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Blank: Startup survival in a crisis depends on CEO decision speed

Steve Blank · 20VC: Steve Blank on Why The Startup Ecosystem is Partially A Ponzi Scheme, 3 Things That Determine Startup Survival in a COVID World & Facebook: Platform vs Publisher and Where Does Their Responsibility Lie? · Jul 20, 2020 · at 12:33

Steve Blank, author and pioneer of modern startup methodologies, discusses crisis management tactics for founders with host Harry Stebbings.

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“What I've seen is that the companies that are going to survive and then thrive in the recovery are driven by CEOs who could assess rapidly, come up with rapid strategies, and then take action and seize the opportunities, or else you just kind of have what's going on happen to you rather than you take as much control as you can.”

quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →

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