Founders with great businesses are often frustrated that they can’t raise money. Here’s why. I’ve been having coffee with lots of frustrated founders (my students and others) bemoaning most VCs won’t even meet with them unless they have AI in their fundraising pitch. And the AI startups they see are getting valuations that appear nonsensical. […]

The PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com We just finished the 15th<>annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. The class had gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions. During the 2025 spring quarter the eight teams spoke to 935 potential customers, beneficiaries […]

The videos and PowerPoints embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com We just finished our 10th annual Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. What a year. Hacking for Defense, now in 70 universities, has teams of students working to understand and help solve national security problems. At Stanford this quarter the 8 teams […]

This article previously appeared in Nature. US global dominance in science was no accident, but a product of a far-seeing partnership between public and private sectors to boost innovation and economic growth. Since 20 January, US science has been upended by severe cutbacks from the administration of US President Donald Trump. A series of dramatic […]