IAC 2024 - IA Fast Track to Search Focused AI Solutions
The Real Lean Startup: Debunking the Myth
1. The Real Lean Startup
Debunking the Myth
For LMU CS, March 29, 2012
2. What not to expect
● Easy
● Fast
● Impressive
● Fun
● Rewarding
● Profitable...for a long while
3. What not to expect
● If you want to be rich work on Wall Street
● "Your first idea is wrong, so, as quickly as
possible, implement a careful plan to learn
which of your assumptions are flawed." -
Rita McGrath
● "Everybody has a plan, until they get
punched in the face." - Mike Tyson
4. What to expect
● Failure
● Embarrassment
● Rejection
● No free time
● No social life
● No money
● A lot of work
5. What to expect
● "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99%
perspiration." - Thomas Alva Edison
● If you aren't sweating, you aren't innovating.
● False stories of easy success
● Analogy: the movie montage
8. Still want to do it?
● Learn from others before you start
● Network (this is how you find investors)
● Get support from friends and relatives
● Ideas are worthless. Execute.
● Persevere but know when to give up...what?
● Be bold. Be brave.
● Be resourceful
9. Still want to do it?
The Customer Development Manifesto
10. Still want to do it?
● Get customer feedback every week if not
everyday
● Scientific approach: If you can’t measure it, it
doesn’t exist
● Schedule a pivot meeting
● Stay light on your feet. Be ready to move at
any time.
11. Working with investors
● They look for
○ Team
○ Traction
● They want
○ Obscene returns
● They don't want
○ You
● Get a lawyer on your team for a percentage
of the company to guide you through the
deals
12. How to get help
● L.A. Meetup groups
○ Lean LA
○ 106 Miles SoCal
○ Funders and Founders LA
○ Startup Grind LA
● Coloft
● Lean Startup Circle
● Founder Dating. Announced today for Silicon
Beach!
● Create a group of advisors by giving each of
them a piece of your company
13. How to get help
● L.A. incubators on Twitter
○ OriginateLabs
○ K5Launch
○ UpStartLA
○ Idealab
○ StartEngineLA
○ Muckerlab
○ Amplifyla
○ LaunchpadLA
14. How to get help
● People on Twitter
○ Sean Ellis
○ Eric Ries
○ Brant Cooper
○ Patrick Vlaskovits
○ Steve Blank
○ Andrew Chen
15. How to get help
● Blogs
○ Venture Hacks
○ Andrew Chen
○ Steven Blank
○ Startup Lessons Learned
○ Lean Startup Machine
○ Startup Marketing
○ SoCal Tech News
16. How to get help
● Books
○ The Lean Startup
○ The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development
○ The Startup Owner's Manual. Online course coming
soon (follow blog)
○ The Innovator’s Solution
● Presentations
○ Startup Metrics for Pirates
17. Remember
● The principles, the philosophies (Zen), not
the set of steps to follow.
● Always, always, innovate
18. Remember
● "Don't get set into one form, adapt it and
build your own, and let it grow, be like water.
Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless —
like water. Now you put water in a cup, it
becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle
it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it
becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or
it can crash. Be water, my friend" - Bruce
Lee
