How Founders Can Set Themselves Apart with the Lean Startup Methodology
A review of Eric Ries’ New York Time Bestseller ‘The Lean Startup’
“Startup success can be engineered by following the process, which means it can be learned, which means it can be taught.” — Eric Ries
Signing up for the entrepreneurial journey is a daunting task, and a lot of founders are left in the dark when it comes to data and strategies that help them succeed and stand out from the pack of other founders vying for venture dollars.
Today we at StartupFuel would like to remind founders of a simple yet effective approach to building an attractive business through the Lean Startup methodology
Based on the book, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, the methodology will remind you the importance of the intention you set in the beginning when building out your business and its MVP.
Like Reis, we at StartupFuel believe that success can be manufactured with the correct data and process and we want to empower founders with this so they can succeed.
So let’s dive into one of the most important takeaways from the book–Validated Learning– and how you can apply it to drastically improve the outcome of your startup’s trajectory.
Build. Measure. Learn.
Creating a solid MVP, can mean the difference between getting funded or leaving each pitch empty handed. Too often, entrepreneurs get caught up in the trap of thinking that success is made by creating a product and hoping it sells.
The Lean Startup turns that idea on its head, and provides a roadmap for MVP progression that the majority of entrepreneurs simply don’t follow, which can be seen in the image below:
This image describes validating learning, which is about building a functional product as early as possible so that one can measure and learn and thus iterate faster than competition who might be stuck on perfecting the wheel of their car before it’s built without testing whether or not they should be building a car in the first place.
Validated learning means that instead of spending years developing a product and launching it, you talk to customers, get feedback, and adjust your product based on that feedback.
Investors love to see when founders are using real world feedback to test their product and consider this an investing green flag, as this shows that the founder is building something that the market actually wants.
Accelerate a Positive Feedback Loop with Validated Learning
Another perk of using Validated Learning in your MVP process is speed.
Speed is incredibly important to investors and can be a make or break in securing initial or continued investment — if you show you can work and iterate quickly, the investor will know they’re getting an efficient return on their money.
Keeping Validated Learning and using Build->Measure->Learn as your framework is perhaps one of the best practical takeaways that The Lean Startup provides.
If you haven’t read the book yet, we highly suggest you grab a copy to share with your team.
We hope this is a good reminder to keep you on track with your progress, and if you feel you’re ready to raise money, make sure to head to startupfuel.com and join the many other companies who have a profile on display to connect with all of the investors in our network!
Best of luck on your journey,
Author
Venture Intern @ StartupFuel
Company
AI Enhanced Due Diligence for Venture Capital
