The Lean Startup

How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

By: Eric Ries

Narrated by: Eric Ries

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.

Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.

The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning”, rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product-development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute.

Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.

©2011 Eric Ries (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

"Eric has created a science where previously there was only art. A must read for every serious entrepreneur—and every manager interested in innovation." (Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, Opsware Inc., and Netscape)

"At Asana, we've been lucky to benefit from Eric's advice firsthand; this book will enable him to help many more entrepreneurs answer the tough questions about their business." (Dustin Moskovitz, co-founder of Facebook and Asana)

"In business, a ‘lean’ enterprise is sustainable efficiency in action. Eric Ries’ revolutionary Lean Startup method will help bring your new business idea to an end result that is successful and sustainable. You’ll find innovative steps and strategies for creating and managing your own startup while learning from the real-life successes and collapses of others. This book is a must read for entrepreneurs who are truly ready to start something great!” (Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager and The One Minute Entrepreneur.)

Life turn point.

After 20 years of entrepreneurship, this insight is life changing for me and my organization

Thanks!

Nacho Sainz

Great book

Overall, great book for an aspiring young mind. I am a college student and evolving entrepreneur. The insite within this audio text was very influential and informative. I would recommend this to a friend or aspiring entrepreneur. I would be honored to have a conversation with this guy in person one day.

Very Helpful — Not for Everyone

If you could sum up The Lean Startup in three words, what would they be?

Brilliant. Precise. Laborious.

What other book might you compare The Lean Startup to and why?

The Lean Startup isn't dissimilar to other business books I've read, except that Ries has very specific ideas on how to grow your venture. They are all excellent, but I'd contend that it isn't for every entrepreneur. Read it, learn from it, implement the fundamentals. To fully implement the book would be a very long term commitment, and applies primarily to those who will be running an organization.

Have you listened to any of Eric Ries’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, it made me think. It confirmed some things I already believed, and taught me how to implement certain principles.

amazing disruptive approach for startup management

amazing and disruptive approach for startup business management. Eric is such a wise man! highly recommended

It is a must read book for entrepreneurs

Excellent book. Highly recommended for any person interested, working or looking for new opportunities in the entrepreneurial world.

Critical for any Start UP

Any additional comments?

If you are starting a company and are trying to raise funds, if you haven't read or listened to this book, you are toast.

The concept of validated learning

The ideas in this book helped me with developing a different future for my company and my employees.

Good Book on a very important topic

I think that the movement toward smaller and faster moving groups/companies is the next great innovation source coming. This book is something of a manifesto for that movement. The book is fine, interesting enough, but the ideas are crucial a must read for anyone interested in building a company/product in the 21st century.

I learned a lot

I am founding my second startup. This book opened my mind. It does require adaptation to hardware based technology syartup. I will certainly look for such adaptation.

my first audible book- good start

real case studies. not preachy. simple to understand. overall excellent book. I recommend this to those who want to or is thinking about starting up.