Email Subscription Join 55.6K other subscribers Email Subscription Categories 2 Minute Lessons (15) Air Force (21) Ardent (9) Business Model versus Business Plan (64) California Coastal Commission (9) China (9) Commencement Speeches (9) Conservation (4) Convergent Technologies (4) Corporate/Gov't Innovation (133) Covid-19/Recovery (10) Customer Development (331) Customer Development Manifesto (34) E.piphany (13) Educators Summit (7) ESL (8) Family/Career/Culture (85) Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (14) Hacking For Defense (45) Hacking for Diplomacy (10) Hacking for Recovery (5) Harvard Business Review (12) Innovation Doctrine (3) Innovation Outposts (4) Investment Readiness Level (6) Lean LaunchPad (120) Life Sciences (NIH) (26) Market Types (15) Marketing (28) MIPS Computers (2) National Security (50) Navy (8) NIH (National Institutes of Health) (18) NSF (National Science Foundation) (19) Rocket Science Games (10) Science and Industrial Policy (29) Secret History of Silicon Valley (26) SiriusXM Radio Show (50) SuperMac (13) Teaching (182) Technology (89) Technology Innovation and Great Power Competition (19) Technology Innovation and Modern War (23) Tesla (5) Uncategorized (8) Venture Capital (86) Vertical Markets (5) Zilog (5) 2 Minute Lessons (15) Business Model versus Business Plan (64) California Coastal Commission (9) Commencement Speeches (9) Conservation (4) Convergent Technologies (4) Corporate/Gov't Innovation (133) Covid-19/Recovery (10) Customer Development (331) Customer Development Manifesto (34) Educators Summit (7) Family/Career/Culture (85) Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (14) Hacking For Defense (45) Hacking for Diplomacy (10) Hacking for Recovery (5) Harvard Business Review (12) Innovation Doctrine (3) Innovation Outposts (4) Investment Readiness Level (6) Lean LaunchPad (120) Life Sciences (NIH) (26) Market Types (15) MIPS Computers (2) National Security (50) NIH (National Institutes of Health) (18) NSF (National Science Foundation) (19) Rocket Science Games (10) Science and Industrial Policy (29) Secret History of Silicon Valley (26) SiriusXM Radio Show (50) Technology (89) Technology Innovation and Great Power Competition (19) Technology Innovation and Modern War (23) Uncategorized (8) Venture Capital (86) Vertical Markets (5) Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed RSS - Posts RSS - Comments Get Steve Blank via your RSS Feed Recent Posts Lean Launch Pad 2026 @ Stanford – Lessons Learned Presentations Incorruptible Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations Anthropic Mythos – We’ve Opened Pandora’s Box AI and Teaching – The Brave New World Nowhere Is Safe Solving Yesterday’s Problems Will Kill You Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End You Only Think They Work For You Lean Launch Pad 2026 @ Stanford – Lessons Learned Presentations Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2026 – Lessons Learned Presentations Anthropic Mythos – We’ve Opened Pandora’s Box AI and Teaching – The Brave New World Nowhere Is Safe Solving Yesterday’s Problems Will Kill You Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End You Only Think They Work For You Archives June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 April 2023 February 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 Other Stuff About Steve Startup Tools Secret History Books for Startups Slides/Videos Raising Money Books for Startups Teaching Entrepreneurship – By Getting Out of the Building One of the classes I teach in the engineering school at Stanford is E145: the Fundamentals of Technology Entrepreneurship , an introduction to building a scalable startup . While the class is open to everyone at the University, we want to teach science and engineering undergraduates how they can take a technical idea and turn it into a profitable and scalable company. The class which was authored by Tom Byers , is offered every quarter and taught by four different professors. But thanks to Tom, we all get to teach it with a slightly emphasis. I taught the class this semester with Ann Miura-Ko a partner at Maples Investments . Teaching Goals Our goal is to teach students the key concepts of the startup process and help them understand that a startup is a search for a profitable business model. We did this with twice weekly lectures and seven case studies. Most importantly we tied the lectures to a hands-on team project. Students formed 5-person teams, came up with a business idea then got out of the building to validate their business model. (And learn how to pivot their model as reality intrudes.) Our goal was not to teach the students to write a business plan nor were we trying to teach them how to give a pitch to VC’s. A Startup is a Search For A Business Model As I’ve described in previous posts ; a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. A business model describes how your company creates, delivers and captures value. It’s best understood as a diagram that shows all the flows between the different parts of your company. This includes how the product gets distributed to your customers and how money flows back into your company. And it shows your company’s cost structures, how each department interacts with the others and where your company can work with other companies or partners to implement your business. We want to teach our students to think about how their “idea” for a business translated into a business model and then to see if that business model will survive first contact with customers. In our class Ann and I offered the students a template of a business model diagram. Their job was to get out of the building and transform the boxes into real data. (I’ll show you some of their examples at the end of this post.) Class Lectures We had ten weeks and an hour and fifty minutes twice a week to cover the basics of a startup. Our lectures were organized as: Where do ideas come from? How to decide whether an idea is a scalable business opportunity. What is a business model? Distribution, Demand Creation and Partnerships Customer Discovery First Team Presentation – What’s the Idea and How Large is the Opportunity Regulation and Intellectual Property Building Startup Teams Metrics That Matter (Business Model Metrics) Accounting Basics and Multi-stage Finance Liquidity – the End Game Final Team Presentation – What’s the Business Model? Interspersed among the lectures were seven “case studies”: Chegg, IMVU, WebTV. Nanogene, Wily, Solidworks and Barbara Arenson. Each case study was a real world example of an issue an entrepreneur might encounter as they were building a company. Final Team Project – What’s the Business Model ? 11 student teams of 5 were working outside of class on the Opportunity Assessment Project. Each team had to take an original idea, come up with the positioning and analyze the potential size of the opportunity, propose a Business Model, and analyze and explain each of the parts of their model. Customer Discovery Only 5 out of the 55 students had taken an entrepreneurial class before. None of the students were domain experts in their areas, and each team had to figure out how to contact potential customers and channel partners. Yet every team did figure out how to conduct extensive out of building Customer Discovery. (By design we didn’t give them too much Customer Development theory. The emphasis was on getting out of the building and testing their hypothesis.) Here are some examples the “out of the building” work the students did. Presenting the Project As their final project, each of the 11 teams had 15 minutes to present their conclusions and then later submit a written summary. (We were equally happy if the students discovered this would not be a profitable business as we were if they found a killer idea.) The presentations were graded on: Did they quickly summarize their idea? Did they articulate the problem? Did they size the opportunity of solving the problem? Was their solution clear? (for product companies, this should include manufacturing and cost of goods) Did they describe demand creation and assign acquisition costs? Did they describe lifetime value of a customer? Did they describe distribution channel and assign channel costs? Did they get out of the building? Did they tell us what they learned from going out of the building? Did they adequately diagram the business model? Did they describe the risks? Remember the goal was not a fundable pitch deck or a full business plan with pages of spreadsheets. Rather we wanted them to start with an idea and see what it would take to build a real business (and tell us in 15 minutes). This post and the next will have a few of the final presentations (click on the thumbnails to enlarge.) And here was another presentation in a very different market. Entrepreneurship is an art not a science. It is best learned by a combination of theory and practice. No business model survives first contact with customers You won’t believe this until you hear customers tell you you’re wrong. Agility and resiliency are not tested inside the building. They’re essential outside. Print (Opens in new window) Print Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit Share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp Share on Telegram (Opens in new window) Telegram

Share on Tumblr Filed under: Corporate/Gov't Innovation , Customer Development Manifesto , Teaching | David Binetti , on March 11, 2010 at 6:41 am said: This is a ridiculously good post. These pitches/plans blow 90% of what I’ve seen out of the water. I shudder to think what’s going to happen to the VC industry when these ideas hit their inflection point and the process is completely demystified. (Hint: lots of Associates will be out of work.) Loading... Reply This is a ridiculously good post. These pitches/plans blow 90% of what I’ve seen out of the water. I shudder to think what’s going to happen to the VC industry when these ideas hit their inflection point and the process is completely demystified. (Hint: lots of Associates will be out of work.) vik , on March 11, 2010 at 8:32 am said: Very nice article, thak you for posting your experience with teaching enterpreneurship with this “real world” twist. Loading... Reply Very nice article, thak you for posting your experience with teaching enterpreneurship with this “real world” twist. John , on March 11, 2010 at 9:06 am said: Unexpectedly good. What were the presentations created in? Loading... Reply steveblank , on March 11, 2010 at 11:45 am said: Mostly Powerpoint and a few in Keynote. Loading... Reply Unexpectedly good. What were the presentations created in? steveblank , on March 11, 2010 at 11:45 am said: Mostly Powerpoint and a few in Keynote. Loading... Reply Mostly Powerpoint and a few in Keynote. Nathan Furr , on March 11, 2010 at 9:26 am said: I love the part about lessons taught–no business plans survive contact with customers. So true. It is just nice to gather some more evidence for this. Loading... Reply I love the part about lessons taught–no business plans survive contact with customers. So true. It is just nice to gather some more evidence for this. Norris Krueger , on March 11, 2010 at 10:53 am said: Great stuff, Steve – but seeing Tom’s name, I’d expect nothing less! This constructivistic approach is one that distinguishes many great entrepreneurship courses. (Education is either behavioristic – focusing on acquiring knowledge content – or constructivistic that adds activities that change our knowledge structures. Here, the vital added ingredient is that your activities are truly “experiential” – and guidance/coahcing from people who themselves truly, deeply get it. “Experiential” does not mean “real world” or “hands on” but actually changes HOW learners think (us professors too). You have built in the kind of “critical developmental experiences” that change how students structure what they know (not just their knowledge content). In many ways, this is true problem-based learning. In studying entrepreneurial learning – constructivistic approaches make ALL the difference BUT you need to have instructors/coaches/mentors who understand at a very deep level how expert entrepreneurs think. Again, thank you for a great post that will give people like me some terrific ‘ammo’ for moving forward. (And please say ‘hi!” to Tom & Tina for me) Norris Loading... Reply Great stuff, Steve – but seeing Tom’s name, I’d expect nothing less! This constructivistic approach is one that distinguishes many great entrepreneurship courses. (Education is either behavioristic – focusing on acquiring knowledge content – or constructivistic that adds activities that change our knowledge structures. Here, the vital added ingredient is that your activities are truly “experiential” – and guidance/coahcing from people who themselves truly, deeply get it. “Experiential” does not mean “real world” or “hands on” but actually changes HOW learners think (us professors too). You have built in the kind of “critical developmental experiences” that change how students structure what they know (not just their knowledge content). In many ways, this is true problem-based learning. In studying entrepreneurial learning – constructivistic approaches make ALL the difference BUT you need to have instructors/coaches/mentors who understand at a very deep level how expert entrepreneurs think. Again, thank you for a great post that will give people like me some terrific ‘ammo’ for moving forward. (And please say ‘hi!” to Tom & Tina for me) Norris Brian , on March 11, 2010 at 1:28 pm said: That photo of you and the cow is quite priceless 🙂 Loading... Reply That photo of you and the cow is quite priceless 🙂 Francisco , on March 11, 2010 at 2:18 pm said: Very interesting. I sense they learned a lot and had fun too–as per slide 6 from Kiwi team 🙂 I envy those students. Loading... Reply Very interesting. I sense they learned a lot and had fun too–as per slide 6 from Kiwi team 🙂 I envy those students. steve , on March 11, 2010 at 2:22 pm said: this sounds like it could make me smarter. can you please videotape all your lectures and distribute your class notes and make them an online course? I need to learn this but I won’t go to Calif for 1 class. p.s. if the basic concepts of the course are available on the web or in books like your 4 steps, please inform me. thank you Loading... Reply this sounds like it could make me smarter. can you please videotape all your lectures and distribute your class notes and make them an online course? I need to learn this but I won’t go to Calif for 1 class. p.s. if the basic concepts of the course are available on the web or in books like your 4 steps, please inform me. thank you steve , on March 11, 2010 at 2:58 pm said: well I see a ton of links on your site for book, videos, lectures, etc., so I guess i’ll start there, but if you have suggestions on which books and article are the best for this topic, please dump Loading... Reply well I see a ton of links on your site for book, videos, lectures, etc., so I guess i’ll start there, but if you have suggestions on which books and article are the best for this topic, please dump Alexander , on March 11, 2010 at 4:00 pm said: Didn’t read @steve’s comment before researching, but found your 145 course. Fascinating. Battled to try get something like this in the Dept. of business back when i was in Uni. I would love to know if there were full versions of the “short video clip(s)” one can access? There are some amazing speakers. I remember when took a course with Ken Morse at Cambridge that MIT established a website to make the lectures available. Thanks Steve Loading... Reply Didn’t read @steve’s comment before researching, but found your 145 course. Fascinating. Battled to try get something like this in the Dept. of business back when i was in Uni. I would love to know if there were full versions of the “short video clip(s)” one can access? There are some amazing speakers. I remember when took a course with Ken Morse at Cambridge that MIT established a website to make the lectures available. Thanks Steve Nigel Adams , on March 12, 2010 at 4:00 am said: Great post, Steve. I completely agree with your approach, especially the “Lessons Taught”. We have been running a unique undergraduate BSc Business Enterprise programme at the University of Buckingham (UK’s only independent University) since January 2006. See http://bit.ly/6LFmpJ . During the programme our students start and run their own business, as an integral part of their honours degree. Within 4 months of starting the two year programme, the students pitch for up to GBP 5000 “seed-corn” capital and if successful, they then run the business for the next 18 months. Our students, like yours, have to “get out of the building” to be successful! They soon find out what it is like to deal with potential customers, suppliers, partners and government organisations!! The level of their degree is not subject to the success of their business, but they way they prepare their business plan, the quality of their “pitch” for finance and the way they run their business are all marked and do count towards their honours degree. Our students also learn that they must work hard, as it is not easy to start and run a business and study to achieve an honours degree in just two years! We also find that our young students grow up quicker compared with those who are only taking theoretical degrees in business. They are also better at reflecting on and questioning theory. I would be pleased to exchange experiences, if you are interested. Loading... Reply Great post, Steve. I completely agree with your approach, especially the “Lessons Taught”. We have been running a unique undergraduate BSc Business Enterprise programme at the University of Buckingham (UK’s only independent University) since January 2006. See http://bit.ly/6LFmpJ . During the programme our students start and run their own business, as an integral part of their honours degree. Within 4 months of starting the two year programme, the students pitch for up to GBP 5000 “seed-corn” capital and if successful, they then run the business for the next 18 months. Our students, like yours, have to “get out of the building” to be successful! They soon find out what it is like to deal with potential customers, suppliers, partners and government organisations!! The level of their degree is not subject to the success of their business, but they way they prepare their business plan, the quality of their “pitch” for finance and the way they run their business are all marked and do count towards their honours degree. Our students also learn that they must work hard, as it is not easy to start and run a business and study to achieve an honours degree in just two years! We also find that our young students grow up quicker compared with those who are only taking theoretical degrees in business. They are also better at reflecting on and questioning theory. I would be pleased to exchange experiences, if you are interested. John Coady , on March 12, 2010 at 7:11 am said: Here is an article in BusinessWeek from Shoshana Zuboff a former Professor from Harvard Business School entitled The Old Solutions Have Become The New Problems. http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2009/ca2009072_489734.htm She writes : “I have come to believe that much of what my colleagues and I taught has caused real suffering, suppressed wealth creation, destabilized the world economy, and accelerated the demise of the 20th century capitalism in which the U.S. played the leading role.” “As Harvard—along with many other business schools—now tries to understand what went wrong, it’s essential that everyone involved in business learns how to be the future. There are turning points in history when it’s time to salvage what is valuable from the old and put our energies into constructing a new model based on new rules. ” “The old rules taught you to ask, “What is my product or service, and how can I sell it to you?” With that question, adversarialism was baked into the DNA of the buyer-seller transaction.” The new rules ask, “Who are you? What do you need? How can I help?” “Business is no longer just about the product. Now it’s about solutions for the individual. Economic value is hidden in consumers’ unmet needs and is released by providing people with the means to fulfill those needs.” Loading... Reply Here is an article in BusinessWeek from Shoshana Zuboff a former Professor from Harvard Business School entitled The Old Solutions Have Become The New Problems. http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jul2009/ca2009072_489734.htm “I have come to believe that much of what my colleagues and I taught has caused real suffering, suppressed wealth creation, destabilized the world economy, and accelerated the demise of the 20th century capitalism in which the U.S. played the leading role.” “As Harvard—along with many other business schools—now tries to understand what went wrong, it’s essential that everyone involved in business learns how to be the future. There are turning points in history when it’s time to salvage what is valuable from the old and put our energies into constructing a new model based on new rules. ” “The old rules taught you to ask, “What is my product or service, and how can I sell it to you?” With that question, adversarialism was baked into the DNA of the buyer-seller transaction.” The new rules ask, “Who are you? What do you need? How can I help?” “Business is no longer just about the product. Now it’s about solutions for the individual. Economic value is hidden in consumers’ unmet needs and is released by providing people with the means to fulfill those needs.” Venkat , on March 13, 2010 at 4:01 pm said: Great stuff as usual. One thing I’d like to see emphasized in this material is serendipity and opportunism. You’ve used a war metaphor (“no plan of campaign survives first contact with the enemy” translated to markets), and that is both popular in business and makes sense given your military background. But one dynamic in the marketplace is that sometimes your plans are ruined, but not in an adverse way, but by a bigger opportunity than you were going after initially. That’s serendipity… markets are sometimes win/win. Maybe combat situations have such serendipity too, I wouldn’t know (looking for a minor enemy leader and finding osama or hitler??) Venkat Loading... Reply Great stuff as usual. One thing I’d like to see emphasized in this material is serendipity and opportunism. You’ve used a war metaphor (“no plan of campaign survives first contact with the enemy” translated to markets), and that is both popular in business and makes sense given your military background. But one dynamic in the marketplace is that sometimes your plans are ruined, but not in an adverse way, but by a bigger opportunity than you were going after initially. That’s serendipity… markets are sometimes win/win. Maybe combat situations have such serendipity too, I wouldn’t know (looking for a minor enemy leader and finding osama or hitler??) Yuri Ammosov , on March 15, 2010 at 1:17 pm said: Hmm… I do not get how the bike numbers add up. Stanford only has 6700 undergrads, 8700 grads and 1900 faculty. Plus staff. Even if 100% own a bike and 100% will buy a RFID (which I feel is inflated by about 100 times) — this still does not add to 20 000 ! Loading... Reply Hmm… I do not get how the bike numbers add up. Stanford only has 6700 undergrads, 8700 grads and 1900 faculty. Plus staff. Even if 100% own a bike and 100% will buy a RFID (which I feel is inflated by about 100 times) — this still does not add to 20 000 ! Yuri Ammosov , on March 15, 2010 at 1:29 pm said: The cow f*ng business is great. Will it work, though? I feel the tech part is the most narrow spot. Calibrating this device will be a nightmare – er, a dayandnightcow. Loading... Reply The cow f*ng business is great. Will it work, though? I feel the tech part is the most narrow spot. Calibrating this device will be a nightmare – er, a dayandnightcow. Jennifer , on March 27, 2010 at 2:21 am said: This is a very interesting post. The hands on approach of teaching students the key concepts of the start up process and understanding of that start up process seems have worked. I guess projects need to start small to understand the basic working, only then can they grow into bigger and better organizations that may some day span the globe. There are new strategic challenges for the global firm eg: market opportunities migrating to rapidly emerging economies in the East; the long shadow of the financial crisis and the rising prominence of sovereign wealth funds; and the urgent imperative to deal with climate change and to include a larger number of stakeholders in the firm’s growth strategies. The OWP sessions at the IMD address these challenges Loading... Reply This is a very interesting post. The hands on approach of teaching students the key concepts of the start up process and understanding of that start up process seems have worked. I guess projects need to start small to understand the basic working, only then can they grow into bigger and better organizations that may some day span the globe. There are new strategic challenges for the global firm eg: market opportunities migrating to rapidly emerging economies in the East; the long shadow of the financial crisis and the rising prominence of sovereign wealth funds; and the urgent imperative to deal with climate change and to include a larger number of stakeholders in the firm’s growth strategies. The OWP sessions at the IMD address these challenges A Quicklist for Starting Your Own Business | Entrepreneurship Education , on March 29, 2010 at 9:29 am said: […] Teaching Entrepreneurship – By Getting Out of the Building (steveblank.com) […] Loading... Reply […] Teaching Entrepreneurship – By Getting Out of the Building (steveblank.com) […] Customer discovery in the Lean startup development process | Involvd.com , on April 28, 2010 at 3:01 am said: […] with the Lean model when I first read about it was when I saw that a key part of the process was to ‘get out of the building to validate the business model by talking to your customers’. Music to my ears as second only to a good process-flow is my passion for sitting down with people […] Loading... Reply […] with the Lean model when I first read about it was when I saw that a key part of the process was to ‘get out of the building to validate the business model by talking to your customers’. Music to my ears as second only to a good process-flow is my passion for sitting down with people […] Kevin Donaldson , on May 11, 2010 at 9:48 am said: I like this post because it shows examples of your students applying the process in areas other than software. Do you have any great examples of companies that have followed the customer development process with good results outside of software or technology? Loading... Reply I like this post because it shows examples of your students applying the process in areas other than software. Do you have any great examples of companies that have followed the customer development process with good results outside of software or technology? Business Plan Competitions vs. Business Model Contests « Spreading FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE , on May 17, 2010 at 6:51 am said: […] different goal than writing a business plan. The Business Model competition measures how well students learn how to Pivot by getting outside the building (not by writing a plan inside […] Loading... Reply […] different goal than writing a business plan. The Business Model competition measures how well students learn how to Pivot by getting outside the building (not by writing a plan inside […] Why You Should Invest More In Your Tech Support Team « Apple News Daily , on May 19, 2010 at 8:38 am said: […] abuzz with Steve Blank's phrase that everything you need to know about your customers is "outside the building," meaning that real customer development means talking to folks face to face, seeing their […] Loading... Reply […] abuzz with Steve Blank's phrase that everything you need to know about your customers is "outside the building," meaning that real customer development means talking to folks face to face, seeing their […] PayBillSolutions.com » Blog Archive » Tech support: The hidden sales force , on May 19, 2010 at 1:11 pm said: […] with Steve Blank’s phrase that everything you need to know about your customers is “outside the building,” meaning that real customer development means talking to folks face to face, seeing their […] Loading... Reply […] with Steve Blank’s phrase that everything you need to know about your customers is “outside the building,” meaning that real customer development means talking to folks face to face, seeing their […] Practicing Customer Discovery & Validation In Large Organizations | Brandon McNamara , on August 2, 2010 at 7:42 pm said: […] expected to present your findings to a committee of senior management and their colleagues with the following criteria (borrowed from Steve Blank) […] Loading... Reply […] expected to present your findings to a committee of senior management and their colleagues with the following criteria (borrowed from Steve Blank) […] Product Themed Books | Brandon McNamara , on August 23, 2010 at 7:38 pm said: […] only way to find that out is by going out (“get out of the building” as Steve Blank says) and talking with customers, investigating what’s happening in the […] Loading... Reply […] only way to find that out is by going out (“get out of the building” as Steve Blank says) and talking with customers, investigating what’s happening in the […] Test-driven Business Model Development for Web Startups | Methodologist , on August 30, 2010 at 2:34 am said: […] the problem and validate it accordingly. You put the Customer Development methodology in order by getting out the building and mapping out a Customer Problem Presentation. For what questions to ask the guys at Survey.io […] Loading... Reply […] the problem and validate it accordingly. You put the Customer Development methodology in order by getting out the building and mapping out a Customer Problem Presentation. For what questions to ask the guys at Survey.io […] Are the best Seed deals moving out of the Valley? | Victus Spiritus , on September 22, 2010 at 5:28 am said: […] Steve Blank said it best “There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside” (quote source): Marketing is Heard From Engineering was discussing how sophisticated the graphics portion of our computer should be, debating cost and time-to-market tradeoffs of arcane details such as double-buffering, 24 versus 32-bits of color, alpha channels, etc. I was pleased with myself that not only did I understand the issues, but I also had an opinion about what we should build. All of a sudden I decided that I hadn’t heard the sound of my own voice in a while so I piped up: “I think our customers will want 24-bits of double-buffered graphics.” […] Loading... Reply […] Steve Blank said it best “There are no facts inside the building so get the heck outside” (quote source): Marketing is Heard From Engineering was discussing how sophisticated the graphics portion of our computer should be, debating cost and time-to-market tradeoffs of arcane details such as double-buffering, 24 versus 32-bits of color, alpha channels, etc. I was pleased with myself that not only did I understand the issues, but I also had an opinion about what we should build. All of a sudden I decided that I hadn’t heard the sound of my own voice in a while so I piped up: “I think our customers will want 24-bits of double-buffered graphics.” […] Lean StartUp 1/10 – Questionari « Zmaker's Weblog , on December 23, 2010 at 5:39 am said: […] molto difficile applicare il “get out of the building” decantato da Steve Blank. Comunque, a fronte di una 20 di inviti diretti, sono riuscito, ad oggi ad […] Loading... Reply […] molto difficile applicare il “get out of the building” decantato da Steve Blank. Comunque, a fronte di una 20 di inviti diretti, sono riuscito, ad oggi ad […] paul , on February 10, 2011 at 4:31 pm said: Good presentations – well done. The cow estro meter could be done at lower risk using existing technology. Adapting what is already known, would fit on the competitive risks missing in the presentation. Getting the device classified as an implant is costly, and is a time barrier, although it raises the bar on barriers to competitive entry, which investors will like, a competing technology could go another route and come in substantially lower. My two big concerns, would be compliance time to market, under pressure from competitive threats – where existing technology (less invasive) is deployed at lower total cost – very real! Loading... Reply Good presentations – well done. The cow estro meter could be done at lower risk using existing technology. Adapting what is already known, would fit on the competitive risks missing in the presentation. Getting the device classified as an implant is costly, and is a time barrier, although it raises the bar on barriers to competitive entry, which investors will like, a competing technology could go another route and come in substantially lower. My two big concerns, would be compliance time to market, under pressure from competitive threats – where existing technology (less invasive) is deployed at lower total cost – very real! The POS as a Platform | Artificial ignorance , on March 27, 2011 at 6:08 pm said: […] I’ve “gotten out of the building”, in Steve Blank parlance, and spoken to several shop owners (small, big and large) to vet that this is something […] Loading... Reply […] I’ve “gotten out of the building”, in Steve Blank parlance, and spoken to several shop owners (small, big and large) to vet that this is something […] 6 Rules For Incubating Lean Startups Within The Enterprise | Methodologist , on July 25, 2011 at 3:32 am said: […] While a challenge with corporate business planning is that it often is comprised with mountains of information, at an early startup there is a minimal quantifiable track record. Doing what they do best, corporations cram such information about existing products and markets to that of the startup. Unfortunately, executives and managers have founding teams develop detailed financial estimates and market analysis way too early. Secondary data may be fine for known-, but not for unknown conditions, which most often is the case of new startups. The answer lies not with your $500 Gartner or Forrester report. Rather, it is time to un-MBA and get out of the building. […] Loading... Reply […] While a challenge with corporate business planning is that it often is comprised with mountains of information, at an early startup there is a minimal quantifiable track record. Doing what they do best, corporations cram such information about existing products and markets to that of the startup. Unfortunately, executives and managers have founding teams develop detailed financial estimates and market analysis way too early. Secondary data may be fine for known-, but not for unknown conditions, which most often is the case of new startups. The answer lies not with your $500 Gartner or Forrester report. Rather, it is time to un-MBA and get out of the building. […] Test-driven Business Model Development for Web Startups , on June 9, 2012 at 5:43 am said: […] problem that they agree upon. You would put the Customer Development methodology in order by getting out the building and mapping out a Customer Problem Presentation. For what questions to ask, the guys at Survey.io […] Loading... Reply […] problem that they agree upon. You would put the Customer Development methodology in order by getting out the building and mapping out a Customer Problem Presentation. For what questions to ask, the guys at Survey.io […] Trying Not To Die–Part 3 | Ready, Steady, Change | Roadmap to Permanent Behavior Change , on July 16, 2012 at 10:18 am said: […] of these outcomes were certainties, just predictions. As entrepreneurial startup guru Steve Blank says: Until you get out of the building to actually test your hypotheses you’re simply […] Loading... Reply […] of these outcomes were certainties, just predictions. As entrepreneurial startup guru Steve Blank says: Until you get out of the building to actually test your hypotheses you’re simply […] The College Education I with I Had | Luke Thomas , on July 26, 2012 at 4:00 pm said: […] “Get outside the building” and start talking to potential customers for a business idea. […] Loading... Reply […] “Get outside the building” and start talking to potential customers for a business idea. […] Stop thinking yourself to death. , on May 30, 2013 at 7:15 pm said: […] recommended by proponents of the lean startup methodology, each student team engaged directly with their potential customer […] Loading... Reply […] recommended by proponents of the lean startup methodology, each student team engaged directly with their potential customer […] Leave a Reply Cancel reply contact: info@kandsranch.com contact: info@kandsranch.com @sgblank Get the Podcasts for Free Powered by WordPress.com . WP Designer. Discover more from Steve Blank Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive. Continue reading