startups search for a business model

April 23, 2010

Steve Blank is probably most well known for this picture about embracing change:
Customer Development

Observations about Silicon Valley:

99.7% of all companies are <500 employees and employ half of the people in the country. In contrast, a scalable startup is designed to grow big and it typically needs risk capital. (Note: venture capital was originally called “adventure capital.”)

Your job as an entrepreneur is to search for a scalable and repeatable business model. Then build a business around it. Founders depart before the company grows to a large business:

  1. Search
  2. Build
  3. Grow

No business plan survives contact with customers.

Startups search and pivot. Small and large companies execute.

Startups should focus on:

Lean startups use agile and customer development to find profits. (A high percentage of company founders come from dysfunctional families, but that’s another topic.)

**[Why Accountants Don't Run Startups](http://www.slideshare.net/sblank/why-accountants-dont-run-startups-041410 "Why Accountants Don't Run Startups")**
View more presentations from [steve blank](http://www.slideshare.net/sblank).