Comments on: Steven Blank Kills It at Greycroft CEO Summit

By: msuster

msuster — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:53:12 +0000

Thanks. I have a blog post going up on this topic in the next 30 days so I'll save a long POV for that. The title will be “don't trade your cat for someone else's dog” so maybe that's a hint on my POV. But obviously when it's a valuable and growing entity it can be a good idea.

By: startupcfo

startupcfo — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:34:08 +0000

Mark re: selling to a private buyer for stock, I think that's a good general rule, but there are exceptions. There are high fliers like Linkedin (yet to make an acquisition I think) and Twitter (which has made purchases for stock) where I think founders and investors would both like to own the stock – especially if its common and discounted in the same manner as employees. You're still at risk because its totally illiquid, but presumably you've traded one iliquid stock for another with much higher value potential (and where you are already 'in the money' because of the 409A valuation discount).

By: startupcfo

startupcfo — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:34:08 +0000

By: Uptownlunch

Uptownlunch — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:29:56 +0000

Customers are important, but what's more important is who's your customer!

By: Uptownlunch

Uptownlunch — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 04:29:56 +0000

Customers are important, but what's more important is who's your customer!

By: Matthew Burgess

Matthew Burgess — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:50:50 +0000

Yeah, I'm reading Steve Blank's book. My two "Eric Ries" types that pointed me to the Yoda were Jason Spievak and Klaus Schauser, both big fans and practitioners of Customer Development. We're putting this approach into play in our company now, and we've stumbled on substantial validation in an adjacent market, nearly by accident, simply by asking the right questions of customers and prospects. And yes, "nail it before you scale it" is key. Takes patience though.

And your Scott Kurnit comments seem to align with your own comments a few weeks back about decision by indecision, which I've both seen and been guilty of.

Thanks.

By: Matthew Burgess

Matthew Burgess — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 03:50:50 +0000

By: Tyler Beerman

Tyler Beerman — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:49:08 +0000

Mark Suster your blog rocks!

By: Tyler Beerman

Tyler Beerman — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:49:08 +0000

Mark Suster your blog rocks!

By: dshen

dshen — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:06:29 +0000

I found this well put together summary of Steve's book here:

http://www.custdev.com/

it's a lot more digestible and the important stuff is there.