Lean Startup ideas, trends, and best practices through the lens of my experience in four industries, three startups, and two continents. Lean Startup methodologies are applicable to both small and large organisation focused on creating new products and services under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

1. LEAN
STARTUP
HristoNeychev
HristoNeychev
@HristoNeychev

2. I’M HRISTO NEYCHEV
I bring new ideas to life
INTERESTS
cloud, mobile, web
EXPERIENCE
13 years, 4 industries, 3 startups

5. neychev
dance
studio

6. what is the most
resilient parasite?
bacteria?
virus?

7. IDEA

8. GROWS LIKE A VIRUS
1+1 = 1+1
1+1 = 2+2

9. “…and even the smallest seed of
an idea can grow. It can grow to
define or destroy you!”

11. SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS
BRIGHT
IDEA

12. SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS
BRIGHT
IDEA

13. BRIGHT
IDEA
Time
Resources
Funding
People
Etc…
SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS

14. SUCCESSFUL
BUSINESS
Time
Resources
Funding
People
Etc…
BRIGHT
IDEA

15. LEANSTARTUP

16. THE LEAN STARTUP
by Eric Ries
LEAN MANUFACTURING
(JIT) Just In time Delivery
JAPAN
Manufacturing Industry

17. Lean startup methodologies apply to any
individual, team, or company looking to introduce
new products or services into the market.

18. LEAN
slender
agile
quick
fast
rapid
swift
nimble…

19. STARTUP
“A human institution designed to create a
new product or service under conditions of
extreme uncertainty”
Eric Ries

20. CREATE

21. EXTREME
UNCERTAINTY

22. „If you don’t know
what you are doing…
…better do it fast“

23. Put a process/methodology around it.
VALIDATED LEARNING!

24. Get ready to FAIL!

25. You rarely hit
the bull's-eye,
but this never
stopped you
from playing!

26. INNOVATION
AT ESSILOR OF AMERICA

27. US HQ
50+
Manufacturing
Labs
500+
Sales Reps
30,000+
1.9 years
repurchase cycle
Eye Care Professionals
(ECPs)
150,000,000+
People wearing eyeglasses

28. EYE
EXAM

29. BUY
EYEGLASSES

30. BUT, YOU HAVE TO WAIT!

31. THE IDEA
Tablet device will
educate patients
while they are waiting

32. • Educate patients
• Help make the right decision
• Improve eye-care
• Better eye health
• Increase market share
• Improve capture rate
• Increase revenue per customer

33. Can this be
done?
…why and how?
?

34. WHY AND HOW
• Tablet or TV? Why?
• Education or advertising? Or both? How?
• Before or after the eye exam? Why?
• Self-service or someone will help? Who? Why?
• Should we sell it or give it away? Why? How?

35. Business Model Canvas
I prefer the
LEAN
CANVAS

36. Problem (1)
Solution (4)
Unique Value Proposition (3) Unfair Advantage (5) Customer Segment (2)
Can’t be easily copied
or bought
Top 3 features
Top 3 problems
Key Metrics (8)
Key activities you
measure
Single, clear, compelling
message that states why you
are different and worth
buying
Channels (9)
Path to customers
Cost Structure (7)
Revenue (6)
Customer Acquisition Costs
Distributing Costs
Hosting
People, etc.
Revenue Model
Lifetime Value
Revenue
Gross Margin
Target customers

37. Problem (1)
Solution (4)
Unique Value Proposition (3) Unfair Advantage (5) Customer Segment (2)
Tablet + videos
Customers are unaware
of the key benefits of
premium lenses
Opticians do a poor job
explaining them
Key Metrics (8)
Learn all you need to know
about your eyes and the
lenses you need. Make the
right choice. Take care of your
eyes’ health.
Capture rate
Revenue per customer
Share of ECP sales
We sell the most
premium lenses on
the market
Channels (9)
Eyeglass wearers
Path to customers
Cost Structure (7)
Revenue (6)
Tablets, videos, software, distribution
Increased purchases in ECP channel

38. TOOLS TO HELP YOU
• Research
• Surveys
• Interviews – ask for commitment
• Focus groups
• Test market
• [Genchi Genbutsu] – “go and see for yourself”
• EXPERIMENT

39. COMMITMENTS
TIME
– meetings, trials, etc.
REPUTATION – intro, testimonial,
CASH
case study, etc.

40. "go and see for yourself"
現地現物 [Genchi Genbutsu]
“the real place”
“the crime scene”
現場 [Gemba]
A key principle of the Toyota Production System

41. “Design an EXPERIMENT that
attempts to answer the question!”
Eric Ries
Create series of FAST and CHEAP
micro-experiments that lead you to
VALIDATED LEARING!

42. VALIDATED
LEARNING
The unit of progress
for Lean Startups

43. PROGRESS IN
MANUFACTURING
=
NUMBER
OF UNITS

44. PROGRESS IN
STARTUPS
=
VALIDATED
LEARNING

45. THE TRADITIONAL
APPROACH
1. Slow
2. Expensive
3. Gives you ONLY ONE attempt to
succeed/fail (in a 20%/80%
game)

46. RESULT: You build something
that nobody wants!
• PIC

47. Build it and
they will come!

48. Traditional
Sequential
Approach
Lean Startup
Approach

49. THE LEAN STARTUP APPROACH
1. FAST and Cheap
2. MULTIPLE full iteration cycles
3. Gives you MULTIPLE opportunities to LEARN/VALIDATE
your thinking
4. Gives you MULTIPLE attempts to SUCCEED/FAIL
5. Gives you MULTIPLE opportunities to PIVOT

50. Traditional
Sequential
Approach
Lean Startup
Approach

51. Minimum Viable Product

52. MVP
Crappy
products
nobody
wants
MINIUM
VIABLE
Expensive
products
that require
to much
time and
money

53. “Any additional work beyond what was required to
start learning is waste, no matter how important it
might have seemed at the time.”
The Dropbox MVP

54. “The first version of Gmail was literally written in a day.” –
Paul Buchheit (creator and lead developer of Gmail)
“Entrepreneurship in a lean startup is really a series of
MVP’s” – Eric Ries
“If Apple can launch a smartphone without Find or Cutand-Paste, what can you cut out of your product
requirements?” – Sramana Mitra

55. MVP

56. MVP #5

57. MVP #1
PowerPoint Deck
+ Hristo Neychev

58. VALIDATED ASSUMPTIONS/HYPOTHESIS
• Customers are willing to spend time to learn
more about eyeglass lenses
• Explaining the benefits of high quality lenses
changes customers buying decision (upsell)

59. MVP #2
Info in the deck fits
your prescription

60. MVP #3
Self-service deck
(no Hristo Neychev)

61. MVP #4
Simple video playing
from my laptop

62. MVP #5
Ugly tablet plays 5 videos
based on your prescription

63. KEY LEARNING
• Build multiple MVPs
• Don’t spend months waiting for a nice product
and then change the company's direction
• Adapt your plan incrementally, inch by inch,
minute by minute
• Genchi Genbutsu - "go and see for yourself"

64. WHAT DO I VALIDATE?
Test the founders hypothesis about:
1. Customer problem
2. Product concept
3. If the minimum feature set solve that problem
What if I fail to validate the hypothesis?

65. Change in the strategy without
changing the vision

66. PIVOT
“Structured course correction designed to test a new fundamental
hypothesis about the product, strategy, and engine of growth”
Eric Ries
The direction of your PIVOT
depends on your vision!

67. PIVOT EXAMPLE 1
WAS: “The Point” began as a platform for mobilizing
groups of people towards action for various causes
PIVOTED TO: only one group action - group buying

68. PIVOT EXAMPLE 2
WAS: blended elements of Foursquare and Mafia Wars in
a mobile app
PIVOTED TO: remove everything except the photosharing feature, thus renamed to “Instagram”

69. PIVOT EXAMPLE 3
WAS: “application that will allow individuals to "beam" sums of
money between handheld devices such as mobile phones, Palm
Pilots, and pagers” 07.27.99
PIVOTED TO: online payments

70. PIVOT EXAMPLE 4
WAS: Cloud-based IDE for desktop development
THEN: Cloud-based IDE for Mobile development
THEN: Cloud services for hybrid mobile developers
NOW: Cloud platform for Mobile development

71. Action Plan

72. Idea
MVP3
First product
PIVOT
or
PERSEVERE
Quick research
MVP3
PIVOT
or
Business model
canvas
Hypothesis /
Assumptions
PERSEVERE
MVP1
MVP2
Abandon this
direction

73. ASSUMPTIONS
1. List all assumptions
2. Create MVP(s) to VALIDATE all assumptions
3. BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN
4. List all new assumption
5. Create MVP(s) to VALIDATE all new assumptions
6. BUILD-MEASURE-LEARN
…rinse and repeat

74. YOUR BIGGEST FEAR?
•No money?
•No time?
•No good ideas?
•No motivation?
•No co-founder?

75. CREATING
THE
WRONG
THING!

76. CLOSING WORDS
Build
PRODUCT
IDEAS
Learn
Measure
DATA
• Move as fast as possible
• Learn as much as possible
• Don’t be afraid to PIVOT
• Don’t be afraid to FAIL
• VALIDATE everything

77. HAPPY VALIDATION!
Thank you!
Hristo Neychev
HristoNeychev
HristoNeychev
@HristoNeychev