Steve Blank (Four Steps to the Epiphany) at Startup Grind 2014

Steve Blank has had a 33-year career as a successful businessman, conservationist and teacher. As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve was part of/or founded eight venture-backed companies. Four of his eight startup companies went public. After he retired, he started new careers in conservation, public service, and teaching. After retiring, Steve moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. Steve wrote a book (actually his class text) about building early stage companies: Four Steps to the Epiphany. He followed it in 2012 with his next book; The Startup Owners Manual. The “Customer Development†model that he developed in his book is one of the core themes for these classes. In 2010, he was awarded the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business. In 2009 Steve was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science and Engineering. In 2007 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Steve to serve on the California Coastal Commission, the public body which regulates land use and public access on the California coast.

Interviewed by Jim Hornthal.

Jim is a parallel entrepreneur, angel investor, and entrepreneurship educator. His private investment fund, Hornthal Investment Partners, has made investments in over 50 early stage companies. Jim is the co-founder and Chairman of Triporati, Zignal Labs, LaunchPad Central and M34 Capital. He sits on several boards including KIND Snacks, Revinate, and Via.com. Jim has taught the Lean LaunchPad course at UC Berkeley, Stanford and Princeton and was on the teaching team for the National Science Foundation's I-Corps Program at Stanford and UCSF. Jim is the author of the TED Book "A Haystack Full of Needles".

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***Startup Grind is an event series and website designed to help educate, inspire, and connect local entrepreneurs. Each month we welcome an amazing speaker who shares their story with our community and tells us what worked, what didn't, and what they'll do differently next time. It's an amazing opportunity to learn from the best, network with other members of the startup community, and improve your chances of entrepreneurial success.