- Steve Blank is the creator of the Lean Startup Method, the go-to blueprint for creating successful startup companies.
- But with AI disrupting every aspect of business, has his advice to entrepreneurs changed now?
- Blank spoke to Business Insider about what he would do if he were starting a business today.
According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, roughly 4.7 million new businesses are founded each year in the U.S. More than 65% of them go bankrupt within 10 years, according to data from the USCB.
Most experienced entrepreneurs will tell you that failure is part of success. True visionaries are ready to bounce back, tackle their next innovation, and revisit the question: “What is the secret to a successful startup?”
Steve Blank is a man who has the answer for many founders: after more than 20 years and eight technology startups, half of which achieved an IPO, Blank turned to academia and developed a methodology for building successful early-stage companies: the Lean Startup methodology.
As Blank explained in a 2013 Harvard Business Review cover story, the Lean Startup emphasizes experimentation, a customer-centric approach, and agility over traditional first-mover strategies.
At the heart of this methodology was the recognition that early stage companies cannot and should not aim to operate like large corporations.
It became the go-to template for startups, was taught in business schools around the world, served as a reference for federal commerce initiatives, and earned Blank the unofficial status of “father of modern entrepreneurship.”
Currently, Blank is an adjunct professor at Stanford University and is helping to bring his renowned entrepreneurial spirit to U.S. national security.
As the world enters what Blank calls “the beginning of great change,” Business Insider spoke to the legendary entrepreneur about what he would do if he were trying to grow his business today.
His biggest piece of advice? Have fun with AI.
“If you're not trying every tool and building apps on top of it, you're already behind the times,” Blank told BI. “In 20 years, companies that have AI built into their DNA will be thriving.”
Entrepreneurs need to be in an environment that's changing rapidly, or they'll get left behind by the new wave, Silicon Valley veterans say.
“And if your experiments don't make you laugh, you're not experimenting enough.”
This also applies to his own methodology.
“If I were still an entrepreneur, I would immediately AI-enable the entire lean startup model to build enterprise software,” Blank said.
“It's very clear to me that each element of Lean Startup is automated and then connected. This is not going to replace my process, it's going to enhance it.”
“Doing it by hand will look silly as early as five or 10 years from now,” he added.
Blank acknowledged that there are risks, and that some industries will be “totally annihilated” by AI, but he said people who claim the technology will end the world are fooling themselves.
That doesn't mean mistakes won't happen, however: the most common problem for innovators today is placing too much trust in AI to perform consistently.
“It works until it works, but when it’s not working, it doesn’t tell you, in most cases,” Blank told BI. A chatbot’s outlandish answer might be a minor issue, but when you’re using AI-enabled calculations to design an aircraft wing, those calculations are mission-critical.
“That's the interesting thing about neural nets: We have no idea how they get to the answer.”
To address this issue going forward, it will be important to have more reference materials and ways to verify how law masters programs perform, he added.
From Blank’s perspective, one aspect of safe entrepreneurship in the emerging world of AI is the role of the visionary founder.
“I think the idea of passionate founders looking beyond the horizon and seeing something no one else is seeing will be with us forever. All that changes are the tools and markets they pursue. Founders are closer to artists than any other profession.”
“They are tenacious and driven by a passion to create, a passion that will never die as long as humanity exists.”
