Serial Entrepreneur
Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in high technology companies and management. He is a Consulting Professor at Stanford in the Graduate School of Engineering STVP Program.
Steve has been a founder or participant in eight Silicon Valley startups since 1978. His last company, E.piphany, started in his living room. His other startups include two semiconductor companies (Zilog and MIPS Computers), a workstation company (Convergent Technologies), a supercomputer firm (Ardent), a computer peripheral supplier (SuperMac), a military intelligence systems supplier (ESL) and a video game company (Rocket Science Games).
Steve is on the board of CafePress.com, an on-line marketplace, and IMVU, a 3D IM social network.
Steve was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Coastal Commission and is the Chairman of Audubon California and on the board of the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST.)
His Google Tech talk, "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" (available on YouTube) is one of the definitive views on the early history of innovation in Silicon Valley.
Steve teaches entrepreneurship and a methodology of managing marketing, sales and business development in high technology startups. His course text "Four Steps to the Epiphany" is the definitive work on Customer Development and is one of the foundations of Lean Startups.
Last Updated: Wed, Oct 1, 2008
Entrepreneur and business model innovator Alexander Osterwalder discusses dynamic, yet simple-to-use tools for visualizing, challenging and re-inventing business models. Osterwalder articulates how to use the visual language of his business model canvas framework, and shares stories of how this approach helps organizations of all sizes to better create, deliver and capture value.
Author Alexander Osterwalder and serial entrepreneur Steve Blank discuss the importance blending a strong, clear story with the building blocks of the business model canvas to out perform competitors. Osterwalder also elaborates on the power of pattern recognition in developing new models.
Business model innovator Alexander Osterwalder lays out reasons to map a product or service's value proposition with the actual pains customers face. Using building blocks from his business model canvas framework, Osterwalder maps the relationship and discusses, with interviewer Steve Blank, how value is created.
Entrepreneur and business model innovator Alexander Osterwalder discusses dynamic, yet simple-to-use tools for visualizing, challenging and re-inventing business models. Osterwalder articulates how to use the visual language of his business model canvas framework, and shares stories of how this approach helps organizations of all sizes to better create, deliver and capture value.
Retired serial entrepreneur Steve Blank interviews MissionPoint Capital co-founder Jesse Fink. The two discuss the manifold investment opportunities in alternative energies and environmental conservation.
Priceline co-founder Jesse Fink explains to entrepreneur Steve Blank how his early company was a technology-enhanced solution to a business model - and not a real technology play - that succeeded in providing for both business and consumer. Fink brings these same solutions to his current investment firm, MissionPoint, who believes it will be business models and capital markets that find environmental solutions, and not the technology itself.
MissionPoint Capital Partners co-founder Jesse Fink explains what it means to merge clean energy and environmental finance, including cap and trade and other infrastructure supports, that helps bring clean tech initiatives to market faster and at a lower cost. 
From equity, to bonds, to real estate, MissionPoint Capital Partners co-founder Jesse Fink explains how traditional capital markets can be reoriented toward a low-carbon economy. Supporting non-profits is crucial in long-term environmental thinking, says Fink, as this sector pushes policy. But only for-profit business will catalyze true market solutions with pull. 
With endowments seeking the right investment products and non-profits staffing business school graduates, rather than butting heads, non-profits and for-profit enterprises are more collaborative than ever. Jesse Fink of MissionPoint Capital Partners points out that particulary in the environmental sector, the spectrum is narrowing between the two. 
Jesse Fink, co-founder of MissionPoint Capital Partners, and serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, pinpoint how green investing is ripe with opportunity and ready to jumpstart the economy. Investors in Silicon Valley and elsewhere are increasingly drawn to the ROI - and not just altruism - and they're taking notice of increased capital volume, career opportunities, and entrepreneurs who are lured by the green sector's genuine returns. 
Stanford instructor and seasoned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank looks back at the commonalities and quirks of the quarter's previous speakers. Blank outlines a thorough checklist of questions and analysis helpful to any new enterprise leader, and offers insight and case studies from industry giants and new technology plays alike.
No matter what business vertical you're entering, serial entrepreneur Steve Blank outlines a few points of necessary focus for the emerging business start-up, including market opportunity, market regulations and distribution, competitors and complimentors, and technology breakthroughs. He notes that the customer is not always the same thing as the payer, and that this bifurcation is creating interesting new business models.
Why is it a bad idea to be the first and only player in a market? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank outlines a host of reasons, including limited market opportunity, the expense of defining new markets, and the positioning risk involved in setting the market standard. Blank cautions that it may not be wise to be break new ground, and that safer terrain can be found in the footholds of the "first fast follower."
In this clip, the difference between vertical markets - niche players serving a specific need or customer set; and horizontal markets - goods or services that enable a platitude of businesses - are defined for the student of entrepreneurship. The needs of start-ups differ dramatically by vertical, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. And taking advice from new enterprises in a different market niche can end in disaster. Take heed when receiving advice from friends in a neighboring business vertical. 
Market risk is the concern that you'll find your customers before you run out of funding. A technical risk asks if the innovation is in place to bring your start-up idea to market successfully. Both of these concerns are paramount for an entrepreneurial venture, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank, and both have the potential to cause a young business to shutter. 
Female Stanford students of entrepreneurship ask serial entrepreneur Steve Blank: "How can one balance family life with the demands of the start-up?" Blank advises single people to stay single, and suggests that those with family ties set strict schedules to insure time together. Start-ups can easily take over one's life, he says, and one must be equally diligent in taking time off as working.
Stanford instructor and seasoned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank looks back at the commonalities and quirks of the quarter's previous speakers. Blank outlines a thorough checklist of questions and analysis helpful to any new enterprise leader, and offers insight and case studies from industry giants and new technology plays alike.
Ninety-percent of Silicon Valley's start-ups fail not because of faulty product, but because they don't tap the right market and they don't know their customer. Well-seasoned serial entrepreneur Steve Blank drafts a new model for plotting the path between good idea and market success.
The canonical product development model - concept, develop, alpha, beta, first customer, ship - is how Silicon Valley grew strong. But why does this process to build a business only succeed part of the time? And how can early stage ventures reduce their overall risk? Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank points out that most founding partners strongly focus on product and ship. But too often, startups confuse engineering's accomplishments with marketing and sales success, and they pop the champagne corks too soon.
The odds of success in Silicon Valley are about 1,000:1. How can so many good ideas fail to find their place in the market? Too many start-ups burn too many resources on sales and marketing too soon, says serial entrepreneur Steve Blank. Less than ten percent of start-ups fail because of faulty technology or engineering, whereas most allude success because they don't pinpoint the right market or the right customer.