The people behind the frameworks
From Steve Blank to April Dunford — the researchers, founders, and operators whose ideas run the startup world, each profiled with their frameworks and intellectual lineage.
Alexander Osterwalder
Swiss business theorist · co-founder of Strategyzer
Business Model Canvas · Value Proposition Canvas
Eric Ries
Entrepreneur · IMVU co-founder · founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange
The Lean Startup
Steve Blank
8-time Silicon Valley entrepreneur · adjunct professor at Stanford
Customer Development
Clayton Christensen
Harvard Business School professor · father of disruption theory
Jobs to be Done
Ash Maurya
Entrepreneur · author of Running Lean · founder of LEANSTACK
Lean Canvas
Dave McClure
Founder of 500 Startups · ex-PayPal marketing director
AARRR Pirate Metrics
Nir Eyal
Author of Hooked · former Stanford GSB lecturer
The Hook Model
Sean Ellis
Coined 'growth hacking' · early growth lead at Dropbox and LogMeIn · author of Hacking Growth
North Star Metric
John Doerr
Intel's legendary CEO · the venture capitalist who carried his system to Google
OKRs
Michael Porter
Harvard Business School professor · founder of modern competitive strategy
Porter's Five Forces
Albert S. Humphrey
Management consultant · Stanford Research Institute (attribution debated)
SWOT Analysis
Simon Sinek
Author and speaker · former ad-agency strategist
The Golden Circle
W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne
INSEAD strategy professors · co-directors of the Blue Ocean Strategy Institute
Blue Ocean Strategy
Geoffrey Moore
Organizational theorist and consultant · partner emeritus at Wildcat Venture Partners
Crossing the Chasm
April Dunford
Positioning consultant · 25 years as a startup and enterprise marketing executive
Positioning (Obviously Awesome)
Peter Thiel
PayPal co-founder · first outside investor in Facebook · Founders Fund partner
Zero to One
Rob Fitzpatrick
Founder three times over · YC alum turned author-teacher
The Mom Test
Jim Collins
Business researcher · author of the Good to Great research program
The Flywheel
Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares
DuckDuckGo founder-CEO · serial founder — co-authors of Traction
Bullseye Framework
Alistair Croll & Benjamin Yoskovitz
Analyst-entrepreneur and product executive · co-authors in Eric Ries's Lean Series
Lean Analytics
Colin Bryar & Bill Carr
Amazon executives of the building years — Bezos's chief of staff and the VP of digital media
Working Backwards (PR/FAQ)