Steve Blank
Steve Blank writes and teaches about building startups, drawing on his Silicon Valley career and the Customer Development method he created.
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Steve’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus his backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
BookOverview
- Known for
- Customer Development and Lean LaunchPad
- Based in
- Silicon Valley
- Before teaching
- Eight technology companies over 21 years
- Teaching
- Adjunct professor at Stanford
Mini bio
How it started.
Before Silicon Valley, Steve repaired fighter planes in Thailand during the Vietnam War. He arrived in the Valley in 1978 and spent 21 years in technology companies. He co-founded E.piphany in his living room in 1996 and retired in 1999.
Turning experience into a method.
After retirement, he wrote The Four Steps to the Epiphany. Its Customer Development approach asked founders to learn from customers while searching for a business model. The Startup Owner’s Manual, written with Bob Dorf, expanded that practical toolkit.
Taking it into the classroom.
His Lean LaunchPad class became the basis of the National Science Foundation’s I-Corps curriculum in 2011. He later developed I-Corps@NIH and co-launched Stanford’s Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Diplomacy classes. Fans can follow his teaching experiments and essays on his blog.
Creditschronological, newest first
Books and essays
- 2013Why the Lean Start-Up Changes EverythingAuthor; May Harvard Business Review cover story
- 2012The Startup Owner’s ManualCo-author with Bob Dorf
Teaching and programs
- 2016Hacking for Defense and Hacking for DiplomacyCo-launched the Stanford classes
- 2014I-Corps@NIHCurriculum developer
- 2011NSF I-CorpsAdapted Lean LaunchPad into the program’s curriculum
Awards
- SMS Strategy Leadership Impact Award2025 · Recognized by the Strategic Management Society for his contributions to entrepreneurial strategy.
- Outstanding Leadership Award2014 · Awarded by the National Science Foundation and NCIIA for developing the NSF Innovation Corps curriculum.
- Stanford Undergraduate Teaching Award2009 · Department of Management Science and Engineering.
Quotes
We can only try to create the conditions where this might occur.Steve Blank, “Blinded by the Light – The Epiphany”
On whether insight can be taught, April 3, 2012. https://steveblank.com/2012/04/03/blinded-by-the-light-the-epiphany/
Trivia
- His startup career included a consulting stint for Pixar.
- He has given talks on the Secret History of Silicon Valley.
- Customer Development grew out of an attempt to write his memoirs; he saw a useful pattern behind the stories.
Find Steve
Follow his essays, talks and classroom experiments.
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