Overview
E.piphany was a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software company co-founded by Steve Blank in 1996 — reportedly in his living room. The company reached $120 million in revenue within 3 years and held an IPO in September 1999 with an approximate market cap of $8 billion. Blank retired the day before the IPO.
E.piphany was later acquired by SSA Global Technologies for $329 million in 2005.
Role in Blank's Career
E.piphany was the last and most successful of Blank's 8 Silicon Valley startups — the "dot-com bubble home run" in his self-assessment. The IPO in September 1999 was the pivotal event that gave Blank the financial freedom to retire and begin codifying what he had learned across his startup career. The company's rapid growth provided evidence that the patterns Blank had observed could produce exceptional results when the right elements aligned.
Significance
E.piphany's success is significant not for the company itself but for what it enabled: Blank's transition from practitioner to theorist. Without the financial freedom that E.piphany's IPO provided, Blank might not have had the time and independence to write "The Four Steps to the Epiphany," teach at Stanford and Berkeley, and develop the Lean LaunchPad curriculum.
Sources: Wikipedia, steveblank.com, Computer History Museum oral history