{"id":7570,"date":"2016-04-20T12:38:45","date_gmt":"2016-04-20T16:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/?p=7570"},"modified":"2016-04-21T20:12:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T00:12:00","slug":"mark-cranney-mark-suster-steve-blank-and-me-at-the-crux-of-startup-death-spiral-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/mark-cranney-mark-suster-steve-blank-and-me-at-the-crux-of-startup-death-spiral-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Cranney, Mark Suster, Steve Blank and Me at The Crux of Startup Death Spiral"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Larry Chiang<\/div>\n
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My film school professor mentored me: get in late, get out early. I went to film school in 1998 at USC after I retired in 1996. THIS article is about skirting, avoiding and ducking “startup death spiral<\/i>“.<\/div>\n
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Plot spoiler: startup death spiral begins when two to three engineering cofounders hire a ‘V.P. of Sales’.<\/div>\n
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I have a mountain of startup evidence that someone could copy-paste a PhD in business. The evidence supports “startup’s die when startup founders outsource sales to a mercenary-they-hire”. There is an orgasm of evidence that states: death is right around the corner after you fire your first vp of sales. But let us focus on four very sales prolific white dudes:<\/div>\n
Mark,<\/div>\n
Mark,<\/div>\n
Steve<\/div>\n
And me.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This “research” I will curate and curated under\u00a0#cs183s<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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FTC disclosure: I financially benefitted from\u00a0#cs183B<\/a>\u00a0being free at Stanford University. Sam Altman loaded up 20\u00a0<\/span>#cs183b<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>lectures up on my friend Chad and Steve’s website: <\/span>YouTube<\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/span><\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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4\/16\/16, 5:22 PM<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
In\u00a0#SiliconValley<\/a>, the CS 183(b) is taught by a dude with a bachelors degree in CS (or a couple credit short I dunno\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nMark Suster and Mark D Cranney:
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\"\"<\/span><\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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1\/12\/16, 1:18 PM<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
similar to no need, no trust, no momentum cc\u00a0@msuster<\/a>. Re; why buy, why you, why now\u00a0@mdcranney<\/a>‘s\u00a0a16z.com\/2014\/05\/30\/sel\u2026<\/a>\u00a0#cs183s<\/a>\u00a0Lec 7<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nI took the time to copy paste my Nalco Chemical sales trainers diagram. This appears at\u00a0<\/span>#cs183s<\/a>\u00a0Lec 7.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

\"image1.JPG\"<\/div>\n
#LarryChiang. No rights reserved.
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\n<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/span><\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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1\/13\/16, 10:16 PM<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
Me, Mark\u00a0@msuster<\/a>, Mark\u00a0@mdcranney<\/a>\u00a0all have eerily parallel sales mentorship:\u00a0#NoNeed<\/a>;\u00a0#NoTrust<\/a>;\u00a0#NoMomentum<\/a>\u00a0#cs183s<\/a>\u00a0pic.twitter.com\/HevV2TzYHE<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nProfessor Blank…<\/span><\/div>\n

bit.ly\/sblank710<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
bit.ly\/sblank711<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
bit.ly\/sblank712<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
bit.ly\/sblank713<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/span><\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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1\/15\/16, 9:47 AM<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
.@mdcranney<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0@StanfordEng<\/a>\u00a0MS&E 145; 245,\u00a0bit.ly\/sblank710<\/a>\u00a0bit.ly\/sblank711<\/a>\u00a0bit.ly\/sblank712<\/a>\u00a0&\u00a0bit.ly\/sblank713<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/span><\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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1\/12\/16, 1:18 PM<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
similar to no need, no trust, no momentum cc\u00a0@msuster<\/a>. Re; why buy, why you, why now\u00a0@mdcranney<\/a>‘s\u00a0a16z.com\/2014\/05\/30\/sel\u2026<\/a>\u00a0#cs183s<\/a>\u00a0Lec 7<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n


\nDownload<\/a>\u00a0the Twitter app<\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/td>\nLarry Chiang (@LarryChiang<\/a>)<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
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4\/20\/16, 9:10 AM<\/a><\/div>\n
When 3 engineering cofounders ask to hire a vp of sales, what’s your answer? twitter.com\/mdcranney\/stat\u2026<\/a><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

All four of us are right there.<\/p><\/div>\n

All four of us are saying “do customer development cycle”<\/div>\n
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\"image2.PNG\"<\/div>\n
I’m the only one saying what’s on the other three guys minds: The technical cofounder must sell<\/div>\n
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By Larry Chiang My film school professor mentored me: get in late, get out early. I went to film school in 1998 at USC after I retired in 1996. THIS article is about skirting, avoiding and ducking “startup death spiral“. Plot spoiler: startup death spiral begins when two to three engineering cofounders hire a ‘V.P. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stanford-engineering"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}