More than 100,000 entrepreneurs rely on this book for detailed, step-by-step instructions on building successful, scalable, profitable startups. 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, cocreator with Eric Ries of the "Lean Startup" movement and tested and refined by him for more than a decade. This guide will help you: ● Avoid the nine 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. Bob Dorf founded his first startup at age twenty-two and, since then, six more-"two homeruns, two base hits, and three great tax losses in all," as he puts it. He's advised and/or invested in at least twenty other startups since. Dorf is often called the "midwife of Customer Development," having been among the first to help Steve Blank deploy it when Steve's eighth startup, E.piphany, opened its doors with five employees in 1996. Bob's sixth startup, Marketing 1to1, helped E.piphany engage its very first customers. He later critiqued the early versions of Steve's Four Steps to the Epiphany mercilessly along the way, and they've been friends and colleagues ever since. When Bob and Steve aren't writing, he runs the K&S Ranch consultancy. Bob's deep experience consulting to Fortune 500 companies and in online marketing balance Steve's VC and software-centric experience. Bob teaches a full-semester course at Columbia Business School, "Introduction to Venturing," on Customer Development and getting startups right. Entrepreneurial from the age of twelve, Bob received his last W-2 almost forty years ago, when he quit his editor's job at New York's WINS Radio to launch his first startup. Dorf+Stanton Communications, founded in his living room, grew from a staff of two-Bob and a St. Bernard-to 150+, when Bob sold it in 1989. He's counseled dozens of nonprofits probono on "donor development," as well. Bob cofounded Marketing 1to1 (later Peppers & Rogers Group), an early CRM strategy firm, and drove its growth to 400+ people worldwide. As founding CEO, Dorf spearheaded major strategic customer programs at a veritable "who's who" of companies including 3M, Bertelsmann, Ford, HP, Jaguar, NCR, Oracle, and Schwab. He's spoken before scores of US and international audiences, and published dozens of articles including an indepth Harvard Business Review treatise. Dorf lives in Stamford, Connecticut, with his wife, Fran, a therapist and thrice-published novelist. His proudest startup by far is daughter Rachel, a psychologist who recently cofounded Bob's first grandchild, Maya Rose Gotler. Steve Blank is an entrepreneur, consulting associate professor at Stanford, and a senior fellow of innovation at Columbia. Coauthor of the bestselling books The Four Steps to the Epiphany and The Startup Owner's Manual, he is known as the father of modern entrepreneurship. He co-created the Lean methodology popularized by his student Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup. He has developed and taught innovation methods that are being used widely by startups, companies, and the Department of Defense. His classes are the basis of the innovation programs at The National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, and the Department of Defense. Steve's career has taken him from repairing fighter planes in Thailand during the Vietnam War to arriving at the beginning of the boom times of Silicon Valley in 1978, where he was part of eight technology startups in the next twenty-one years. New York-based actor Matthew Boston has over thirty years of professional experience working in theater, film, television, and voice-over. His extensive experience in both classical and contemporary works has found him in theaters not only in New York but all across the country. He received his training from the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Shakespeare & Company, and the Lee Strasberg Institute. When not acting, Matthew's other passion is scuba diving in the beautiful oceans of the Caribbean. He's also perfectly content hiking and/or playing Frisbee with his golden retriever, Emma.