steveblank.comadded August 2026
Steve Blankby steve blank16 Jun 2026
We just finished the 16th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. In those 16 years, the class has gone from a radical idea – that the Lean method could provide a more productive framework for new...
Steve Blankby steve blank9 Jun 2026
Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad… and How Great Companies Stay Great, by Eric Ries. Every once in a while a book comes along that doesn’t just change your tactical thinking, but makes you...
Steve Blankby steve blank8 Jun 2026
We just wrapped up our Hacking for Defense class at Stanford. Hacking for Defense is now in 70 universities, including 20+ in the UK – and this year in Poland and Germany – with teams of students...
Steve Blankby steve blank28 Apr 2026
This article previously appeared in The Cipher Brief. For a decade the cybersecurity community was predicting a cyber apocalypse tied to a single event – the day a Cryptographically Relevant...
Steve Blankby steve blank22 Apr 2026
This article previously appeared in the Entrepreneur & Innovation Exchange (EIX) This is the 16th year we’ve been teaching the Stanford Lean LaunchPad class.
Steve Blankby steve blank9 Apr 2026
Drones in Ukraine and in the War with Iran have made the surface of the earth a contested space. The U.S.
Steve Blankby steve blank31 Mar 2026
The Department of War is in the midst of the most ambitious acquisition reform in 60 years. It’s just in time as drone and missile warfare lessons (autonomy, Counter UAS, etc.)
Steve Blankby steve blank17 Mar 2026
Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival If you started a company more than two years ago, it’s likely that many of your assumptions are no longer true.
Steve Blankby steve blank24 Feb 2026
What Lies Ahead I have no Way of Knowing, But It’s Now Time to Get Going Tom Petty This post previously appeared in Philanthropy.org A while ago I wrote about what happens in a startup when a new...
Steve Blankby steve blank18 Feb 2026
When I was a new VP of Marketing I got a painful lesson of who my PR (Public Relations) agency actually worked for. Later I realized that it was true for all of my external vendors.
Steve Blankby steve blank10 Feb 2026
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32 Every once in a while you learn something new that makes you completely rethink how/why an event actually happened.
Steve Blankby steve blank3 Feb 2026
This article previously appeared in Defense Scoop The Department of War (DoW) senior Acquisition leadership (the people who decide what and how the DoW buys equipment and services) now is headed by...
Steve Blankby steve blank11 Nov 2025
Last week the Department of War finally killed the last vestiges of Robert McNamara’s 1962 Planning, Programming, and Budgeting System (PPBS).
Steve Blankby steve blank30 Oct 2025
I’ve always thought of myself as a practitioner. In the startups I was part of, the only “strategy” were my marketing tactics on how to make the VP of Sales the richest person in the company.
Steve Blankby steve blank13 Oct 2025
Tons of words have been written about the Trump Administrations war on Science in Universities. But few people have asked what, exactly, is science? How does it work? Who are the scientists?
Steve Blankby steve blank17 Sept 2025
Great founders shine in a crisis. Ordinary ones watch their companies burn down. I just had coffee with two co-founders of an e-bike company who were mentoring one of our student teams.
Steve Blankby steve blank10 Sept 2025
Announcing the 2025 edition of the DoW PEO Directory. Online here. Think of this PEO Directory as a “Who buys in the government?” phone book.
Steve Blankby steve blank8 Jul 2025
How did you go bankrupt?” Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises Every disruptive technology since the fire and the wheel have forced leaders to adapt or die.
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