The document summarizes Steve Blank's work developing the Lean LaunchPad methodology for teaching entrepreneurship. It shows how his thinking evolved from initially believing entrepreneurship education should focus on execution, to realizing it must begin with searching for a business model. This led to developing customer development and the business model canvas as the core of the Lean LaunchPad class, which trains students to search for viability before executing a plan. The methodology then spread globally to thousands of students through additional classes, online offerings, and trainer programs.

1. The Story of the
Lean LaunchPad
www.steveblank.com
@sgblank

2. 8 Startups in 21 Years

3. 21 Years Executing the Plan

4. Actual Photo of What Happened
When My Plan Had
First Contact With Customers

6. All I Need is the 5-Year Forecast

7. VC’s and the
Soviet Union
are the only
people to require
5-Year Plans

8. Is this all there is?

9. Business
Schools
Professors Students as
Consulting Management
Existing
Companies
© 2012 Steve Blank

10. Business
Schools
Business School Curriculum
Professors Students as
Consulting Management • Finance Gov’t& Law
• Leadership  Supply Chain
• Org Behavior  Ethics
• Operations  Global Business
• Marketing  Accounting
• Strategy  Global Mgmt
Existing
Companies
© 2012 Steve Blank

11. Business
Schools
Professors Students as
Consulting Management
Execute Execute
small business, family
Existing business, high-tech
business, new product
Companies development
Entrepreneurship
© 2012 Steve Blank

12. Business
1911: Taylor The Principles of Scientific Management
Schools 1915: Taussig: Principles of Economics
1923: Knight: Risk, Uncertainty and Profit
1934 Schumpeter: The Theory of Economic Developmentin english
1945 Weissman: Small Business and Venture Capital
Professors Students as 1947 Myles Mace - 1st entrepreneurship course at Harvard
Consulting Management 1952 Kelley & Lawyer: Case Problems in Small Business Management
1953 Small Business Administration formed
1953 C. Roland Christensen: Management Succession in Small and Growing Enterprises
1954 Small Business Management, first MBA small business course at Stanford
19684 schools teaching entrepreneurship
1979 Livesay: American Made
1983 First entrepreneurship course in an engineering school, Univ of New Mexico.
1986 First national business plan competition, University of Miami.
1988 von Hippel: The Sources of Innovation
1993 Karl Vesper New Venture Mechanics
1997 Christensen: The Innovator's Dilemma
2000 McGrath &MacMilian: The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Execute Execute
small business, family
Existing business, high-tech
business, new product
Companies development
Entrepreneurship
© 2012 Steve Blank Source: Katz, table 1 http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v18y2003i2p283-300.html

13. Business
Schools
Business School Curriculum
Professors Students as
Consulting Management
• Finance Gov’t& Law
• Leadership  Supply Chain
• Org Behavior  Ethics
• Operations  Global Business
• Marketing  Accounting
• Strategy  Global Mgmt
•EntrepreneurshipSmall Business
Execute
small business, family
Existing business, high-tech
business, new product
Companies development
Entrepreneurship
© 2012 Steve Blank Sources: Katz, table 1 http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v18y2003i2p283-300.html

15. ?

16. It Resulted in a Few Hypotheses
• Startups were not smaller versions of large companies
• Startups were aboutsearch, not execution
• Entrepreneurs and their VC’s were executing on guesses
• But the facts were outside the building
• Planning needed to come before the plan

17. Startups Are Not Smaller Versions
of Large Companies

18. Startups Are Not Smaller Versions
of Large Companies
Large Companies Execute
Known Business Models

19. Startups Are Not Smaller Versions
of Large Companies
Startups Search for Unknown
Business Models

20. What’s A Startup?

21. A temporary organization
designed to search
for a repeatable and scalable
business model

22. A temporary organization
designed to search
for a repeatable and scalable
business model

23. A temporary organization
designed to search
for a repeatable and scalable
business model

24. A temporary organization
designed to search
for a repeatable and scalable
business model

25. Startups Fail Because They
Confuse Search with Execute

26. Startups need their own tools,
different from those used
in existing companies

27. Startups need their own tools,
different from those used
in existing companies

28. And a Question

29. Can We Build a Process to
Search?
Before we Execute

30. Yes
• Lead User Research - Von Hippel • OODA Loop - Boyd
• Crossing the Chasm - Moore • Question-based Selling - Freese
• Entrepreneurial Mindset - McGrath/MacMillan • Solution Selling - Bosworth
• Innovators Dilemma - Christensen • Conceptual/Strategic Selling - Heiman
• Profitable Value - Lanning • Spin Selling - Rackham
•Lanchester Strategy - Yano • US Marine Corps Warfighting Manual
• High Tech Marketing - Davidow • Tipping Point - Gladwell

31. Customer Development Process

32. +

33. + +

34. So I Wrote A “Book”

35. And Then A Class
MBA 295: Customer Development
Co-taught with: Rob Majteles @ Treehouse Ventures

36. Eric Ries Extends the Model
• Took my class at U.C. Berkeley
• Co-founded IMVU, I sat on his board
– 1st implementation of Customer Development
– Paired it with an Agile Development Model
• Called it the Lean Startup

37. Which Turned Into A Better Model
+
Agile Development

38. Alex Osterwalder - Business Model
• Business Model Generation
• Defines what the “search” is about

39. Which Turned Intoan Even Better Model
+
+

41. +

43. And that Turned into Another Book

44. What I Used to Believe
Education

45. Entrepreneurial Education was
about execution

46. Entrepreneurial Education was
about execution

47. What We Now Know
Education

48. Entrepreneurial Education
begins with the Search for a
business model

49. Search Execution
Strategy Business Model
Operating Plan +
Hypotheses
Financial Model
Process Customer Development, Product Management
Agile Development Agile or Waterfall Development
Organization Customer Development Functional Organization
Team, Founder-driven by Department
Education Creativity/Innovation, Busin Organizational
ess Model Behavior, HR
Design, Customer Mgmt, Accounting, Modeli
ng, Strategy, Operations,
Development, Startup team
Leadership, Marketing, Ma
building, Entrepreneurial nufacturing
Finance, Agile
Development,
Customer Funnel:
Get/Keep/Grow Market

50. Putting Search first is a
radical change
It’s not just one more methodology

51. What We Used to Believe
Instructional Strategies

52. Cases and a Business Plans were
good entrepreneurial teaching tools

53. Cases and a Business Plan were
good teaching tools

54. What We Now Know
Instructional Strategies

55. Experiential Immersion
~100 GOOTB connections

56. Business Model Patterns
Replace Cases
Nespresso
club
production
Nespresso
machines
Nespressopo
ds
distribution
channels Nespresso
.com
production
coffee
facilites
B2C 1 x machine
distribution sales
56

57. Business Model Competitions Replace
Business Plan Competitions

58. Business Model Competitions Replace
Business Plan Competitions
http://www.businessmodelcompetition.com/

59. Search Execution
Strategy Business Model
Operating Plan +
Hypotheses
Financial Model
Process Customer Development, Product Management
Agile Development Agile or Waterfall Development
Organization
Customer Development Functional Organization
Team, Founder-driven by Department
Education Business Model Organizational
Design, Customer Behavior, HR
Development, Startup team Mgmt, Accounting, Modeling
building, Entrepreneurial , Strategy, Operations, Lead
Finance, Agile ership, Marketing, Manufact
Development, Marketing uring
Instructional Experiential, constructivist, l Case, Lecture, Small
Strategies earner-centered, Group, Mentorship
inquiry-based

60. Classes on Entrepreneurial
Execution Follows Search

61. Entrepreneurship is
Experiential

62. Let’s Teach it That Way
Entrepreneurship is
Experiential

63. And Then Into Another Class
Engr 245: The Lean LaunchPad
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Ann Miura-Ko @ Floodgate

64. Admission By Application and Team
(business model canvas)
Engr 245: The Lean LaunchPad
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Ann Miura-Ko @ Floodgate

65. VC’s As Part of the Teaching Team
Venture Capitalists
Engr 245: The Lean LaunchPad
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Ann Miura-Ko @ Floodgate

66. One Mentor Per Team
Mentors
Venture Capitalists
Engr 245: The Lean LaunchPad
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Ann Miura-Ko @ Floodgate

67. Joint Engineering & MBA Class
Mentors
Venture Capitalists
Engr 245: The Lean LaunchPad
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Ann Miura-Ko @ Floodgate

68. Add LaunchPad Central Software to to
improve the outcomes

69. Then It Turned Into Another Class
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Jim Hornthal @ CMEA
John Burke @ True Ventures
Jerry Engel @ Haas/Monitor Ventures
Bhavik Joshi @ Better Place
Oren Jacob @ Pixar

70. Admission By Application and Team
Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Jim Hornthal @ CMEA
John Burke @ True Ventures
Jerry Engel @ Haas/Monitor Ventures
Bhavik Joshi @ Better Place
Oren Jacob @ Pixar

71. VC’s As Part of the Teaching Team
Venture Capitalists Feiber @ MDV
Co-taught with: Jon
Jim Hornthal @ CMEA
John Burke @ True Ventures
Jerry Engel @ Haas/Monitor Ventures
Bhavik Joshi @ Better Place
Oren Jacob @ Pixar

72. Mentors are Part of the Team
Mentors
Venture Capitalists Jon Feiber @ MDV
Co-taught with:
Jim Hornthal @ CMEA
John Burke @ True Ventures
Jerry Engel @ Haas/Monitor Ventures
Bhavik Joshi @ Better Place
Oren Jacob @ Pixar

73. Then It Turned Into Another Class
Managed by

74. Trained the Trainers
Added two More
Schools

75. Train 9 More Universities

76. Train 9 More Universities

77. And Four More Schools
Co-taught with Murray Low @ Columbia
Bob Dorf Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Taught by Jim Hornthal
Taught by Takashi Tsutsumi@ Hosei

78. And Four More Schools
Add 5-day version of the class
5-day Version
Co-taught with Murray Low @ Columbia
Bob Dorf Co-taught with: Jon Feiber @ MDV
Taught by Jim Hornthal
Taught by Takashi Tsutsumi@ Hosei

79. Put the class online
75,000 students
79

80. And Then Add an Online Class
enables a “flipped classroom”

81. Lean LaunchPad Educators Class
•Train 65 educators/quarter
• Run by NCIIA
• Taught with Jerry Engel @
Haas

82. 1,000+ events
100+ countries
100,000+ entrepreneurs

83. Add hundreds of Facilitators and Coaches

84. 5-week hands-on course
Curriculum = Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia
100’s of locations in 2013

85. We now know how to make
startups fail less

86. How?

87. Teach Them the
Entrepreneurial API

88. Entrepreneurial API = 3 parts
Part 1
Business Model Canvas

89. Entrepreneurial API
Part 1
+
Part 2
Customer Development

90. Entrepreneurial API
Part 1
+
Part 2
Part 3 +
Agile Engineering
Agile Engineering

91. Search
Strategy Business Model
Hypotheses
Process Customer Development,
Agile Development
Organization
Customer Development
Team, Founder-driven
Education Business Model
Design, Customer
Development, Startup team
building, Entrepreneurial
Finance, Agile
Development, Marketing
Instructional Experiential, constructivist, le
Strategies arner-centered, inquiry-
based

92. Search Execution
Strategy Business Model
Operating Plan +
Hypotheses
Financial Model
Process Customer Development, Product Management
Agile Development Agile or Waterfall Development
Organization
Customer Development Functional Organization
Team, Founder-driven by Department
Education Business Model Organizational
Design, Customer Behavior, HR
Development, Startup team Mgmt, Accounting, Modeling
building, Entrepreneurial , Strategy, Operations, Lead
Finance, Agile ership, Marketing, Manufact
Development, Marketing uring
Instructional Experiential, constructivist, Case, Lecture, Small
Strategies learner-centered, inquiry- Group, Mentorship
based