Top 10 Reasons to NOT be a Lean Startup

10 Reasons to Not Be a “Lean Startup” -- (and One Reason Why It Just Might Make Sense…) Boston Lean Startup Circle Feb 24, 2011
Patrick Vlaskovits
@vlaskovits
vlaskovits.com
Brant Cooper
@brantcooper
marketbynumbers.com

10. You’re the World’s Best Salesperson
You could sell ice to an Eskimo…
Sand to an Arab…
Water to a drowning man…
Screen doors to a submarine skipper…
Ketchup popsicle to a lady in white gloves…

9. Any PR is Good PR
Let’s face it - you’re a rockstar-ninja-pornstar-social-media-guru
You use
Guerilla
Marketing
to jumpstart
your Viral Loop.
An original
ARPAnet
marketer.
Cool! A Lean Startup!

8. Lean Startup forces entrepreneurs to think small… I’m Lean, ergo my vision & scalability are limited. Actually, I’m Lean too.

7. You’d Rather be Phat
Yeah, because things went so well last time we had over-valued, over-funded startups with no proven business model.
“ Fat, drunk & stupid is no way to go through life.” -Dean Vernon Wormer

6. Too Rigid & Formulaic

5. Not Formulaic Enough! CustDev doesn’t work for [ ] business model. Insert your business model here

4. You’re “complicated” You just don’t get it. Do you, Punk?

3. Too Busy “Doing It”
The Credo You Live By: “ The only difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is effort.”
“ I coulda been a some body ” 2012 Olympic Training

2. You Didn’t Invent It
Therefore, you should really join me @Fit Startup Accelerator.

1. You’re Just Like Mike, uhm, Steve

1) So WHY the !%@# would you want to do Lean Startup? PS Do you like Sudoku? You’d better.

Images courtesy of Eric Ries (startuplessonslearned.com) and Steve Blank (steveblank.com and http://bit.ly/LSSB2010) Problem Solution An early stage tech startup is an effort to find these two things:

Images courtesy of Eric Ries (startuplessonslearned.com) and Steve Blank (steveblank.com and http://bit.ly/LSSB2010) Problem (unknown) Solution (unknown) The reality: You are playing a massive game of real-life Sudoku because you are solving for two sets of unknowns. Simultaneously.

Risk mitigation in the context of an early stage tech startup is WHY you should do Lean Startups/Customer Development. If that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t do CustDev or Lean Startups. One Reason

Another way of putting it
(Remember this guy?)
Avoid building things nobody actually wants.

How to do it – The Three Meta-Rules: 1) Question and Test Your Assumptions 2) Get Out of the Building 3) Do it again based on what you learned. (Iterate) BUZZWORD ALERT!

The Zeroth (and Most Important) Rule of Lean Startups 0) There are no rules… 1) Question and Test Your Assumptions 2) Get Out of the Building 3) Do it again. (Iterate)

#LeanStartup & #CustDev Resources @sgblank – steveblank.com @ericries – startuplessonslearned.com @seanellis – startup-marketing.com @davemcclure – 500hats.com @hnshah – blog.kissmetrics.com @brantcooper – marketbynumbers.com @vlaskovits – vlaskovits.com @richcollins – LSC Google Group

PDF http://www.CustDev.com Paperback (AMAZON) http://bit.ly/EGCDPaperback Kindle (AMAZON) http://bit.ly/EGCDKindle An Intro to Customer Development

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Top 10 Reasons to NOT be a Lean Startup

by Patrick Vlaskovits

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