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.)

Build | Measure | Learn

This is the second time I’ve read this book. The first was just after release. This time was as a refresher. Here’s the bottom line, if you’re a bootstrapping entrepreneur, you will build a better economic model by using these principles. You will save money by using these principles. Build your company in modules, from accounting to sales to lead generation. Ask you customers to give feedback. Be ok with negative feedback. That’s where all the good ideas live. Enjoy

Lean Innovation

Reading this audio book forthe fourth time so i can bettet exeute the Lean Startup principlea at work

OK so this is easily on of the best ones I read.

Love it when the author reads his\her own book. Makes it some much more meaningful.
I really like this book - it helped accept new methods of management into my busienss and improved my decision making process and made it more methodical.

Tons of Case Study. Tons of Value.

Author does a nice job of narration. I learn best by example. This book was written in 2011 and might seem dated, but the advantage is being able to see how things turned out in the end. I feel like after listening to this book, I truly appreciate the importance of the MVP model. The vocabulary used changes how we talk about accounting. That's right...changes accounting ina way that creates true accountability around adding value. Lean Start Up isn't just about a company being born... it's about birthing ideas throughout its life. Applicable to any industry. This is one of those books that will save you multiple times more than the cost of the book and the time to read... and last a life time. Looking forward to reading more of his work.

Perfect wealth of information

The Lean Start up really provided me with a new focus on my current business and rethink a lot of my current process and interactions with clients current and new. Putting to work the process does work it’s not just a listen and no action it works

Fantastic book

I don't give out high ratings easily but I found this book to be excellent. It had a good combination of concepts, practices and examples and really gets the brain working. The flow of the book was also done well. There are a couple concepts that the author maybe doesn't have a full grasp of but they would be hard to pick up on unless you are a subject matter expert in those specific areas and his explanation was close enough that the points were still made well. The only other criticism I could offer is that there are a couple of points in the reading that have unnatural pauses.

He knocked it out of the park

Any additional comments?

Eric Ries' reading of his own book is very clear, very compelling, and well-paced. The material he presents is very relevant to those in today's fast-moving startup environment, as well as those internal entrepreneurs that are fortunate enough to be working with the support of a larger organization. The primary thesis of the book, that progress in an entrepreneurial environment must be measured and accounted for differently than the more frequent "next versions", is well-supported by example. I highly recommend this book to get a new perspective on what you do every day at work!

Great 10/10 - I will find other books Eric recommends on this topic , thank you for your work

Let’s build sustainable value and let’s stop waiting people’s time

I need more words for this review
Thank you !

A new way to approach leadrship.

A new way to approach leadrship. Applicable ways to support inovation and foster creativity with insightful team mates.

A scientific approach to starting a company

What made the experience of listening to The Lean Startup the most enjoyable?

I really resonated with the way the rational, scientific way that the author thinks. Everything he said made sense. That's a rare occurrence, at least for this listener.

Any additional comments?

Most people don't realize how much they don't know. When starting a company, as in many areas of life, it seems good to have a systematic way of figuring out what you don't know, and then knowing it. The scientific method has a proven track record of turning unknown unknowns into known unknowns, and then into knowns.