Four Steps to the Epiphany

Biological Parallel

Steve Blank's four steps (Customer Discovery, Validation, Creation, Company Building) mirror plant ontogeny: germination (discovering if the environment is viable), establishment (validating the niche with initial root/shoot growth), vegetative growth (creating biomass and territory), and reproduction (scaling through seeds or clones). Each phase requires different capabilities, and attempting reproduction before establishment—flowering before roots—is a fatal sequencing error that starves the organism of resources.