The Bare Essentials Of
“A LEAN STARTUP”
Karthik Ramanujam
These are my personal opinions on the subject and in no way represent that of any of my past/current/future employer
OriginThe Lean Methodology teaches you how to drive a company - how to steer,
when to turn, and when to persevere - and grow a business with maximum
acceleration. It is a principled approach to new product development.
It is based on the principles of lean production, a manufacturing methodology
that values a business' ability to change quickly
So why do startups fail?
1. Building a wrong product
2. Run out of Cash?
3. Not being able to build the right team
4. Lack of unique value propositions – Get Out Competed!
5. Pricing/ Costing issues - “Go to Market Strategy”
6. Poor Product
7. No Business Plan
8. Poor Marketing
9. Ignoring Customers
10. A Completely mis-timed product
Why do startups fail?
..and a whole lotta other
reasons
11. Lack of persistence
12. Disharmony on the team/investors
13. Failing to pivot/change direction
14. No mentors or advisers
15. CEO / Founder(s) unable to make decisions
Hang on. That's not all!
16. Out of control growth
17. Poor accounting controls
18. Not enough cash cushion
19. Operational ineptitude
20. Obscure or marginal niche
Now try this
Validated learning as a measure of progress
The Hypothesis
What lean
startups do differently?
You can’t argue with Validation!
Quotes:
Wait. That is an assumption. We need to validate that
Look at the board. Look at what we learned. You can't argue with validation.
Define it!
1. Validated learning as a measure of progress, because it favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional “big design up front”development.
2. Although the methodology is just a few years old, its concepts—such as “minimum viable product” and “pivoting”—have quickly taken root in the start-up world, and business schools have already begun adapting their curricula to teach them.
Must ReadsRob Fitzpatrick