Steve Blank Podcast
Steve Blank
Steve Blank, eight-time entrepreneur and now a business school professor at Stanford, Columbia and Berkeley, shares his hard-won wisdom as he pioneers entrepreneurship as a management science, combining Customer Development, Business Model Design and Agile Development. The conclusion? Startups are simply not small versions of large companies! Startups are actually temporary organizations designed to search for a scalable and repeatable business model.
Episodes
Mentioned books
8 snips
Apr 10, 2026 • 12min
Nowhere is Safe
Discussion of how mass cheap drones have made surface infrastructure vulnerable. Exploration of why legacy air and missile defenses fail against asymmetric swarms. Examination of underground and hardened protections, including rapid shallow tunnels and modular shelters. Consideration of doctrinal, industrial, and cross-sector gaps in creating a national survivability strategy.
Apr 2, 2026 • 10min
Solving Yesterday’s Problems Will Kill You
The Department of War is in the midst of the most ambitious acquisition reform in 60 years. It’s just in time as drone and missile warfare lessons (autonomy, Counter UAS, etc.) from Ukraine and the War in Iran are top of mind and reshaping what the DoW is buying. Reorganizing the DoW into Portfolio Acquisition Executives is reforming how the DoW is buying. The new Warfighting Acquisition System is working to reward speed to delivery.
Mar 19, 2026 • 11min
Your Startup Is Probably Dead On Arrival
If you started a company more than two years ago, it’s likely that many of your assumptions are no longer true.
You need to stop coding, building, recruiting, fund raising, etc., and take stock of what changed around you. Or your company will die.
Feb 27, 2026 • 8min
Time to Move On – The Reason Relationships End
A reflection on wake-up calls that force people to reassess long-term ties. Stories compare startup role shifts to a 25-year nonprofit relationship changing overnight. Discussion of how missions drift, unshared contracts, and shifting leadership reveal when connections no longer fit. A list of common reasons relationships end and signs to prompt reevaluation.
Feb 21, 2026 • 12min
You Only Think They Work For You
When I was a new VP of Marketing I got a painful lesson of who my PR (Public Relations) agency actually worked for. Later I realized that it was true for all of my external vendors. And much later I realized what I really should have been asking them to do.
The lessons still apply even though AI Agents will upend all of this and PR will end up being one of the many businesses that will no longer exist in its current form.
Here’s why.
Feb 19, 2026 • 10min
Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and Conspiracies
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:32
Feb 10, 2026 • 10min
Revisionist History – Aliens, Secrets and Conspiracies
A startling seaside claim leads to a tale of secrecy, compartmentalized briefings, and deliberate disinformation. Classified reconnaissance and Cold War cover stories are linked to decades of UFO sightings. The episode explores how secrecy, political manipulation, and modern AI-driven information warfare fuel conspiracy beliefs and mistrust.
Feb 4, 2026 • 6min
Making the Wrong Things Go Faster at The Department of War
The Department of War (DoW) senior Acquisition leadership (the people who decide what and how the DoW buys equipment and services) now is headed by people from private capital (venture capital and private equity.)
Dec 17, 2025 • 2min
The Department of War Directory
In November 2025 the Department of War (DoW) unveiled the biggest changes in 60 years of how they will buy weapons and services. This month Congress, with bipartisan support, rapidly made them into law in the National Defense Authorization Act (the NDAA) – 3,096 pages of legislative text and 636-page Joint Explanatory Statement.
Nov 15, 2025 • 31min
The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for Speed
The Department of War Just Shot the Accountants and Opted for Speed by Steve Blank
