Is a $100 Million Enough?
Steve Blank
by steve blank
3w ago
This article first appeared in Inc. 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. It’s been rewarding to see tech entrepreneurship become an integral part of the economy and tech companies become some of the most valued companies in the world. What has made this happen is the relentless cycle of innovation ..read more
Visit website
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up
Steve Blank
by steve blank
1M ago
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 ..read more
Visit website
The Department of Defense Is Getting Its Innovation Act Together – But More Can Be Done
Steve Blank
by steve blank
2M ago
This post previously appeared in Defense News  and C4SIR. 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 mak ..read more
Visit website
The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates
Steve Blank
by steve blank
3M ago
This post is the latest in the “Secret History Series.” They’ll make much more sense if you watch the video or read some of the earlier posts for context. See the Secret History bibliography for sources and supplemental reading. No Knowledge of Computers 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 ..read more
Visit website
Even the Smartest VCs Sometimes Get it Wrong – Bill Gurley and Regulated Markets
Steve Blank
by steve blank
5M ago
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. Bill’s closing line, “The reason why Silicon Valley is so successful is that it’s so fxxxng far away from W ..read more
Visit website
Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2
Steve Blank
by steve blank
5M ago
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. Below is the second of her three-part series. Read part one here. Before leaving government service one of my biggest challenges was to understand how my skill as a Case Officer would translate into a job in the commercial world. I had to spend a lot of time learning a new language and new job de ..read more
Visit website
Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 1
Steve Blank
by steve blank
6M ago
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. Below is the first of her three-part series. —- At least a few times a month, people looking to jump ask about my transition, which has led to me consolidating my answers below. To be up front, some of what I write will be controversial and all of it is biased. Due to length, I’ve broken it up into ..read more
Visit website
Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush
Steve Blank
by steve blank
7M ago
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. During World War II, the combatants (Germany, Britain, U.S. Japan, Italy, and the Soviet Union) made strategic decisions about what types of weapons to build (tanks, airplanes, ships, sub ..read more
Visit website
Lean Meets Wicked Problems
Steve Blank
by steve blank
8M ago
This post previously appeared in Poets & Quants. 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.) I’ve ..read more
Visit website
Startups that Have Employees In Offices Grow 3½ Times Faster
Steve Blank
by steve blank
1y ago
This article previously appeared in EIX – Entreprenuers and Innovators Exchange. 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 versu ..read more
Visit website

Follow Steve Blank on FeedSpot

Continue with Google
Continue with Apple
OR