Steve Blank is a retired serial entrepreneur-turned-educator who is changing how startups are built and how entrepreneurship is being taught. He created the Customer Development methodology that launched the lean startup movement, and wrote about the process in his first book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany. His second book, The Startup Owner’s Manual, is a step-by-step guide to building a successful company. Blank teaches the Customer Development methodology in his Lean LaunchPad classes at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley, Columbia University and the National Science Foundation. He writes regularly about entrepreneurship on his blog Steve Blank & you can find him on Twitter @sgblank.
Chris Yeh: Silicon Valley Ecosystem
Chris Yeh, Entrepreneur & Investor: Chris has been building Internet businesses since 1995. He is the VP Marketing for PBworks, which provides highly vertical collaboration solutions that help businesses work more efficiently and effectively. Its products serve markets such as advertising and marketing agencies, law firms, and education, as well as the broader business market. Chris is also a General Partner at Wasabi Ventures, a global venture fund, startup incubator, and consulting firm, where he leads the firm’s investment committee. Previously, he was the first investor in and interim CEO of Ustream.TV, which provides an open and distributable platform for live interactive online video. He also helped start numerous other companies, including Symphoniq Corporation, TargetFirst, and Juno Online Services and FarSight Financial Services (divisions of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P.). Chris is an active angel investor and advisor to a wide array of startups. He is also the founder and Chairman of the Harvard Business School Technology Alumni Association. Chris earned two degrees from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar. You can find Chris on his blog Adventures in Capitalism & on Twitter @chrisyeh