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It was an honor to host US Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks at Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation.  (Think of the Deputy Secretary of Defense as the Chief Operating Officer of a company – but in this case the company has 3 million employees (~1.4 million active duty, 750,000 civilians, […]
over a year ago

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More from Steve Blank

The U.S. Led the World in Science and Technology and Just Gave It Up

Prior to WWII the U.S was a distant second in science and engineering. By the time the war was over, U.S. science and engineering had blown past the British, and led the world for 85 years. With the cutbacks of U.S. government support and the Chinese investing heavily for the last three decades to surpass […]

an hour ago 2 votes
How to Flip the Script, Beat China and Russia – And Fix the Broken Department of Defense

A version of this post previously appeared in War on the Rocks. This version has been updated with suggestions from leaders across the Department of Defense and Venture Capital community. BLUF: In WW II, the U.S. outsourced advanced weapons systems development to civilians. The weapons they developed won the war. It’s time to do that […]

4 months ago 72 votes
Quantum Computing – An Update

In March 2022 I wrote a description of the Quantum Technology Ecosystem. I thought this would be a good time to check in on the progress of building a quantum computer and explain more of the basics. Just as a reminder, Quantum technologies are used in three very different and distinct markets: Quantum Computing, Quantum […]

5 months ago 70 votes
How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation–and What to Do About It

“Only the Paranoid Survive” Andy Grove – Intel CEO 1987-1998 I just had an urgent “can we meet today?” coffee with Rohan, an ex-student. His three-year-old startup had been slapped with a notice of patent infringement from a Fortune 500 company. “My lawyers said defending this suit could cost $500,000 just for discovery, and potentially […]

5 months ago 68 votes
What Does Product Market Fit Sound Like? This.

I got a call from an ex-student asking me “how do you know when you found product market fit?” There’s been lots of words written about it, but no actual recordings of the moment. I remembered I had saved this 90 second, 26 year-old audio file because this is when I knew we had found […]

5 months ago 71 votes

More in startups

The U.S. Led the World in Science and Technology and Just Gave It Up

Prior to WWII the U.S was a distant second in science and engineering. By the time the war was over, U.S. science and engineering had blown past the British, and led the world for 85 years. With the cutbacks of U.S. government support and the Chinese investing heavily for the last three decades to surpass […]

an hour ago 2 votes
Tariffs: Another American act of intentional self-harm

As Adam Smith said, "there is a great deal of ruin in a nation."

7 hours ago 1 votes
After U.S. failure, Vietnam’s EV leader turns to markets dominated by Tesla and BYD

VinFast follows its Vietnam playbook in Asia and targets the luxury market in the Gulf.

yesterday 2 votes
If you're in Tokyo, come join my hanami this Saturday!

Not an actual blog post, just an invitation.

2 days ago 2 votes
This is how China skirts U.S. chip bans

Chinese tech companies use smugglers, loopholes, and innovation to work around U.S. chip restrictions

2 days ago 3 votes