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.)

Great information

Working in a startup, the information in this book helped me think different by proposing new method of development and thinking about the actual product, its usage and customers. The most that startups founders could have and the counterintuitive development feedback loop.

I will listen to it multiple times.

Excellent listen

Very insightful I would say a must listen- for information, motivation and direction. Will be listening again for sure

What a Gem!

Such a great book. Although it serves as a guide to the key elements of a successful startup or innovation, one should know that the knowledge in this book goes beyond “startups”. The information is critical to any organization that can appreciate how to eliminate waste of your time and human capital. It’s an overall great book for any leader, aspiring leader, or organization.

Very good, although very technical

Since the author is a very established person. There is a lot of jargon, and language that gets used that may make it a little difficult to follow. However the values and tools that this book provides are very valuable. I encourage anyone who is looking to start anything in their life to use some of the tools in this book to get there.

Required reading for anyone who makes products

Would you consider the audio edition of The Lean Startup to be better than the print version?

I have a strong preference to Audiobooks, so I'm biased. They both have advantages, I'm sure. It helps that Ries performs his own words. Less gets lost in translation.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Not that kind of book. My favorite Anecdote is in the beginning where the executive team is actually spending time prototyping the business in the field to test their thinking. So much time gets wasted in meetings and 'brainstorming' when you can just go and ask people/test your ideas.

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

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Not really - this is the kind of book that you need to mull over. Listening to more than 30 minutes at a stretch makes it hard to digest all that's being said.

Any additional comments?

Its going to be a modern classic in terms of business books.

Must read for any one contemplating a startup.

Would you listen to The Lean Startup again? Why?

So many minor but significant tips and tricks, it's hard to get it all in on the first listen.

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

Listen to this after reading Getting Real by 37 Signals

Any additional comments?

The concepts outlined works best, if you operate in large markets where it take short amount of time to get a descent sample for your experiments.

Essential Reading for Any Entrepreneur

A vital part of any entrepreneur's library. Well told and intuitive. Ries communicates powerful ideas easily and the book is structured to connect to experiences the reader is almost certainly confronting at that moment.

Textbook of Startups

This is like the textbook of startups. After completing it, feels like earning a degree.

Excellent managerial framework for the modern startup/enterprise

This books is an eye opening introduction to a modern and well thought out rigorous framework to build, test and deliver innovative products to market. It is an excellent guide on how to overcome set backs for the current iteration of startups and established companies. It does show steps on how to handle change and uncertainty and is really thorough with its examples and explanations.

Good Startup Book

Would you listen to The Lean Startup again? Why?

Definitely, I plan to use it as a reminder of the tools that I learned.

Who was your favorite character and why?

No Characters, its non fiction.

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

No, this is his only good.

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

No.

Any additional comments?

The author does a good job preaching his ideas. You just have to sell others on it too.