By now, most of you who are in the start-up scene must have realized that Steve Blank, the godfather of the lean start-up movement from Silicon Valley, was here a couple of days ago. To be extremely honest, I did not know who this guy was before I started my internship with NUS Enterprise and I was kind of puzzled what the big hoo-hah was about him. But after going through Lean Launchpad for 12 weeks as a coordinator AND a participant; AND also meeting Steve in person, I can safely say that this guy is one of the most down-to-earth, intelligent, wise, and easy person to get along with.
As a conclusion to the Lean Launchpad Program (I see it more as a reward), we at NUS Enterprise organized “An evening with Steve Blank: Insights to building a successful start-up”. It’s been video recorded and should start circulating soon so do keep a lookout for it!
(The Lean Launchpad participants for their final presentation. Standing is Jerome Engel)
Steve is famous, amongst many other things, for his catch phrase ‘Get out of the building!’. Now I’m not a great reporter (or a writer) so I’m going to skip writing about all the standard entrepreneurial stuff every other start-up/tech blogger in the auditorium that night would be writing about. Instead I’ll go along the line of catch phrases and let you know some of the more interesting ones I heard.
(Steve Blank from Standford University and Prof. Wong Poh Kam from NUS Enterprise)
“You have too much advice today”
In today’s world of the internet and social media and ‘expert blogs’ and whatnot, it is easy to get a whole ton of opinions on one single matter. What you need to do is develop your own internal compass because if you don’t, you are going to be pulled around in circles by multiple authorities. You need your own filter or if not at the end of the day, it’s the last person with the loudest voice that’s going to make the greatest impact on you.
“You know you’ve got your first customer when they’ve paid for it”
This might sound like common sense but it’s actually something that many people neglect. How many times have you heard someone say “oh yes I did a survey of 500 people and 400 of them said they like it and will buy it”. But have these 400 people actually come up with the cash and given it to you? If the answer is no, you don’t know for sure if you have a first customer and if your idea is validated.
“You’ve got to be able to watch their pupils dilate”
This phrase was said with regards to the customer discovery process. Steve’s idea is that you HAVE to do face-to-face interviews because there is so much a person can say non-verbally through body actions (like dilating pupils). You can see if the interviewee is bored or excited, and you can adjust your interview accordingly to get the most out of them. This is unlike an internet survey or an email/phone call where you just get back an answer without knowing that much more about your product and customer.
“You’ve got somewhat of a competitive advantage if you come from a dysfunctional family”
This is the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say this but I thought it made sense. It’s found that in the United States, there is a disproportionately large percentage of successful entrepreneurs that come from dysfunctional families. Steve’s hypothesis is that if you grew up in a dysfunctional family as a sane, normal person, you are a survivor and have been able to create order out of chaos as a way to survive into the world. People like this see things differently and would be able to create order out of chaos as an entrepreneur as well.
StartupCHEW 