Ideas ... Management
The Business Plan

Steve Blank: How to Build a Great Company, Step by Step

Burgess COMMENTARY
This is fairly long ... but the time passes quite quickly. Steve Blank is pretty clear about the huge difference between a mature company and a start-up ... and then pretty clear about what is most important in the start-up environment. A beautiful business plan and ficancial projections are only as good as the 'guesses' that go into putting them together. The corrollory therefore is to get the Founder to have lots of face time with the people who are going to matter ... the customers who are going to pay the bills and return capital to investors!

As someone who 'does financial projections', this is a useful reminder that accounting needs to be a respresentation of facts, and projections have a level of uncertainty that is not improved by using ever more sophisticated spreadsheets! I argue spreadsheet projections are useful ... but they follow good information from the founders, customers, etc and merely record the best guesses available!
Peter Burgess

Steve Blank: How to Build a Great Company, Step by Step

Steve Blank, Serial Entrepreneur; Founder, E.piphany; Professor, UC Berkeley and Stanford Engineering; Author, The Startup Owners Manual

In conversation with Dan'l Lewin, Corporate Vice President of Strategic and Emerging Business Development (SEBT), Microsoft

Join Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur-turned-educator Blank in a lively discussion with Dan'l Lewin of Microsoft. This program will introduce best practices, lessons and tips that have swept the startup world, offering a wealth of proven advice and information for entrepreneurs of all stripes. Hear about a tested and proven Customer Development Process, helping get it right --and how to 'get, keep, and grow' customers.