China is reportedly keeping DeepSeek under close watch
China appears to think homegrown AI startup DeepSeek could become a notable tech success story for the country. After DeepSeek’s sudden rise to fame in January with the release of…
Steve Blank Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition – 2023 Wrap Up
We just wrapped up the third year of our Technology, Innovation, and Great Power Competition class –part of Stanford’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation. Joe Felter, Mike Brown…
Kerry Washington invests in wedding marketplace Cheersy
Kerry Washington is expanding her angel investment portfolio, serving as lead investor in the pre-seed round of the wedding marketplace Cheersy. Cheersy, which was founded in 2024 by Amy Shack…
Steve Blank Apple Vision Pro – Tech in the Search of a Market
A version of this article previously appeared in Fortune. If you haven’t been paying attention Apple has started shipping its Apple Vision Pro, its take on a headset that combines…
Y Combinator’s police surveillance darling Flock Safety raises $275M at $7.5B valuation
Flock Safety and one of its long-time VCs, Bedrock Capital, announced Thursday that the startup raised a fresh $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation. Flock makes computer vision-enabled video…
Steve Blank Is a $100 Million Enough?
This article first appeared in Inc. Capitalism has been good to me. After serving in the military during Vietnam, I came home and had a career in eight startups. I…
Sesame, the startup behind the viral virtual assistant Maya, releases its base AI model
AI company Sesame has released the base model that powers Maya, the impressively realistic voice assistant. The model, which is 1 billion parameters in size (“parameters” referring to individual components…
Steve Blank Founders Need to Be Ruthless When Chasing Deals
One of the most exciting things a startup CEO in a business-to-business market can hear from a potential customer is, “We’re excited. When can you come back and show us…
Minimalist Light Phone III launches March 27
Light, the maker of a minimalist phone designed to help consumers disconnect from smartphone distractions and social media, will launch its newest model, the Light Phone III, on March 27.…
Steve Blank The Secret History of Polaroid CEO Edwin Land
The connections between the world of national security and commercial companies still has surprises. December 1976 – Vandenberg Air Force Base, U.S. military space port on the coast of California…