(2009-11-05) Blank Raising Money Customer Development

Steve Blank says you shouldn't seek Venture Capital until you've already made Customer Development progress. No amount of learning how to get a VC meeting or improving your VC demo skills will fix the lack of concrete customer data... A Customer Development fundraising presentation tells the story of your journey in Customer Discovery and Validation. While your presentation will cover some of the same ground as the traditional VC pitch, the heart of the presentation is the "Lessons Learned from our Customers" section... Telling the Customer Discovery and Customer Validation story this way allows you to take VC's on your journey through all the learning and discovery you've done. After three of these slides, smart VC's will recognize that by iterating on your assumptions you have dramatically reduced risk- on your nickel, not theirs. They will realize that you have built a startup that's agile, resilient and customer-centric.