3. My Awesome Idea
The idea was simply to build a platform to let
people trade their physical assets like their
financial assets.
It involved building a large catalog, and letting
people buy and sell their stuff like stocks
4. Exhibit A
User Portfolio
Product Wiki
Automated Shipping
Scanned Item
Works like Netflix – seal and ship
5. What I did first…
Of course… I went ahead and built it. It was
groundbreaking.
• I found two co-founders
• Hired programmers
• Built it quietly
6. After 12 months
• Product was live!
• No CUSTOMERS….
• Found a competitor doing the exact same
thing
9. What I learned…
• 14 months in development
• Lots of money invested
• No Customers
10. What I learned…
• 14 months in development
• Lots of money invested
• No Customers
• Identical Competitor
– that just Raised $5.3m from DFJ
11. What I learned…
• 14 months in development
• Lots of money invested
DISASTER!!!
• No Customers
• Identical Competitor
– that just Raised $5.3m from DFJ
15. We didn’t iterate. We built.
We didn’t do CustDev. We Assumed
We didn’t have a strategy when
assumptions changed
16. We didn’t iterate. We built.
We didn’t do CustDev. We Assumed
We didn’t have a strategy when
assumptions changed
We did it all in secret
17. Launch Awards
1 2 3 4
Weekend Ceremony
Learn to build something people want
18. Launch Awards
1 2 3 4
Weekend Ceremony
• 4 week Lean Startup Competition
• Experiment and iterate on your model each week
• Receive feedback from mentors
• Learn from awesome speakers
• Get a chance to win up to $20,000 in cash and prizes
Editor's Notes
I’ll call this is my lean storyMy first two startups were small side projects. My third one was one with a big vision.It starts the way they always do… boy meets Idea, boy falls in love with idea. Boy meets co-founders, and they start building a website.
I’m a big nerd. As evidenced by this photo of me on what was probably the happiest moment of my life, getting my picture taken with the MIT mascot. I went to grad school at MIT, where I had a great time. Since Grad School,
So where were we after a year and a half?
Not only that, I found out that they had just gotten funded for $5m
And all I could think to myself was, how did this happen?Everything seemed like it was going so well. We had a great idea, and we thought we were executing it well. But the truth is, we made almost every non-lean, classic mistake that you can.We didn’t iterate. We bullt. We didn’t do CustDev. We AssumedWe didn’t have a strategy for how to react when those assumptions changedWe did it all in secretAnd I decided to put everything on hold and learn a few things about startups, before I got myself into any more trouble.
And all I could think to myself was, how did this happen?Everything seemed like it was going so well. We had a great idea, and we thought we were executing it well. But the truth is, we made almost every non-lean, classic mistake that you can.We didn’t iterate. We bullt. We didn’t do CustDev. We AssumedWe didn’t have a strategy for how to react when those assumptions changedWe did it all in secretAnd I decided to put everything on hold and learn a few things about startups, before I got myself into any more trouble.
And all I could think to myself was, how did this happen?Everything seemed like it was going so well. We had a great idea, and we thought we were executing it well. But the truth is, we made almost every non-lean, classic mistake that you can.We didn’t iterate. We bullt. We didn’t do CustDev. We AssumedWe didn’t have a strategy for how to react when those assumptions changedWe did it all in secretAnd I decided to put everything on hold and learn a few things about startups, before I got myself into any more trouble.
And all I could think to myself was, how did this happen?Everything seemed like it was going so well. We had a great idea, and we thought we were executing it well. But the truth is, we made almost every non-lean, classic mistake that you can.We didn’t iterate. We bullt. We didn’t do CustDev. We AssumedWe didn’t have a strategy for how to react when those assumptions changedWe did it all in secretAnd I decided to put everything on hold and learn a few things about startups, before I got myself into any more trouble.
And all I could think to myself was, how did this happen?Everything seemed like it was going so well. We had a great idea, and we thought we were executing it well. But the truth is, we made almost every non-lean, classic mistake that you can.We didn’t iterate. We bullt. We didn’t do CustDev. We AssumedWe didn’t have a strategy for how to react when those assumptions changedWe did it all in secretAnd I decided to put everything on hold and learn a few things about startups, before I got myself into any more trouble.
