E129 | In Conversation With The Lean Startup Legend, Steve Blank

Today’s guest needs no introduction. Essentially, if you run a startup and you haven’t heard of Steve Blank, can you even call yourself an entrepreneur?

Steve is the ultimate serial entrepreneur, retiring in 1999 with eight high technology startups under his belt. He coined the term ‘customer development’, codifying what that was in the inaugural start up book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany - the start up book that kickstarted the lean startup revolution. 

He then went on to teach a course at Stanford based on what he had codified around startups and what makes the successful ones successful. And one of the guys on his course was a chap called Eric Ries, who you might have heard of for writing a book called The Lean Startup. 

Then he found himself on the front cover of Harvard Business Review with his book and that, as they say, is history. Steve went on to change the way the world thinks about startups. 

This is truly a fascinating conversation, we talk about what the job of the CEO is, what customer development is, why innovation is so hard and why established businesses hit a plateau. 

On today’s podcast:

• The Lean Startup
• Eric Ries & Alex Osterwalder
• The difference between search and execution
• The personality of a founder
• The job of a CEO
• Executioners and innovators

Links:

• Book - The Four Steps To The Epiphany