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More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
11–20 of 25 posts
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#12This is academic gobbledy gook. I felt like I was hearing a bad tech sales pitch flipping through this with all of its markitecture diagrams. Beware - just because something comes from Stanford, doesn't make it meaningful or insightful. This is just restating common knowledge with flow charts.
This is based on Steve Blank's experience as a serial entrepreneur: he graduated from the school of hard knocks and is not given to academic gobbledygook.
This presentation is condensed from his book "Four Steps to the Epiphany" which is well worth reading. Eric Ries has written a good post that marries this methodology with agile at http://startuplessonslearned.blogspot.com/2008/09/customer-d...
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#13This is academic gobbledy gook. I felt like I was hearing a bad tech sales pitch flipping through this with all of its markitecture diagrams. Beware - just because something comes from Stanford, doesn't make it meaningful or insightful. This is just restating common knowledge with flow charts.
Steven Blank has founded 4 startups, participated in 8, sat on many advisory boards and otherwise actively participated in the startup process(es). On meta note, to elevate the level of discussion here I suggest that you try addressing substance of the matter being presented, not attacking the personality of the presenter.
I didn't attack his personality - I attacked 1) the content of the presentation 2) the presentation of the presentation and 3) cautioned against accepting this presentation as great because of the source. My argument wasn't very detailed, but it certainly wasn't an attack on the presenter.
You, on the other hand, did not defend the content of the presentation, but rather cited some qualifications of the author - ironically, just what I warned against accepting as proof of credibility.
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#14This is academic gobbledy gook. I felt like I was hearing a bad tech sales pitch flipping through this with all of its markitecture diagrams. Beware - just because something comes from Stanford, doesn't make it meaningful or insightful. This is just restating common knowledge with flow charts.
"This is academic gobbledy gook.I felt like I was hearing a bad tech sales pitch flipping through this with all of its markitecture diagrams."
Is there a reason why you thought so? Are you aware of a better way of doing this, according to you? We'd like to hear.
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Steven Blank has founded 4 startups, participated in 8, sat on many advisory boards and otherwise actively participated in the startup process(es). On meta note, to elevate the level of discussion here I suggest that you try addressing substance of the matter being presented, not attacking the personality of the presenter.
I didn't attack his personality - I attacked 1) the content of the presentation 2) the presentation of the presentation and 3) cautioned against accepting this presentation as great because of the source. My argument wasn't very detailed, but it certainly wasn't an attack on the presenter. You, on the other hand, did not defend the content of the presentation, but rather cited some qualifications of the author - iron…
Your point: Author is theorizing without connection to reality, more literally "This is academic gobbledy gook."
My counterpoint: Steven Blank has vast first-hand experience in startups.
Any more questions?
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#16And more startups fail from a lack of money than from a lack of product development.
Customers = money, do they not?
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't attack his personality - I attacked 1) the content of the presentation 2) the presentation of the presentation and 3) cautioned against accepting this presentation as great because of the source. My argument wasn't very detailed, but it certainly wasn't an attack on the presenter. You, on the other hand, did not defend the content of the presentation, but rather cited some qualifications of the author - iron…
Your point: Author is theorizing without connection to reality, more literally "This is academic gobbledy gook." My counterpoint: Steven Blank has vast first-hand experience in startups. Any more questions?
Academic opinions are almost always formed from experiments, and this presentation is academic.
My point was not that the author is theorizing without connection to reality. My point was I've heard the same thing said in half a sentence that he took dozens of slides to say.
But it's got that nice academic sheen!
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#18And more startups fail from a lack of money than from a lack of product development.
You could have all the money in the world and still make a product that nobody wants. Looks like a guaranteed path to failure.
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#19Looks like a movement from waterfall to iterative development in the customer devel side.
That much I got. How to do that with a startup idea, without developing enough to make a showable prototype, I donno. pclark's mechanical turk idea sounds pretty awesome.
Re: More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your point: Author is theorizing without connection to reality, more literally "This is academic gobbledy gook." My counterpoint: Steven Blank has vast first-hand experience in startups. Any more questions?
Academic opinions are almost always formed from experiments, and this presentation is academic. My point was not that the author is theorizing without connection to reality. My point was I've heard the same thing said in half a sentence that he took dozens of slides to say. But it's got that nice academic sheen!
What's the half sentence?