Quotes from Steve Blank

In the past, when venture-funded startups told their investors they'd found a profitable business model, the first thing VCs would do is to start looking for an 'operating exec' - usually an MBA who would act as the designated 'adult' and take over the transition from Search to Build.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is not understanding the relationship they have with their investors. At times, they confuse VCs with their friends.

Skunk works differed from advanced research groups in that they were more than just product development groups. They had direct interaction with customers and controlled a sales channel which allowed them to negotiate their own deals with customers.

I have to think my success in the VC business was due in no small part to seeing Larry Ellison in action back in the day.

Only by moving away from the comforts of your conference room to truly engage with and listen to your customers can you learn in depth about their problems, produce features to solve those problems, and learn what drives customers to recommend, approve, and purchase products.

Michael Bloomberg has yet to get his due for engineering the New York entrepreneurial ecosystem.

For busy young adults, the lure of meal substitutes is simple - it's all about convenience - the level of effort to open a bottle or package is minimal, and the time from thinking you're hungry to eating is almost zero.

Understand that VCs are simply a sophisticated form of financial investors who, in turn, need to satisfy their own investors.

Great VCs do everything they can to make you successful. But just like your bank, credit card company, mortgage holder, etc. they are not confused where their long-term loyalty lies.

If you think the job of a CEO is to increase sales, then Ballmer did a spectacular job.

Very often, if a founder is waiting around for someone else to tell him what to do, the company is near death.

Companies that get started and built in New York City tend to be applied technology.

Unfortunately, as you hire more people, the casual, informal 'do what it takes' culture, which worked so well at less than 40 people, becomes chaotic and less effective.

On Day One, a start-up is a faith-based initiative built on guesses.

Any dispassionate observer would recognize that on Day One, a start-up has no customers, and unless the founder is a true domain expert, he or she can only guess about the customer, problem, and business model.

The business model is both the starting point and the scorecard for Customer Development progress.

Face-to-face customer feedback refines or validates every component of the startup's business model, not just the product itself.

In a web/mobile startup, coding is not an outsourced activity. It's an integral part of the company's DNA.

Customer Development changes almost every aspect of startup behavior, performance, metrics, and, as often as not, success potential.

Decades before we were able to articulate the value of 'getting out of the building' and the Lean Startup, the value in having skunk works controlling their own distribution was starkly evident.

Failure will happen. It's a normal part of the startup process.

VCs like acquisitions as much as IPOs because the acquiring companies often can rationalize paying large multiples over the current valuation of the startup.

Not all startups are alike. One of the key ways they differ is in the relationship between a startup's new product and its market.

Startups have finite time and resources to find product/market fit before they run out of money. Therefore startups trade off certainty for speed, adopting 'good enough decision making' and iterating and pivoting as they fail, learn, and discover their business model.