Venture Hacks

We’ve gotten a lot of requests to keep posting Steve Blank’s customer development course. Thanks for the feedback, we’re glad you like the course! Here’s the audio and slides from classes three and four. And new students can catch up on Class 1 and Class 2.

Steve’s lectures usually have two parts: a group discussion of a case and a lecture. Steve sprinkles his war stories throughout both parts — those are my favorite parts of the class.

A case is a written history of a real business problem that the students try to “solve”. For example, the E Ink case addresses “How to retain E Ink’s creativity, drive, and sense of fun while focusing the company on growth and the demands of a first-product introduction.” Exciting! Steve wisely ignores the specific problem in each case and subverts the material to foment a discussion about customer development.

The readings for each class are listed in the syllabus. And the main text for the class is Steve’s must-read book, Four Steps to the Epiphany.

This is wonderful material for entrepreneurs. I’ve already taken the class and I still subscribe to the Venture Hacks podcast and listen to the classes on my iPhone.

Class 3: Customer Development

There is no audio for this class.

Slides: Customer Development 3: Introduction (pdf)

Class 4: Customer Discovery, Part 1

The sound quality of the lecture improves dramatically after the first few minutes.

Audio: Customer Development 4: Customer Discovery Part 1 (mp3)

Slides: Customer Development 4: Customer Discovery Part 1 (pdf)