Customer Development

Steve Blank is a Silicon Valley-based retired serial entrepreneur, founding and/or part of 8 startup companies in California’s Silicon Valley. A prolific educator, thoughtleader and writer on Customer Development for Startups, Blank teaches, refines, writes and blogs on “Customer Development,” a rigorous methodology he developed to bring the“scientific method” to the typically chaotic, seemingly disorganized startup process.[1]

Now teaching Entrepreneurship at three major Universities and the National Science FoundationInnovation Corps (I-Corps), Blank co-founded his first of eight startups after several years repairing fighter plane electronics in Thailand during the Vietnam War, followed byseveral years of defense electronics work for U.S. intelligence agencies in “undisclosed locations.”
Blank's first book, "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," detailed the CustomerDevelopment process and remains required reading among entrepreneurs, investors, and established companies alike, when the focus is optimizing a startup’s chances for scalability andsuccess. Blank views entrepreneurship as a practice that can be managed rather than purely an art form to be experienced.[2]

"The Startup Owner’s Manual" was Blank's secondbook and is a step-by-step guide to building a successful startup, offering practical advice for any startup founder, entrepreneur, investor or educator.
His Customer Developmentmethodology launched the lean startup movement. It is rooted on startups "getting out of the building," talking to customers and using that feedback to develop and refine theirproduct.


1 - Lohr, Steve (2010-04-24). "Lean Start-Ups Aim to Find Customers Quickly". The New York Times.
2 - http://www.founderly.com/2011/04/steve-blank-part-1-of-5/