The National Science Foundation pays hundreds of startup teams each year to follow the process outlined in the book, and it's taught at Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia and more than 100 other leading universities worldwide. Why?
The Startup Owner's Manual guides you, step-by-step, as you put the Customer Development process to work. This method was created by renowned Silicon Valley startup expert Steve Blank, co-creator with Eric Ries of the "Lean Startup" movement and tested and refined by him for more than a decade. This 608-page how-to guide includes over 100 charts, graphs, and diagrams, plus 77 valuable checklists that guide you as you drive your company toward profitability. It will help you:
Avoid the 9 deadly sins that destroy startups' chances for success
Use the Customer Development method to bring your business idea to life
Incorporate the Business Model Canvas as the organizing principle for startup hypotheses
Identify your customers and determine how to "get, keep and grow" customers profitably
Compute how you'll drive your startup to repeatable, scalable profits.
The Startup Owner�s Manual was originally published by K&S Ranch Publishing Inc. and is now available from Wiley. The cover, design, and content are the same as the prior release and should not be considered a new or updated product.
Table of Contents
How to Read This Book vii
Preface xiii
Who is This Book For? xvii
Introduction xxi
A Repeatable Path xxii
Why a Second Decade? xxiv
The Four Steps: A New Path xxix
Getting Started
Chapter 1: The Path to Disaster: A Startup is Not a Small Version of a Big Company 1
Chapter 2: The Path to the Epiphany: The Customer Development Model 19
The Customer Development Manifesto 31
Step One: Customer Discovery
Chapter 3: An Introduction to Customer Discovery 53
Chapter 4: Customer Discovery, Phase One: State Your Business Model Hypotheses 69
Chapter 5: Customer Discovery, Phase Two: “Get Out of the Building” to Test the Problem: “Do People Care?” 189
Chapter 6: Customer Discovery, Phase Three: “Get Out of the Building” and Test the Product Solution 227
Chapter 7: Customer Discovery, Phase Four: Verify the Business Model and Pivot or Proceed 257
Step Two: Customer Validation
Chapter 8: Introduction to Customer Validation 277
Chapter 9: Customer Validation, Phase One: “Get Ready to Sell” 291
Chapter 10: Customer Validation, Phase Two: “Get Out of the Building and Sell!” 357
Chapter 11: Customer Validation, Phase Three: Develop Product and Company Positioning 413
Chapter 12: Customer Validation, Phase Four: The Toughest Question of All: Pivot or Proceed? 429
The Startup Owner’s Manual “Site” Map 465
Appendix A: Customer Development Checklists 469
Appendix B: Glossary 531
Appendix C: How to Build a Web Startup: A Simple Overview 541
Acknowledgements 549
About the Authors 553
Index 557
