Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley-based retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies in California’s Silicon Valley after dropping out of the University of Michigan. A prolific educator, thought leader and writer on Customer Development for Startups, Blank teaches, refines, writes and blogs on “Customer Development,” a rigorous methodology he developed to bring the “scientific method” to the typically chaotic, seemingly disorganized startup process.[1]
Now teaching Entrepreneurship at three major Universities, Blank co-founded his first of eight startups after several years repairing fighter plane electronics in Thailand during the Vietnam War, followed by several years of defense electronics work for U.S. intelligence agencies in “undisclosed locations.” "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," (Blank, Steven Gary. Four Steps to the Epiphany. CafePress.com.) Blank’s book, details the Customer Development process and is considered a “must read” among entrepreneurs, investors, and established companies alike, when the focus is optimizing a startup’s chances for scalability and success. Blank views entrepreneurship as a practice that can be managed rather than purely an art form to be experienced.[2]
His Customer Development methodology is rooted on startups "getting out of the building," talking to customers and using that feedback to develop and refine their product.
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Steve Blank arrived in Silicon Valley in 1978, as boom times began. His early startups include two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers (now MIPS Technologies); Convergent Technologies; a consulting stint for Pixar; a supercomputer firm, Ardent Computer; peripheral supplier, SuperMac Technologies; a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL; Rocket Science Games.[3] Steve co-founded startup number eight, E.piphany, in his living room in 1996. After retiring from E.piphany the day before its IPO in September 1999, Blank served on two public boards (Macrovision and Immersion) and several private companies. He continues to selectively invest and advise Silicon Valley startups such as Votizen.
After 21 years driving 8 high technology startups, today Steve teaches entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business,[4] Stanford University Graduate School of Engineering,[5] and a joint MBA class with Berkeley Haas and Columbia Business School.[6] His “Customer Development” teaching and writing coalesce and codify his experiences and observations of entrepreneurs in action, including his own and those he advises.
In 2009, he earned the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in Management Science and Engineering. The same year, The San Jose Mercury News listed him as one of the 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley.[7] In 2010, he was earned the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business.[8]
In January 2011, he launched a new class at Stanford University, The Lean LaunchPad.[9] It teaches aspiring entrepreneurs all aspects of building a business, including business model design, customer and agile development, and design thinking.[10] In July 2011, the National Science Foundation adopted the Lean Launchpad as the curriculum for its Innovation-Corps, an incubator for 100 science and engineering teams each year.[11]
In May 2011, Blank was the commencement speaker at Philadelphia University [12]
Blank has collected an informal history of Silicon Valley, which was presented as a Google TechTalk and a talk at the Computer History Museum called The Secret History of Silicon Valley.[13][14][15]
Blank is the past Chairman of Audubon California.[16] And has been on the board of Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).[17] And was a trustee of U.C. Santa Cruz. Blank is currently on the board of the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV). In 2007 he was appointed to the California Coastal Commission.[18][19] He has made major gifts to preserve the California Coast, including funding the visitors center at Año Nuevo State Reserve.[20][21][22]
Blank, Steven Gary. Four Steps to the Epiphany. CafePress.com.
Blank, Steven Gary. Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost. CafePress.com.