lectures at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and is a senior fellow at Columbia University. He has written four books: The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, The Startup Owner's Manual, and Holding a Cat by the Tail. Wikipedia
“There are no facts inside the building, so get the hell outside.”
Forbes "Try 'Walking The Path' To Solve Your Startup Problems" http://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2015/10/27/try-walking-the-path-to-solve-your-startup-problems/#6cb0ab3a5c64. October 27, 2015.
“The Silicon Valley culture is "I can win and you can win" - it isn't a sum-zero game.”
Interview with Steve Blank (2013)
“Strategy Is not a to-do list.”
Entrepreneur "Strategy is Not a To-do List" https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/238513 October 16, 2014.
“Winners understand why customers buy.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 124.
“On Day One, a startup is a faith-based enterprise.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 8
Discussing the seven waves (the invention of speech, the written word, the printing press, newspapers, radio, television, and Internet)
Dalhousie University Commencement Speech (2017)
Philadelphia University Commencement speech NPR: "The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever" http://apps.npr.org/commencement/speech/steve-blank-philadelphia-university-2011/. May 14, 2011.
“Light a path for the better angels. The world is counting on you.”
Dalhousie University Commencement Speech (2017)
Forbes "Entrepreneurship is an Art Not a Job" http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveblank/2013/03/29/entrepreneurship-is-an-art-not-a-job/#754e53231d5b. March 29, 2013.
“No business plan survives its first contact with customers.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 53.
“Customers don't ask to see your business plan.”
Not All Who Wander Are Lost, K&S Ranch, 2010, p. 40.
Forbes "Lean And Meaningful: What Founders Still Need To Fix In The 21st Century" https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyinverso/2016/02/10/lean-and-meaningful-what-founders-still-need-to-fix-in-the-21st-century/#1a89897a2389. February 29, 2016 issue.
“Money is the lifeblood of startups. You stay in business until you run out of it.”
Source: The Four Steps to the Epiphany (2013), p. 297
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. xvii.
“To predict the future, 1/3 of your team needs to be crazy.”
VentureBeat "‘Blank’s Rule’: To predict the future, 1/3 of your team needs to be crazy" https://venturebeat.com/2015/12/19/blanks-rule-to-predict-the-future-13-of-your-team-needs-to-be-crazy/. December 19, 2015.
“In Silicon Valley, we have a special word for a failed entrepreneur – it’s called experienced.”
University of Minnesota commencement speech, FounderLY http://www.founderly.com/2013/05/university-of-minnesota-commencement-speech. May 06, 2013.
Interview with Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/ideacast/2017/08/when-startups-scrapped-the-business-plan.html.3 August 2017
“Building your product is easy. The hard part is getting customers.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 147.
“Innovation comes from those who see things that other don’t.”
Philadelphia University Commencement speech NPR: "The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever" http://apps.npr.org/commencement/speech/steve-blank-philadelphia-university-2011/. May 14, 2011.
“Progress and stability are mutually exclusive.”
Tweet https://twitter.com/sgblank/status/792843860506320897 at twitter.com/sgblank, 30 Oct. 2016, 10:41 PM
“If you're afraid to fail in a startup, you're destined to do so.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 33.
Steve Blank in interview with Jake Cook, "Steve Blank: Lessons From 35 Years of Making Startups Fail Less" http://99u.com/articles/7256/steve-blank-lessons-from-35-years-of-making-startups-fail-less, U99 website, 2013.
Steve Blank, Not All Who Wander Are Lost, K&S Ranch, 2010, p. 54.
“The best startups discover a situation where customers have tried to build a solution themselves.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 86.
Startup Grind "70,000 tests later, Steve Blank knows how your startup can fail" https://medium.com/startup-grind/70-000-tests-later-steve-blank-knows-how-your-startup-can-fail-81e316baecca#.niap677nt. June 15, 2016.
“Build it and they will come” is not a strategy; it’s a prayer.”
Forbes "How To Test The Assumption That People Actually Want Your Product" https://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2016/06/14/how-to-test-the-assumption-that-people-actually-want-your-product/#420ab8f74217. June 14, 2016.
“Market type influences everything a company does.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 39.
“Customer Discovery is damn hard work. You can't fake it.”
Source: The Four Steps to the Epiphany (2013), p. 50.
“A startup is not a smaller version of a large company.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. xvii.
“Relentless execution without knowing what to execute is a crime.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 11.
“Startups demand comfort with chaos, uncertainty and change.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 44.
Dalhousie University Commencement Speech (2017)
Interview with Steve Blank (2013)
Dalhousie University Commencement Speech (2017)
“Don't believe your own b. s. It's real easy to confuse funding with success.”
Forbes "Lean And Meaningful: What Founders Still Need To Fix In The 21st Century" https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilyinverso/2016/02/10/lean-and-meaningful-what-founders-still-need-to-fix-in-the-21st-century/#1a89897a2389. February 29, 2016 issue.
“The answers are easy. Asking the right questions is hard.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 91.
“Change engenders resistance, and resistance creates saboteurs.”
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 345.
“Founders are truly artists – they see something no one else does.”
Fortune "Entrepreneurs as dissidents" http://fortune.com/2012/11/06/entrepreneurs-as-dissidents/. November 6, 2012.
“We used to pivot by firing people. Now we fire the hypotheses.”
Startup Grind "70,000 tests later, Steve Blank knows how your startup can fail" https://medium.com/startup-grind/70-000-tests-later-steve-blank-knows-how-your-startup-can-fail-81e316baecca#.niap677nt. June 15, 2016.
NYU Commencement Speech, Blank to Millennials: 'Make the Days of Your Life Matter'" https://www.inc.com/zoe-henry/steve-blank-2016-commencement-speech-steve-jobs.html,"Steve, May 23, 2016.
" Speech at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-blank/nyu-commencement-speech-2_b_10114910.html," at huffingtonpost.com, posted 05/24/2016.
“Entrepreneurship is an art, not a job.”
Forbes "Entrepreneurship is an Art Not a Job" http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveblank/2013/03/29/entrepreneurship-is-an-art-not-a-job/#754e53231d5b. March 29, 2013.
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 77.
Source: The Startup Owner’s Manual (2012), p. 25.
Dalhousie University Commencement Speech (2017)
“Confusing testosterone with strategy is a bad idea.”
Business Insider "You're Better Off Being A Fast Follower Than An Originator" http://www.businessinsider.com/youre-better-off-being-a-fast-follower-than-an-originator-2010-10, October 5, 2010.
" Vision vs. Hallucination https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/224301/", Entrepreneur.com, 30 Aug 2012.
