The Lean Startup
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Matt Coen
Second Street
matt@secondstreet.com
@mcoen

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Lean Startup Principles
Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
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How many of you
work for startups?
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“A startup is a human institution
designed to deliver a new product
or service under condition of
extreme uncertainty.”
- Eric Ries
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Nothing to do with size,
sector of the economy, or
industry.
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How many of you
work for startups?
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Lean Startup Principles
Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
Entrepreneurship is management.
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Why Startups Fail?
1. The allure of a good plan, a solid
strategy, and thorough market
research.
2. Just do it! If management is the
problem, chaos is the answer.
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STARTUP =
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WE NEED TO TEST
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OUR
ASSUMPTIONS

STOP
WASTING
PEOPLE’S TIME
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Entrepreneurship is Management
§ Traditional management practices fail.
§ Management as taught by MBAs
§ Need practices and principles geared
towards the start up context of extreme
uncertainty.
§ Not just two guys in a garage.
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Lean Startup Principles
Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
Entrepreneurship is management.
Validated learning.
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THE PIVOT

The Pivot
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Speed Wins
If we can reduce our time
between pivots, we increase
our potential for success
before we run out of time,
money, or patience.
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Lean Startup Principles
Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
Entrepreneurship is management.
Validated learning.
Build – Measure – Learn
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Achieving Failure
§ If we are building something nobody
wants, what does it matter if its done:
§ On Time
§ On Budget
§ With High Quality
§ With Beautiful Design
§ Does it matter if you successfully execute
a bad plan
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IS IT ENOUGH
TO LEARN
SOMETHING?
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A STARTUP EXISTS
TO LEARN HOW TO
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BUILD A
SUSTAINABLE
BUSINESS

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MVP =
MINIMUM
VIABLE
PRODUCT

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Minimize Total Time Through the Loop
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IDEAS
LEARN BUILD
DATA CODE
MEASURE

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Lean Startup Principles
Entrepreneurs are everywhere.
Entrepreneurship is management.
Validated learning.
Build – Measure – Learn
Innovation Accounting
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STOP
FOCUSING ON
VANITY
METRICS

Three Learning Milestones
1. Establish the baseline:
– Build a minimum viable product.
– Measure how the customer behaves right now.
2. Tune the engine:
– Experiment to see if we can improve metrics from the baseline to
the ideal.
3. Pivot (Persevere):
– When an experiment reaches diminishing returns, it’s time to
pivot.
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EXERCISE #1
ASSUMPTIONS
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EXERCISE #2
EXPERIMENTS
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Questions?
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Matt Coen
Second Street
matt@secondstreet.com
@mcoen