32 Facts About Steve Blank

Steve Blank was born on 1953 and is an American entrepreneur, educator, author and speaker.

Steve Blank created the customer development method that launched the lean startup movement.

Steve Blank's work has influenced modern entrepreneurship through the creation of tools and processes for new ventures which differ from those used in large companies.

Steve Blank is often called the "Father of Modern Entrepeneurship".

Between 1978 and 2002, Blank worked at eight different technology startups, founding, or co-founding, four of them.

Steve Blank created the Lean Launchpad class and I-Corps curriculum which became the standard for science commercialization for the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Energy.

Steve Blank is co-creator of the US Department of Defense's Hacking for Defense program, and served on the Defense Business Board and the US Navy's Science and Technological Board.

Steve Blank is co-creator of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University.

Steve Blank was born to immigrant parents in the Chelsea neighborhood in New York City.

Steve Blank attended the University of Michigan for one semester.

Steve Blank spent four years in the US Air Force during the Vietnam War.

Steve Blank then returned to the US to work on B-52 bombers in Oscoda, Michigan.

Steve Blank helped the government understand the Soviets' technological and arms developments during the Cold War.

Steve Blank spent the next two decades in the high tech industry founding, or as part of eight startups in a variety of advanced technologies including Zilog and MIPS Computers, Convergent Technologies, Ardent, SuperMac Technologies, and Rocket Science Games.

Steve Blank went on to teach a class on Customer Development at the school from 2003 through 2017.

Steve Blank began teaching at Stanford University's Engineering School in the Technology Ventures Program in 2004.

In January 2011, Steve Blank created the Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford University.

In 2012 Steve Blank collaborated with the National Science Foundation and Venturewell to create educator courses and training material for NSF and Lean LaunchPad Instructors.

Steve Blank co-created Hacking for Defense and Hacking for Diplomacy courses at Stanford University in 2016.

Steve Blank went on to apply the same customer development approach to large social and environmental problems with courses including Hacking for Oceans, Climate and Hacking for Impact in 2022.

Steve Blank collaborated with the Common Mission Project in 2019 to host the Lean Innovation Educators Conference.

In 2020, Steve Blank co-created the "Technology, Innovation and Modern War" class at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

Steve Blank co-created the Wicked Problems, Systems Dynamics, and Entrepreneurial Innovation class as a summer course at Imperial College in London in 2023.

Steve Blank began to develop the customer development methodology in the mid-1990s.

Steve Blank refined the ideas around 2004 when he was an investor and advisor to IMVU, a company co-founded by Ries.

In July 2011 the National Science Foundation asked Steve Blank to adapt his Lean LaunchPad class to help scientists who were applying for an SBIR grant learn how to commercialize their academic inventions.

Steve Blank joined the Audubon California Board of Directors in 2000, serving as Chairman from 2005 until 2010.

Steve Blank made a $1 million donation to the Peninsula Open Space Trust in 2004.

Steve Blank later served on the board from 2007 to 2011.

Steve Blank has served on the board of the California League of Conservation Voters.

Steve Blank served as a member of the Defense Business Board in 2020.

Steve Blank has given commencement addresses at Philadelphia University, University of Minnesota, ESADE Business School in Barcelona, New York University Engineering School, Dalhousie University and UC Santa Cruz.