Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
Author of the Four Steps to the Epiphany, Steve Blank's path has taken him from repairing fighter planes in Thailand during the Vietnam War, to spook stuff in undisclosed location(s). He was lucky enough to arrive at the beginning of the boom times of Silicon Valley in 1978. After 21 years in 8 high technology companies, he retired in 1999. He started his last company, E.piphany, in his living room in 1996. His other startups include two semiconductor companies, Zilog and MIPS Computers, a workstation company Convergent Technologies, a consulting stint for a graphics hardware/software spinout Pixar, a supercomputer firm, Ardent, a computer peripheral supplier, SuperMac, a military intelligence systems supplier, ESL and a video game company, Rocket Science Games. Steve moved from being an entrepreneur to teaching entrepreneurship to both undergraduate and graduate students at U.C. Berkeley, Stanford University and the Columbia University/Berkeley Joint Executive MBA program. The Customer Development model that he developed for his classes became the text the Four Steps to the Epiphany.  In 2009, Steve was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science and Engineering. The same year, the San Jose Mercury News listed Steve as one of the 10 Influencers in Silicon Valley.