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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. […]
3 weeks 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 […]

2 weeks ago 23 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 […]

4 weeks ago 20 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 17 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 26 votes

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The anti-immigration backlash comes to Japan

It was always bound to happen.

13 hours ago 2 votes
The Hater's Guide To The AI Bubble

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yesterday 7 votes
Why the world should stop obsessing over LLMs

Nandan Nilekani, the mind behind India’s digital revolution, says the future of AI will not be shaped by who builds the bigger model but by small systems designed to resolve real-world problems.

yesterday 2 votes
Stop pretending you know what AI does to the economy

Alarmism is everywhere, but a lot of it is just brainworms.

2 days ago 11 votes