Steve Blank Podcast

Steve Blank Podcast episodes:

• 04.17.2024

  Founders Need to Be Ruthless When Chasing Deals

  One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a potential customer is, “We’re excited. When can you come back and show us a prototype?” This can be the beginning of a profitable customer...

  
• 03.05.2024

  Is a $100 Million Enough?

  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,...

  
• 02.24.2024

  Apple Vision Pro – Tech in the Search of a Market

  If you haven’t been paying attention Apple has started shipping its Apple Vision Pro, its take on a headset that combines Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). The product is an amazing technical tour de force. But the product/market...

  
• 02.09.2024

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up

  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...

  
• 01.17.2024

  The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

  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...

  
• 01.17.2024

  The Department of Defense Is Getting Its Innovation Act Together – But More Can Be Done

  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...

  
• 11.09.2023

  Even the Smartest VCs Sometimes Get it Wrong – Bill Gurley and Regulated Markets

  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...

  
• 10.30.2023

  Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2

  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...

  
• 10.13.2023

  Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 1

  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...

  
• 09.08.2023

  Profound Beliefs

  In the early stages of a startup your hypotheses about all the parts of your business model are your profound beliefs. Think of profound beliefs as “strong opinions loosely held.” You can’t be an effective founder or in the C-suite...

  
• 08.31.2023

  Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush

  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...

  
• 07.30.2023

  Lean Meets Wicked Problems

  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...

  
• 04.30.2023

  Reorganizing the DoD to Deter China and Win in the Ukraine – A Road Map for Congress

  Today, the U.S. is supporting a proxy war with Russia while simultaneously attempting to deter a China cross-strait invasion of Taiwan. Both are wakeup calls that victory and deterrence in modern war will be determined by a state’s ability to...

  
• 04.04.2023

  Playing With Fire – ChatGPT

  Artificial Intelligence has been the technology right around the corner for at least 50 years. Last year a set of specific AI apps caught everyone’s attention as AI finally crossed from the era of niche applications to the delivery of...

  
• 02.16.2023

  Startups that Have Employees In Offices Grow 3½ Times Faster

  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...

  
• 01.19.2023

  Is a Venture Studio Right for You?

  Three types of organizations – Incubators, Accelerators and Venture Studios – have emerged to reduce the risk of early-stage startup failure by helping teams find product/market fit and raise initial capital. Venture Studios are an “idea factory” with their own...

  
• 01.14.2023

  Be Where Your Business Is

  A CEO running a B-to-B startup in needs to live in the city where their business is – or else they’ll never scale.

  
• 01.10.2023

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2022 Wrap Up

  We just wrapped up the second year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class – now part of our Stanford Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to 1) give...

  
• 12.05.2022

  Why The Pentagon Can’t Count: It’s Time to Reinvent the Audit

  In the past, headlines about the Pentagon failing its financial audit again would never have caught my attention. But having been in the middle of this conversation when I served on one of the Defense Department’s advisory boards, I understand...

  
• 11.15.2022

  The 6th Lean Innovation Educators Summit – Education & Innovation in the Age of Chaos and Disruption

  Join Jerry Engel, Pete Newell, and Steve Weinstein for the sixth edition of the Lean Innovation Educators Summit December 14, 1-4 pm Eastern Time, 10 am-1 pm Pacific Time. This virtual gathering will bring together entrepreneurship educators from around the...

  
• 11.12.2022

  The Three Pillars of World-class Corporate Innovation

  My good friend Alexander Osterwalder, the inventor of the business model canvas (one of foundations of the Lean Methodology) has written a playbook (along with his associate partner Tendayi Viki,) From Innovation Theater to Growth Engine to explain how to...

  
• 10.29.2022

  A Simple Map for Innovation at Scale

  I spent last week at a global Fortune 50 company offsite watching them grapple with disruption. This 100+-year-old company has seven major product divisions, each with hundreds of products. Currently a market leader, they’re watching a new and relentless competitor...

  
• 10.01.2022

  Mapping the Unknown – The Ten Steps to Map Any Industry

  A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lǎozi 老子 I just had lunch with Shenwei, one of my ex-students who had just taken a job in a mid-sized consulting firm. After a bit of catching...

  
• 09.17.2022

  National Industrial Policy – Private Capital and The America’s Frontier Fund Steps Up

  Last month the U.S. passed the CHIPS and Science Act, one of the first pieces of national industrial policy – government planning and intervention in a specific industry — in the last 50 years, in this case for semiconductors. After...

  
• 06.22.2022

  Finding and Growing the Islands of Innovation inside a large company – Action Plan for A New CTO

  How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six months as a new CTO thinking you’re making progress when the status quo...

  
• 06.04.2022

  Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning– Explained

  Hundreds of billions in public and private capital is being invested in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning companies. The number of patents filed in 2021 is more than 30 times higher than in 2015 as companies and countries across...

  
• 05.31.2022

  Lessons for the DoD – From Ukraine and China

  Looking at a satellite image of Ukraine online I realized it was from Capella Space – one of our Hacking for Defense student teams who now has 7 satellites in orbit. National Security is Now Dependent on Commercial Technology They’re not the...

  
• 05.08.2022

  Cram Down – A Test of Character for VCs and Founders

  Cram downs are back – and I’m keeping a list. At the turn of the century after the dotcom crash, startup valuations plummeted, burn rates were unsustainable, and startups were quickly running out of cash. Most existing investors (those still...

  
• 05.01.2022

  What Happened When Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks visited Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center

  It was an honor to host US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. (Think of the Deputy Secretary of Defense as the Chief Operating Officer of a company –...

  
• 04.19.2022

  The Quantum Technology Ecosystem – Explained

  Tens of billions of public and private capital are being invested in Quantum technologies. Countries across the world have realized that quantum technologies can be a major disruptor of existing businesses and change the balance of military power. So much...

  
• 04.12.2022

  The Semiconductor Ecosystem – Explained

  The last year has seen a ton written about the semiconductor industry: chip shortages, the CHIPS Act, our dependence on Taiwan and TSMC, China, etc. But despite all this talk about chips and semiconductors, few understand how the industry is structured....

  
• 04.09.2022

  What’s Plan B? – The Small, the Agile, and the Many

  One of the most audacious and bold manifestos for the future of Naval innovation has just been posted by the Rear Admiral who heads up the Office of Naval Research. It may be the hedge we need to deter China...

  
• 01.18.2022

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Wrap Up

  We just had our final session of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to give our students insights on how commercial technology (AI, machine learning, autonomy, cyber, quantum, semiconductors,...

  
• 01.09.2022

  I Can’t See You but I’m Not Blind

  If I ask you to think of an elephant do you see an elephant in your head when you close your eyes? I don’t. Regardless of how descriptive the imagery, story or text I can’t create any pictures in my...

  
• 01.07.2022

  The Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford

  75 years ago, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) helped kickstart innovation in Silicon Valley with a series of grants to Fred Terman, Dean of Stanford’s Engineering school. Terman used the money to set up the Stanford Electronics Research Lab....

  
• 01.05.2022

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 8 – Cyber

  We just completed the eighth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment...

  
• 01.05.2022

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 7 – Space

  We just completed the seventh week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment...

  
• 01.02.2022

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 6 – Unmanned Systems and Autonomy

  We just completed the sixth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape the character and employment...

  
• 12.22.2021

  When There Seems to Be No Way Out – Customer Discovery for Your Head

  As an entrepreneur at times you forget that being in charge doesn’t mean you have to know everything. When it feels like you’re trapped facing an unsolvable dilemma, and wrestling with a seemingly intractable problem, remember that “getting out of...

  
• 12.20.2021

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 5 – AI and Machine Learning

  We just completed the fifth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of...

  
• 11.17.2021

  How to Find a Market? Use Jobs-To-Be-Done as the Front End of Customer Discovery

  Modern entrepreneurship began at the turn of the 21st century with the observation that startups aren’t smaller versions of large companies – large companies at their core execute known business models, while startups search for scalable business models. Lean Methodology...

  
• 11.15.2021

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 4- Semiconductors

  We just completed the fourth week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of...

  
• 10.31.2021

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 3 – Russia

  We just had our third week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of...

  
• 10.28.2021

  Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 2

  We just had our second week of our new national security class at Stanford – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Joe Felter, Raj Shah and I designed the class to cover how technology will shape all the elements of...

  
• 10.12.2021

  Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition

  For 25 years as the sole Superpower, the U.S. neglected strategic threats from China and a rearmed Russia. The country, our elected officials, and our military committed to a decades-long battle to ensure that terrorists like those that executed the...

  
• 10.06.2021

  Lead and Disrupt

  You think startups are hard? Try innovating inside a large company where 99% of the company is executing the current business model, while you’re trying to figure out and build what comes next. Charles O’Reilly and Michael Tushman coined the term...

  
• 10.03.2021

  Why Innovation Heroes are a Sign of a Dysfunctional Organization

  A week ago I got invited to an “innovation hero” award ceremony at a government agency. I don’t know how many of these I’ve been to in the last couple years, but this one just made my head explode.

  
• 08.06.2021

  The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught

  Revolutions start by overturning the status quo. By the end of the 20th century, case studies and business plans had reached an evolutionary dead-end for entrepreneurs. Here’s why and what we did about it.

  
• 08.03.2021

  Lean LaunchPad – For Deep Science and Technology

  We just finished the 11th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford — our first version focused on deep science and technology. I’ve always thought of the class as a minimal viable product – testing new ideas and changing the class as...

  
• 06.16.2021

  You Don’t Need Permission

  I was pleasantly surprised to hear from Suresh, an ex-student I’ve known for a long time. A U.S. citizen he was now the head of sales and marketing for a company in London selling medical devices to hospitals in the...