Lean startups

The lean startup concept was invented by Eric Ries, and refers to an efficient method for startups to build their products. The approach emphasizes:

  • using free or open source tools;
  • developing and testing prototypes with customers early; and
  • rapidly incorporating customer feedback as product development continues.

By using lean startup principles and methods, new products have a greater likelihood of reaching product-market fit and can be built quickly and efficiently, saving time and money.
This page consists of the following sections:

I. Lean Blogs

II. Lean Books

III. Lean Courses & Videos

IV. Lean Communities & Events

I. Lean blogs

Startup Lessons Learned (Eric Ries): Read the blog post where Eric Ries introduces the lean startup concept.

Steve Blank: Steve Blank writes about customer development, an important element of the lean startup methodology. His Startup Tools page lists many resources for building startups.

Signal vs. Noise: The 37signals team has built a suite of cloud-based web applications for small business. In their blog they write about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture and more.

Ash Maurya: Ash Maurya builds upon the lean startup movement with his own interpretation, informed by his experiences as a serial entrepreneur.

Master of 500 Hats (Dave McClure): Venture capitalist Dave McClure writes about lean startup metrics. His Startup Metrics for Pirates presentation is a classic.

Venture Hacks: Venture Hacks contains useful, actionable content for startups that also relates to the lean movement.

II. Lean books

The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries (Crown Business, 2011).

The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank (Cafepress, 2010).

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development by Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits (Cooper-Vlakovits, 2010).

Running Lean by Ash Maurya (O’Reilly Media, 2012).

Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application by Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson and Matthew Linderman (37signals, 2009).

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson (Crown Business, 2010)

III. Lean courses & videos

Lean courses

The Lean Launchpad: This free online course from Stanford University is taught by Steve Blank.

Lean videos

Steve Blank: Steve Blank lectures from Stanford University.

Eric Ries at Stanford University: Eric Ries lectures from Stanford University.

IV. Lean communities & events

Lean communities

Reddit: The Reddit website includes useful articles, videos and other resources for the lean startup entrepreneur.

Lean Startup Circle: Here you’ll find a lean startup Google group.

The Lean Startup Wiki: A Wiki for all things related to the lean startup methodology.

Twitter Tag #leanstartup: Follow this hash tag on Twitter for all tweets related to lean startups.

Lean events

Lean Coffee Toronto: This group features discussions, case studies and activities aimed at challenging entrepreneurs in a way that will have immediate impact on their business practices.

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