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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 relationship or a disappointing sinkhole of wasted time, money, resources, and a demoralized engineering […]
a year ago

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More from Steve Blank

Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future

How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or die. This post tells the story of what happened when 4,000 companies faced a disruptive technology and why only one survived. In the early 20th […]

a month ago 30 votes
Why Investors Don’t Care About Your Business

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. […]

a month ago 25 votes
Lean Launchpad at Stanford – 2025

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 […]

a month ago 26 votes
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned Presentations

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 […]

a month ago 20 votes
Teaching National Security Policy with AI

The videos embedded in this post are best viewed on steveblank.com International Policy students will be spending their careers in an AI-enabled world. We wanted our students to be prepared for it. This is why we’ve adopted and integrated AI in our Stanford national security policy class – Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition. Here’s […]

a month ago 33 votes

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Google vs. Perplexity fight plays out in India as AI battle intensifies

Google and Perplexity are offering free access to their AI-powered search in India, a key testing ground and source of training data for AI models.

23 hours ago 3 votes
AI Is A Money Trap

In the last week, we’ve had no less than three different pieces asking whether the massive proliferation of data centers is a massive bubble, and though they, at times, seem to take the default position of AI’s inevitable value, they’ve begun to sour on

2 days ago 6 votes
China’s AI drug discovery companies land huge deals with Big Pharma

Multibillion-dollar partnerships show China’s rising influence in AI-driven pharmaceuticals.

2 days ago 4 votes
Immigrant memoir comics!

Learning about the immigrant experience by reading graphic novels

2 days ago 5 votes
They left Syria as refugees. They’re returning to build its tech industry

After the fall of the Assad regime, tech workers are coming back to help rebuild their nation.

3 days ago 5 votes