Steve Blank has had a 33-year career as a successful businessman, conservationist and teacher. As a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Steve was part of/or founded eight venture-backed companies. Four of his eight startup companies went public. After he retired, he started new careers in conservation, public service, and teaching. After retiring, 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. Steve wrote a book (actually his class text) about building early stage companies: Four Steps to the Epiphany. He followed it in 2012 with his next book; The Startup Owners Manual. The “Customer Development” model that he developed in his book is one of the core themes for these classes. In 2010, he was awarded the Earl F. Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award at U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business. In 2009 Steve was awarded the Stanford University Undergraduate Teaching Award in the department of Management Science and Engineering. In 2007 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Steve to serve on the California Coastal Commission, the public body which regulates land use and public access on the California coast. Steve currently sits on the board of Startup Weekend and the California League of Conservation Voters (CLCV.) He’s a past board member of Audubon California (and its past chair), the Audubon National Board and Peninsula Open Space land Trust (POST).

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