All Episodes
Steve Blank Podcast — 311 episodes
Anthropic Mythos – We’ve Opened Pandora’s Box
AI and Teaching – The Brave New World
Nowhere is Safe
Solving Yesterday’s Problems Will Kill You
Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival
Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End
You Only Think They Work For You
Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and Conspiracies
Making the Wrong Things Go Faster at The Department of War
The Department of War Directory
The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for Speed
It only took 20 years, but the Strategic Management Society now Believes the Lean Startup is a Strategy
How to Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory – Now with 500 more names
No Science, No Startups: The Innovation Engine We’re Switching Off
When Sh!t Hits the Fan – Founders in a Crisis
How To Sell to the Dept of War – The 2025 PEO Directory
Blind to Disruption – The CEOs Who Missed the Future
Why Investors Don’t Care About Your Business
Lean Launchpad at Stanford – 2025
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2025 – Lessons Learned Presentations
Teaching National Security Policy with AI
How the United States Gave Up Being a Science Superpower
The Endless Frontier: U.S. Science and National Industrial Policy: Part 6a The Secret History of Silicon Valley
How the U.S. Became A Science Superpower
An MVP is not a Cheaper Product, It’s about Smart Learning
The Elves Leave Middle Earth – Sodas Are No Longer Free
How to get meetings with people too busy to see you
Lying on your resume
Careers Start by Peeling Potatoes
Nuke’em ‘Till They Glow – Quitting My First Job
Agile Opportunism – Entrepreneurial DNA
You’ll Be Dead Soon – Carpe Diem
Lies Entrepreneurs Tell Themselves
Entrepreneurship is hard but you can’t die
Balloon Wars: Part 16 of the Secret History of Silicon Valley
Vertical Markets 3: Reducing Risk in Startups
Faith-Based versus Fact-Based Decision Making
Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 2
Founders and dysfunctional families
Vertical Markets 2: Customer/Market Risk versus Invention Risk
Vertical Markets 1: Bad Advice – All Startups are the Same
Going to Trade Shows Like it Matters – Part 1
Story Behind “The Secret History” Part IV: Library Hours at an Undisclosed Location
Story Behind “The Secret History” Part III: The Most Important Company You Never Heard Of
Love/Hate Business Plan Competitions
Preparing for Chaos – the Life of a Startup
Killing Innovation with Corner Cases and Consensus
Change We Can Believe In – Reinventing the US Auto Industry: Open Source the Chevy Volt
The “Good” Student
Startup Ethics: Albatross or Essential?
The Curse of a New Building
SuperMac War Story 10: The Video Spigot
SuperMac War Story 9: Sales, Not Awards
Supermac War Story 8: Cats and Dogs – Admitting a Mistake
SuperMac War Story 7: Rabbits Out of the Hat – Product Line Extensions
SuperMac War Story 5: Strategy versus Relentless Tactical Execution — the Potrero Benchmarks
How to Flip the Script, Beat China and Russia – And Fix the Broken Department of Defense
Quantum Computing – An Update
How Saboteurs Threaten Innovation–and What to Do About It
What Does Product Market Fit Sound Like? This.
How To Find Your Customer In the Dept of Defense – The Directory of DoD Program Executive Offices
Security Clearances at the Speed of Startups
Why Large Organizations Struggle With Disruption, and What to Do About It
Lean LaunchPad @Stanford 2024 – 8 Teams In, 8 Companies Out
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2024 – Lessons Learned Presentations
Gordon Bell R.I.P.
Secret History – When Kodak Went to War with Polaroid
The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land
Founders Need to Be Ruthless When Chasing Deals
Is a $100 Million Enough?
Apple Vision Pro – Tech in the Search of a Market
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up
The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates
The Department of Defense Is Getting Its Innovation Act Together – But More Can Be Done
Even the Smartest VCs Sometimes Get it Wrong – Bill Gurley and Regulated Markets
Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 2
Leaving Government for the Private Sector – Part 1
Profound Beliefs
Before there was Oppenheimer there was Vannevar Bush
Lean Meets Wicked Problems
Reorganizing the DoD to Deter China and Win in the Ukraine – A Road Map for Congress
Playing With Fire – ChatGPT
Startups that Have Employees In Offices Grow 3½ Times Faster
Is a Venture Studio Right for You?
Be Where Your Business Is
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2022 Wrap Up
Why The Pentagon Can’t Count: It’s Time to Reinvent the Audit
The 6th Lean Innovation Educators Summit – Education & Innovation in the Age of Chaos and Disruption
The Three Pillars of World-class Corporate Innovation
A Simple Map for Innovation at Scale
Mapping the Unknown – The Ten Steps to Map Any Industry
National Industrial Policy – Private Capital and The America’s Frontier Fund Steps Up
Finding and Growing the Islands of Innovation inside a large company – Action Plan for A New CTO
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning– Explained
Lessons for the DoD – From Ukraine and China
Cram Down – A Test of Character for VCs and Founders
What Happened When Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks visited Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center
The Quantum Technology Ecosystem – Explained
The Semiconductor Ecosystem – Explained
What’s Plan B? – The Small, the Agile, and the Many
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Wrap Up
I Can’t See You but I’m Not Blind
The Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 8 – Cyber
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 7 – Space
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 6 – Unmanned Systems and Autonomy
When There Seems to Be No Way Out – Customer Discovery for Your Head
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 5 – AI and Machine Learning
How to Find a Market? Use Jobs-To-Be-Done as the Front End of Customer Discovery
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 4- Semiconductors
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 3 – Russia
Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – Class 2
Technology, Innovation and Great Power Competition
Lead and Disrupt
Why Innovation Heroes are a Sign of a Dysfunctional Organization
The Class That Changed the Way Entrepreneurship is Taught
Lean LaunchPad – For Deep Science and Technology
You Don’t Need Permission
Your Product is Not Their Problem
These Five Principles Will Accelerate Innovation
Why Defense Could Now Be a Market for Startups
A Path to the Minimum Viable Product
E Pluribus Unum – A Rallying Cry for National Service
Software Once Led Us to the Precipice of Nuclear War. What Will AI Do?
Hacking for Allies
When National Security Falls Between the Cracks
Regaining America’s Technological Edge: Build a Civil-Military Alliance
Pentagon Advisory Boards Need to Offer 10X Ideas, Not 10% Ones – P.S. You’re Fired
Lessons for the New Administration – Technology, Innovation, and Modern War
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Wrap Up
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 18 – General James Mattis
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 17 – Organizational Design – Safi Bahcall
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 16 – Acquisition & Sustainment – Ellen Lord
The Rapture Happened but I Wasn’t Called
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 15 – Mid Term– Congressman Mike Gallagher
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 13 – ONR– Rear Admiral Lorin Selby
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 12 –The Space Force– General John Raymond
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 11 – Cyberwarfare –– Sumit Agarwal
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 10 – The DOD and Modern War –– Michèle Flournoy
Technology, Innovation and Modern War – Class 9 – Autonomy – Maynard Holliday
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 8 – AI – Chris Lynch and Nand Mulchandani
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 7 – Jack Shanahan
Technology, Innovation and Modern War – Class 6 – Will Roper
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 5 – Chris Brose
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 4 – Bridge Colby
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 3 – Anja Manuel
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 2 – Max Boot
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War – Class 1 - Ash Carter
Technology, Innovation, and Modern War
Hacking 4 Recovery – Time to Take A Shot
Teaching Lean Innovation in the Pandemic
Rising out of the Crisis: Where to Find New Markets and Customers
The Coming Chip Wars
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2020 Lesson Learned Presentations
The Covid-19 virus is not politically correct
Seven Steps to Small Business Recovery
What’s Missing From Zoom Reminds Us What It Means to Be Human
In a Crisis – An Opportunity For A More Meaningful Life
Customer Discovery In the Time Of the Covid-19 Virus
The Virus Survival Strategy For Your Startup
How To Keep Your Company Alive – Observe, Orient, Decide and Act
Action Today for CFO’s
You’re Not Important to Me but I Want To Meet With You
How to Raise Money – It’s a Journey Not An Event
Clayton Christensen
Why The Government is Isn’t a Bigger Version of a Startup
How to Convince Investors You’re the Future not the Past
Why Companies and Government Do “Innovation Theater” Instead of Actual Innovation
Who Ever Thought? The Lean Educators Summit
AgileFall – When Waterfall Sneaks Back Into Agile
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2019
The Evolution of Entrepreneurial Education and Corporate Innovation
How to Stop Playing “Target Market Roulette”: A new addition to the Lean toolset
Startup Stock Options – Why A Good Deal Has Gone Bad
The Lean LaunchPad Class: It’s the same, but different
Fast Time in Three Horizon High
How to Keep Your Job As Your Company Grows
Driven to Distraction – the future of car safety
What Your Startup Needs to Know About Regulated Markets
The Apple Watch – Tipping Point Time for Healthcare
The End of More – The Death of Moore’s Law
Is the Lean Startup Dead?
This 1 Piece of Advice Could Make Or Break Your Career
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2018 – wonder and awe
The Innovation Stack: How to make innovation programs deliver more than coffee cups
Why the Future of Tesla May Depend on Knowing What Happened to Billy Durant
Why Entrepreneurs Start Companies Rather Than Join Them
The Difference Between Innovators and Entrepreneurs
Leadership is More Than a Memo
CoinOut Gets Coin In
Innovation at Speed – when you have 2 million employees
Janesville – A Story About the Rest of America
Why GE’s Jeff Immelt Lost His Job – Disruption and Activist Investors
The Red Queen Problem – Innovation in the DoD and Intelligence Community
Office of Naval Research (ONR) Goes Lean
Removing the Roadblocks to Corporate Innovation – When Theory Meets Practice
How companies strangle innovation – and how you can get it right
Working Outside the Tech Bubble
National Security Innovation just got a major boost in Washington
Why good people leave large tech companies
Why a Company Can’t “Be More Like a Startup”
Tesla Lost $700 Million Last Year, So Why Is Tesla’s Valuation $60 Billion?
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford 2017 – Lessons Learned Presentations
Innovation, Change and the Rest of Your Life
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Marketing Communications
Herding Cats – Using Lean to Work Together
Why Some Startups Win
The No Excuses Culture
Don’t let process distract you from finding the strategy
Innovation – something both parties can agree on
The Innovation Insurgency Gets Educated: Hacking for Defense, Diplomacy, Development
Hacking for Diplomacy @ Stanford –What We Learned With the State Department
What the Harvard Business Review and The People’s Daily think about leadership succession
Machine Learning Meets the Lean Startup
Hacking for Diplomacy – The State Department Takes Notice
How The Marine Corps Builds an Innovation Culture
Hacking for Diplomacy at the State Department – Breakthroughs, breakdowns
The State Department Meets the Lean Startup – Hacking For Diplomacy
Why Tim Cook is Steve Ballmer and Why He Still Has His Job at Apple
The 11 Bad Habits Killing Innovation in Your Company
The Innovation Insurgency Scales – Hacking For Defense (H4D)
Working Hard is not the same as working smart
Hacking for Diplomacy – Solving Foreign Policy Challenges with the Lean LaunchPad
The National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Goes Lean
Hacking for Defense & Hacking for Diplomacy – Educator/Sponsor Class
Why the Navy Needs Disruption Now (part 2 of 2)
Why the Navy Needs Disruption Now (part 1 of 2)
Intel Disrupted: Why large companies find it difficult to innovate, and what they can do about it
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Lessons Learned Presentations
Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Weeks 8 and 9
NYU Commencement Speech 2016
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 7
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 6
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 5
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Week 4
Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 3
Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 2
Hacking for Defense (H4D) @ Stanford – Week 1
What Founders Need to Know: You Were Funded for a Liquidity Event – Start Looking
Learning Through Reflection
The Mission Model Canvas – An Adapted Business Model Canvas for Mission-Driven Organizations
Hacking for Defense @ Stanford – Making the World a Safer Place
How to Avoid Innovation Theater: The Six Decisions To Make Before Establishing an Innovation Outpost
Blank’s Rule – To predict the future 1/3 of you need to be crazy
How to Set Up a Corporate Innovation Outpost That Works
Innovation Outposts in Silicon Valley – Going to Where the Action Is
Innovation Outposts and The Evolution of Corporate R&D
Pixar, Artists, Founders and Corporate Innovation
Hacking a Corporate Culture: Stories, Heroes and Rituals in Startups and Companies
Why Corporate Entrepreneurs are Extraordinary – the Rebel Alliance
The 7 Deadly Healthcare Startup Sins
Lean Innovation Management – Making Corporate Innovation Work
Organizational Debt is like Technical debt – but worse
Doubling Down On a Good Thing: The National Science Foundation’s I-Corps Lite
Why Build, Measure, Learn – isn’t just throwing things against the wall to see if they work
How One Startup Figured Out What Could Really Help Deaf People
Hacking For Defense In Silicon Valley
Getting to “Yes” for Corporate Innovation
Fear of Failure and Lack of Speed In a Large Corporation
Blowing up the Business Plan at U.C. Berkeley Haas Business School
Life Science Startups Rising in the UK
What Do I Do Now? The Startup Lifecycle
When Krave Jerky Showed up in Class with a $435,000 Check
It’s About Women Running Startups
Getting out of the building…by staying in the building!
I-Corps at the NIH: Evidence-based Translational Medicine
The Big Bang. The Lean LaunchPad explodes at University of Maryland
Impact! NYU Scales the Lean LaunchPad
Why Corporate Skunk Works Need to Die
Born Global or Die Local – Building a Regional Startup Playbook
The Business Model Canvas Gets Even Better – Value Proposition Design
Watching My Students Grow
Watching Larry Ellison become Larry Ellison — The DNA of a Winner
The Woodstock of K-12 Education
How To Find the Right Co-Founders?
Why Translational Medicine Will Never be The Same
How To Think Like an Entrepreneur: the Inventure Cycle
Why Founders Should Know How to Code
Pioneering Women in Venture Capital: Kathryn Gould
Driving Corporate Innovation: Design Thinking vs. Customer Development
Getting Lean in Education – By Getting Out of the Classroom
The Path of Our Lives
How Investors Make Better Decisions: The Investment Readiness Level
I-Corps @ NIH – Pivoting the Curriculum
Why Lean May Save Your Life – The I-Corps @ NIH
Hostages Strapped to the Tank: Coastal Commission Stories – Lesson 2
Farming for Developers: Coastal Commission Stories – Lesson 1
Three Things I Learned on Commencement Day
Innovating Municipal Government Culture
New Lessons Learned from Berkeley & Stanford Lean LaunchPad Classes
Corporate Acquisitions of Startups: Why Do They Fail?
If I Told You I’d Have to Kill You: The Story Behind “The Secret History of Silicon Valley”
SuperMac War Story 4: Repositioning SuperMac – “Market Type” at Work
SuperMac War Story 3: Customer Insight Is Everyone’s Job
SuperMac War Story 2: Facts Exist Outside the Building, Opinions Reside Within
Why Internal Ventures are Different from External Startups
SuperMac War Story 1: Joining SuperMac
There’s a Pattern Here
Out of the Ashes – Something Isn’t Quite Right
The Product Development Model
Retirement and Redemption
You’re Just the Founder
Get the Heck Out of the Building in Founder’s School: Part 2
The Seven Days of Christmas
The End of Innocence
He’s Only in Field Service
Epitaph for an Entrepreneur
Rocks in the Rocket Science Lobby
Gravity Will be Turned Off
When Hell Froze Over – in the Harvard Business Review
Making a Dent in the Universe – Results from the NSF I-Corps