Steve Blank

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Steve Blank
Blank, Steven Gary
Born1953 (age 67–68)
New York City
Alma materUniversity of Michigan (dropped out)
OccupationEntrepreneur
Known forcustomer development methodology

Steve Blank (born 1953) is an American entrepreneur, educator, author and speaker based in Pescadero, California.[1]

Blank created 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.[2][3] His Lean Launchpad class (taught as the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps, or I-Corps[4]) has become the standard for commercialization for all federal research.[1] His Hacking for Defense Class has been adopted by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Biography[]

Blank was born to immigrant parents in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.[5] He has a sister Linn who is married to Maurice Karnaugh[5] He attended the University of Michigan for one semester.[5]

Blank spent four years in the U.S. Air Force. His military career took him to Thailand during the Vietnam War, where he was maintaining electronic warfare equipment.[5]

Steve Blank arrived in Silicon Valley in 1978.[6] His first job in the region was with ESL, a pioneering company for National Reconnaissance founded by Bill Perry who would become the 19th Secretary of Defense.[7] The company helped the government understand the Soviets' technological and arms developments during the Cold War.[7]

Blank was part of 8 startups include Zilog and MIPS Computers, Convergent Technologies, Ardent, SuperMac Technologies, ESL and Rocket Science Games.[7]

Blank co-founded his last startup, the Customer Relationship Management provider E.piphany, in 1996 and retired the day before its IPO in September 1999.[8]

In 2000, Blank joined the Audubon California Board of Directors and served as Chairman from 2005 until 2010[9] and joined the Audubon National board.[10]

In 2005, Blank published The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win, which details his approach to the Customer Development process.[6]

He has also served on the board of the Peninsula Open Space Trust from 2007 until 2011[11] and was a trustee of U.C. Santa Cruz foundation. Blank served on the board of the California League of Conservation Voters from 2009-2014.[12] He served on the California Coastal Commission from 2007 until 2013.[13]

Blank released a second book in 2010, Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost which relates stories from his life as an entrepreneur.[6] The collection of material develops a narrative about how to live life amid the fast-paced world of Silicon Valley startups.[14]

In 2011, Blank gave the commencement address at Philadelphia University where he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters. National Public Radio selected this speech as one of the 300 best commencement speeches in the last 300 years.[15]

Steve Blank and Bob Dorf co-authored The Startup Owner's Manual, which was released in March 2012.[16][17] The 608-page reference manual details a scientific approach to entrepreneurship and emphasizes the importance of "rigorous and repeated testing."[18][5] The work draws on ideas from Business Model Generation and The Four Steps to the Epiphany.[18]

In 2012, his blog was ranked one of the "10 Must-Read Blogs for Any Lean Startup" by Welovelean.com.[19]

In 2013, Blank was the commencement speaker at the University of Minnesota.[20]

In 2014 he was the commencement speaker at ESADE Business School in Barcelona. [21]

Blank released Holding a Cat by the Tail in 2014.[22] The book is updated version of Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, featuring additional lessons learned from his life as an entrepreneur.

Blank hosted the SiriusXM radio show “Entrepreneurs are Everywhere'' from 2015-2016. [23]

In 2016, Blank gave the commencement address at the New York University Engineering School.[24] He gave the 2017 commencement address to Dalhousie University[25] where he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Laws. That year he also gave the keynote speech "Entrepreneurship and Ethical Dilemmas in a Competitive World" at U.C. Santa Cruz Alumni Day[26] and gave the 2019 commencement speech at UC Santa Cruz.[27]

Blank served as a member of the Defense Business Board until December 2020, when he resigned in protest due to "[t]he abrupt termination of more than half of the Defense Business Board and their replacement with political partisans."[28]

Academic teaching career[]

Blank is an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Stanford[29][30] and is a Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship at Columbia University.[31] He was a past lecturer at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, NYU[32] and at Imperial College in London. His Lean LaunchPad and Hacking for Defense curricula uses the customer development methodology and lean startup methods he developed throughout his career as a serial entrepreneur and academic.[5]

Philosophy and work[]

Customer development methodology[]

Blank created the customer development methodology in the mid 1990s.[33] The concept details a scientific approach that can be applied by startups and entrepreneurs to improve their products success by developing a better understanding of customers' problems/needs as well as the other hypotheses necessary to build a commercial successful company.[2][34]

Lean startup movement[]

Main article: Lean startup

Blank's customer development methodology is a cornerstone of the lean startup movement, popularized by Eric Ries.[35] The lean startup approach relies on validated learning, scientific experimentation, and iterative product releases to shorten product development cycles, measure progress, and gain valuable customer feedback.[36] Blank developed the ideas beginning around 2004 when he was an investor and advisor to the company, IMVU, that Ries co-founded.[37] Ries observed that Customer Development was a natural pair to the Agile Development method that engineers were adopting. The lean startup has been adopted by entrepreneurs worldwide as an efficient and repeatable way to search for product/market fit.[2] Ries has integrated the customer development methodology into the lean startup practices and considers it to be one of the lean startup movement's pillars.[38][39][40]

Lean LaunchPad[]

Main article: Lean Launchpad

In January 2011, Blank created the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford University, Columbia Business School[41] and UC Berkeley. The class is a method for teaching entrepreneurship that combines experiential learning with the three building blocks of a successful lean startup: Alexander Osterwalder's Business Model Canvas,[42][43] Blank's customer development model,[44] and agile engineering.

The Lean LaunchPad changed the way entrepreneurship is taught.[45] Instead of relying on the traditional business school practice of teaching students how to write a standard corporate business plan, or simply build a product, the course provides hands-on experience in what it takes to start a company.

The course is taught in hundreds of universities worldwide including a free online version of the class at Udacity[46].[47]

National Science Foundation Innovation Corps[]

In July 2011 the National Science Foundation asked Blank to adapt his Lean LaunchPad class to help scientists who were applying for an SBIR grant learn how to commercialize their academic inventions. The NSF adopted Blank’s Stanford class and renamed it the Innovation Corps (I-Corps).[48]

The course is now the standard for science commercialization, serving as the syllabus of the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps (I-Corps) that is taught in 100 universities and has been adopted by the other federal research agencies (NIH, DOE, HHS, NSA)[49] and is helping to drive innovation within the U.S. government.[50]

In 2012, Blank testified in front of congress about the program[51] and in 2017 he testified before the Committee on Science, Space and Technology.[52]

Mission-driven Entrepreneurship[]

In 2016, Blank along with Peter Newell, and Joe Felter co-created the first of a series of mission-driven entrepreneurship classes based on the Lean Method - Hacking for Defense at Stanford University. [53] This course teaches students to work with Defense and Intelligence communities on national security problems and develop solutions using the Lean Startup method.[54] The course allows students to serve their country in a nontraditional way.[55]

Also in 2016, the U.S. Department of State asked if Blank could create a version of the class – Hacking For Diplomacy – to have students work on State department problems.[56] Blank co-created the class at Stanford with Professor Jeremy Weinstein and State Department representative to Silicon Valley Zvika Krieger.[57]

As of 2021 the course is now offered in 55 universities in the U.S. via the National Security Innovation Network as well as in Australia and the UK.

Other mission-driven “Hacking” courses followed including Hacking for Oceans,[58] and Hacking for Local.[59]

In 2020 in the midst of the Covid pandemic Blank created a series of classes called Hacking for Recovery to help business adapt their business models in the crisis.[60] The class was subsequently adopted by the State of Hawaii.[61]

Technology, Innovation and Modern War class[]

In 2020, Blank co-created the Technology, Innovation and Modern War class with Joe Felter and Raj Shah (the ex head of the Defense Innovation Unit) at Stanford University.[62] The class discusses how technology driven by commercial technology will create new military systems and concepts for future conflicts.

Lean Innovation Educator conferences[]

Blank created a class to train educators to teach the Lean LaunchPad method. First hosted by the National Science Foundation, in 2019, Blank, in collaboration with the Common Mission project, hosted the first Lean Innovation Education Conference to now include educators teaching the mission-driven Hacking for Defense/Diplomacy/Oceans classes.[63] This biannual event was created to share practices for teaching entrepreneurship and draws educators from universities around the world. In 2020 and early 2021 the conference was held virtually. [63]

Awards and honors[]

  • 2009 Silicon Valley Mercury News Top 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley[64]
  • 2012 The Harvard Business Review "One of 12 Masters of Innovation"[65]
  • 2012 CNBC "11 Notable Entrepreneurs Teaching the Next Generation"[66]
  • 2013 SVForum Visionary Award[67]
  • 2014 National Science Foundation and the NCIIA Outstanding Leadership Award [68]
  • 2015 Columbia University Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship[69]
  • 2015 The Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers[70]
  • 2017 Columbia University Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship[69]
  • 2019 U.S. Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) 2019 John E. Hughes Award for Entrepreneurial Achievement[71]

Bibliography[]

Books[]

  • Blank, Steve (2005) The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win, Wiley, ISBN 978-1119690351
  • Blank, Steve (2010) Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost, Cafepress, ISBN 978-0976470748
  • Blank, Steve; Bob Dorf (2012) The Startup Owner's Manual, Wiley, ISBN 978-1119690689
  • Blank, Steve (2014) Holding a Cat by the Tail, K&S Ranch Publishing, ISBN 978-0989200554

Journal Articles[]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b J.J. Colao (1 August 2012). "Steve Blank Introduces Scientists to a new Variable: Customers". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Steve Lohr (24 April 2010). "The Rise of the Fleet-Footed Start-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  3. ^ Steve Blank (2013). "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything". Archived from the original on 2014-08-26.
  4. ^ "I-Corps - NSF - National Science Foundation". www.nsf.gov. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Derek Andersen (15 April 2012). "Steve Blank Teaches Entrepreneurs How to Fail Less". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b c Steve Blank. "Steven Gary Blank". Amazon. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c "A DIY Curriculum for Entrepreneurs - Steve Blank's Lean Launchpad". Busted Cubicle. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  8. ^ Stacy Cowley (2005). "SSA Global to buy Epiphany for $329M". Computer World. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  9. ^ "Steve Blank: a strong voice for the environment". Audubon California. 2015-07-09. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  10. ^ "National Audubon Society - SourceWatch". www.sourcewatch.org. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  11. ^ "Peninsula Open Space Trust adds two directors from Menlo Park | October 17, 2007 | Almanac | Almanac Online |". www.almanacnews.com. Retrieved 2021-08-24.
  12. ^ "California League of Conservation Voters Honors Environmental Champions at Annual Awards Gala | California League of Conservation Voters". www.ecovote.org. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  13. ^ mark@hmbreview.com, Mark Noack [. "Blank resigns with warning for commission". Half Moon Bay Review. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  14. ^ Blank, Steven Gary (2012). Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost. ISBN 978-0976470748.
  15. ^ "Steve Blank, 2011". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  16. ^ Liyan Chen (30 September 2012). "Live Blog: Entrepreneurs Boot Camp". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  17. ^ Liyan Chen (30 September 2012). "Live Blog: Entrepreneurs Boot Camp". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  18. ^ Jump up to: a b Kia Davis (1 October 2012). "Struggling to Find a Business Model for Your Idea? Read the Startup Owner's Manual". Wamda. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  19. ^ Laurence McCahill (February 2012). "10 Must-Read Blogs for Any Lean Startup". We Love Lean. Archived from the original on 9 October 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  20. ^ Huspeni, Andrea (2013-06-24). "The Best Inspirational Quotes from 2013 Commencement Speeches (Slideshow)". Entrepreneur. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  21. ^ "Coming soon to an MBA commencement near you". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  22. ^ "Holding A Cat By The Tail". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  23. ^ "SiriusXM Announces Launch of "Entrepreneurs are Everywhere" Hosted by Steve Blank". investor.siriusxm.com. Retrieved 2021-08-27.
  24. ^ Henry, Zoë (2016-05-23). "Steve Blank Makes Homage to Steve Jobs in Speech to NYU Engineering Graduates". Inc.com. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  25. ^ "Steve Blank and the Dalhousie entrepreneurship revolution". Dalhousie News. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  26. ^ UC Santa Cruz (2017). "Keynote: Entrepreneurship and Ethical Dilemmas in a Competitive World". Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  27. ^ Radin, Rick. "Following his road not taken". www.almanacnews.com. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
  28. ^ Browne, Ryan (7 December 2020). "Member of Pentagon advisory board resigns in protest at recent purge". CNN. Retrieved 7 December 2020.
  29. ^ "Faculty and Executive Leadership Directory: Steve G. Blank". University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business. 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  30. ^ "Steve Blank: Serial Entrepreneur". Ecorner: Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 27 October 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  31. ^ "Columbia University Announces The Appointment of Steve Blank as Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship (Columbia Entrepreneurship) | Technology Ventures". techventures.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  32. ^ "Startup Guru Steve Blank Brings His 5-Day Lean Launchpad to NYU | NYU Tandon School of Engineering". engineering.nyu.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  33. ^ Warren, Todd. "Getting The Most Out Of 'Getting Out Of The Building'". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  34. ^ Andy (8 April 2011). "Steve Blank". Founder LY. Archived from the original on 31 July 2014. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  35. ^ "Startup Lessons Learned:Eric Ries". Slideshare. 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  36. ^ Kinni, Theodore. "Steve Blank's Required Reading". strategy+business. Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  37. ^ Ries, Eric. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Crown Publishing. 2011, p. 103. ISBN†978-0-307-88791-7
  38. ^ Cindy Alvarez (18 March 2010). "FAQ: Customer Development for Product Managers". Cindy Alvarez. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  39. ^ Eric Ries (8 November 2008). "What is Customer Development". Startup Lessons Learned. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  40. ^ Patrick Vlaskovits (7 July 2010). "Recent Posts on the Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development". Patrick Vlaskovits. Archived from the original on 1 March 2013. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  41. ^ "lean-launchpad-courses-at-columbia-business-school". Columbia Business School. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
  42. ^ Greenwald, Ted (January 31, 2012). "Business Model Canvas: A Simple Tool For Designing Innovative Business Models". Forbes.com.
  43. ^ Hudson, 54 HUD Hudson, Marianne. 'What Angels Need To Know About New Startup Tool: Lean LaunchPad." Forbes.com. February 12, 2015. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mariannehudson/2015/02/12/what-angels-need-to-know-about-new-startup-tool-lean-launchpad/#467f373d34bc. Accessed July 12, 2016. (February 12, 2015). "What Angels Need To Know About New Startup Tool: Lean LaunchPad". Forbes.com.
  44. ^ Turner, Elliot (November 18, 2010). "Steve Blank Talks Customer Development, Lean Startups, And Epiphanies". Business Insider.
  45. ^ Baron, Ethan. "Lean Startup' Evangelist Steve Blank Builds B-School Pipeline". Poetsandquants.com.
  46. ^ "The ultimate class on how to start a company: Lean LaunchPad now online". VentureBeat. 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  47. ^ Evans, Ryan (September 13, 2016). "I Saw the Future of Defense in California and It's Coming to a University New You". WarontheRocks.com.
  48. ^ Renda, Matthew. "NSF I-Corps pushes discoveries to market". UC Santa Cruz News. Retrieved 2021-08-06.
  49. ^ "NSF Innovation Corps". National Science Foundation. 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  50. ^ Dykstra, Josiah; Fante, Matt; Donahue, Paul; Varva, Dawn; Wilk, Linda; Johnson, Amanda (2019-08-12). "Lessons from using the I-Corps methodology to understand cyber threat intelligence sharing". Proceedings of the 12th USENIX Conference on Cyber Security Experimentation and Test. CSET'19. Santa Clara, CA, USA: USENIX Association: 7.
  51. ^ "INNOVATION CORPS" (PDF).
  52. ^ Renda, Matthew. "NSF I-Corps pushes discoveries to market". UC Santa Cruz News. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
  53. ^ "Office of Naval Research Wants to Innovate at Startup Speed". United States Navy. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  54. ^ Nichols, Greg. "DoD's hacking for defense taps college brainpower". ZDNet. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  55. ^ Vaughan, Ann. "HACKING FOR DEFENSE TURNS 5". USAASC. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  56. ^ "Stanford's 'Hacking for Defense' Class Expands to Diplomacy". Nextgov.com. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  57. ^ "Hacking 4 Diplomacy". web.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  58. ^ "Entrepreneurs for Good | AACSB". www.aacsb.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  59. ^ "Solve the Bay Area housing crisis, fight climate change and more, all while earning college credit". The Mercury News. 2019-02-04. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  60. ^ "H4R – Hacking for Recovery". Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  61. ^ "Innovate 2 Impact". Hacking 4 Recovery Hawaii. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  62. ^ "Course Motivation | Technology, Innovation, and Modern War". timw.sites.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-09.
  63. ^ Jump up to: a b "The Lean Innovation Educators Summit: Lessons from Teaching in the Pandemic". The Common Mission Project Australia. Retrieved 2021-08-29.
  64. ^ Chris O'Brien (1 December 2010). "O'Brien: The Influencers of Silicon Valley". Mercury News. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  65. ^ Scott Anthony (2012). "The Masters of Innovation". Harvard Business Review. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  66. ^ "11 Entrepreneurs Teaching the Next Generation". The New Entrepreneurs. 2012. Retrieved 2 November 2012.
  67. ^ "Ray Kurzweil, Steve Blank, Padmasree Warrior and Peter Diamandis at the SVForum Visionary Awards". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  68. ^ News, Haas (2014-05-12). "Haas Lecturer, Lean LaunchPad Creator Steve Blank Recognized in Washington, Spain". Haas News | Berkeley Haas. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  69. ^ Jump up to: a b "Columbia Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship Steve Blank on Thinkers50 2017". Columbia Entrepreneurship. 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  70. ^ Girard, Kim (2015-11-13). "Three Berkeley-Haas Leaders Make Thinkers50 List". Haas News | Berkeley Haas. Retrieved 2021-07-07.
  71. ^ "USASBE Is Pleased to Announce Steve Blank as the Recipient of the John E. Hughes Award". USASBE. 2018. Retrieved 22 January 2019.

External links[]

  1. ^ "Video tutorials on entrepreneurship". Alugha.com. 2018-01-15. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
Retrieved from ""