

More startups fail from a lack of customers than from a failure of product development - phil_KartMe
http://www.stanford.edu/class/msande273/resources/Blank%20presentation%20101403.pdf

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pclark
this is an awesome presentation - I really recommend anyone that has a product
and wants customers read it.

Before I wrote my first line of code for my startup I went and interviewed
about 50 regular people. I'd go sit at a train station and grab a guy reading
a newspaper, and ask him why he wasn't reading it on his phone.

I'd grab people on the bus or in a queue for groceries on their phone (eg,
using it, not talking) and spark up a conversation as to what they're upto.

Most of the time they'd happily give me their phone number after a brief chat,
I kept in contact with them all, and rang them once I'd developed my product -
quizzed them what I thought and so on.

I have another 100 or so users from Mechanical Turk about my product market
that I've been too busy to analyze properly.

~~~
phil_KartMe
also, here is a podcast by stephen blank that a friend just recommended
<http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2048>

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chris11
This is a really great presentation. It seems to go along with the idea of
releasing early and often. I've never really been comfortable or understood
sales. In school my only few real experiences in sales was selling some
product for some benefit or fundraiser.From that, I got the idea that
successful selling required convincing some unknown person that the finished
product solved their specific needs that I was basically unaware of. So it was
pretty much a numbers game, more attempts mean more money.

I like the idea of a product development cycle where the customers and users
are shaping the product. I also really like the idea that I can easily
validate a product concept by seeing if the people advising me would actually
buy in to demo. This presentation has helped me feel more comfortable with the
process of successful product development and sales.

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andrewljohnson
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.

Beware - just because something comes from Stanford, doesn't make it
meaningful or insightful. This is just restating common knowledge with flow
charts.

~~~
DenisM
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.

~~~
andrewljohnson
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.

~~~
DenisM
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?

~~~
andrewljohnson
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!

~~~
walterk
What's the half sentence?

~~~
andrewljohnson
Don't neglect sales.

~~~
skmurphy
Certainly good advice but it may leave HN readers with the idea that hiring a
VP of Sales person early is enough. Blank explicitly rejects this and suggests
that early sales are the responsibility of the founders. In particular they
have to treat their product as a hypothesis, which few successful sales folks
are able to do. They treat objections as something to overcome. Only the
founders can balance the question of whether they are talking to the right
prospects with the right message about the right features.

~~~
andrewljohnson
Right, just like I said.... academic gobbleddy gook.

~~~
skmurphy
My apologies. What follows is only a portion of what's in the talk.

    
    
       1. The founders must sell. They must listen to prospects.
       2. They cannot hire a VP of sales until they have learned how to sell the product.
       3. The founders should view their business as a guess.
       4. They can see if they are correct by selling, which will confirm:
          a. Who the customer is (who will pay for the product)
          b. How to talk about the product
          c. If product has the right features

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lallysingh
Looks 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.

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DenisM
If you would rather watch video or listen to MP3, here's the link:
[http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2056...](http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2056#)

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earl
Working link: [http://www.scribd.com/full/10601416?access_key=key-
mf4icwvtd...](http://www.scribd.com/full/10601416?access_key=key-
mf4icwvtdyiklcrmdw8)

------
sachinag
And more startups fail from a lack of money than from a lack of product
development.

~~~
ponnap
You could have all the money in the world and still make a product that nobody
wants. Looks like a guaranteed path to failure.

