The Lean Entrepreneur

Cover image: @FAKEGRIMLOCK

Copyright © 2016 by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

The first edition was published by Wiley in 2013.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

ISBN 978-1-119-09503-3 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-119-09507-1 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-1-119-09499-9 (ePub)

For Riva and Eliza

– BC

For Kati, Shane, Milla, and Viola

– PV

Without our early adopters, who believed enough in The Lean Entrepreneur to pre-order a book when it was merely a landing page with a silly video, we might not have survived the process of writing this book and seeing it published.

Their early feedback on content and exercises forced us to simplify, focus, and home in on how to move the needle for them.

Thank you.

The Lean Entrepreneur Early Adopters1:

When I first started blogging in August 2008, I had no idea what to expect. Startup blogging was hardly cool back then. Plenty of venture capitalists advised me against it.

My personal background was as an engineer, and my companies had been web-based startups, so that is what I wrote about. Struggling to explain the successes and failures of those companies, I discussed principles like continuous deployment, customer development, and a hyper-accelerated form of agile. When I delved into lean manufacturing, I discovered that the concepts and terminology dovetailed. The result: a new idea I called the Lean Startup.

I started with some basic theory: that a startup is an institution designed to thrive in the soil of extreme uncertainty, and that traditional management techniques rooted in forecasting and planning would not work well in the face of that uncertainty. Therefore, we needed a new management tool kit designed explicitly for iteration, scientific learning, and rapid experimentation.

At the time, I viewed it as incidental that the theory might be tied to a particular industry, such as high-tech startups or web-based environments. Lean, after all, emerged from Toyota, a huge automobile manufacturing company. I simply stated my belief that Lean Startup principles would work in other types of startups and in other areas of business where uncertainty reigned.

Boy, was I unprepared for what happened next. I was hopeful that we would change the way startups are built – but I didn’t know.

Fast-forward more than seven years, and I’m astounded by what has emerged. A nascent community has blossomed into a full-fledged movement. Entrepreneurs, both new and experienced, proudly share their Lean Startup learning in case studies, conferences, and many, many blogs. Books, workshops, and courses written and led by passionate practitioners relate experiences, share insights, and create tools to teach students ways to make Lean Startup principles their own. Many investors, advisors, mentors, and even celebrity entrepreneur icons speak the Lean Startup language.