Lean Startup

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Jason VandeBoom, CEO and Founder of ActiveCampaign, and Hisham Ibrahim, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, focused on the importance of leaning into your customers and learning from them in order to grow your business. In Jason and Hisham’s conversation, they discuss: - The importance of letting customer feedback guide the product development - How to scale up while staying close to your customers - The key lessons learned as Jason looks back on the startup story of ActiveCampaign And much, much more… When Jason VandeBoom launched ActiveCampaign in 2003, he wasn’t trying to start a business or grow a company. He was just trying to make some money to pay for college. All of his customers were small businesses and they all started wanting the same thing: to communicate with their customers. At the time, the options for small businesses to implement something like this was somewhat limited. Instead of building one-off tools and products for each company, Jaso

We recently hosted the first episode of a six-part webcast series we’re doing with Silicon Valley Bank. In episode one, Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, spoke with Theron McCollough, Managing Director of Silicon Valley Bank’s Early Stage Practice about the 2019 Startup Outlook US Report they just released. You can read the report here: https://bit.svb.com/2GzYO4e In Theron and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - The challenges that companies are facing in finding and hiring talent - The growing number of women in leadership positions - Why some startups are finding it easier to raise funds - The most promising new technology sectors And much, much more… In 2004, Theron McCollough joined a startup and never looked back. He has remained in the startup space ever since. Now, as the Managing Director of the Early Stage Practice at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), his main job is “just helping startups.” He gets to connect companies and people together and help make the introductions that specific

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Giovanni Rotondo, Film Composer & Editor In Chief at Film Scoring Tips, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, on how Lean Startup methodologies directly translates into working in the world of music and composition. In Giovanni and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - How Giovanni discovered The Lean Startup and began applying it to his work composing music scores - How he applied the MVP concept to a Minimum Viable Cue - How he uses A/B testing to submit work to directors And much, much more… As a film and television composer, Giovanni Rotondo is not in a line of work traditionally associated with startups or Lean Startup initiatives. That all began to change when he joined a startup in London called The Rattle. “[The Rattle] is [both] a career incubator for artists and a startup incubator for musical startups,” Giovanni explains. Initially, he joined as an artist, but Giovanni was intrigued and inspired by the startup culture and start

We recently hosted a webcast conversation where Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, spoke with Aaron Levy, Founder and CEO of Raise The Bar about the need for better leaders, unlocking potential, and psychological safety in today's shifting marketplace. In Aaron and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - How leaders are made and not born, meaning good leadership is a trainable skill. - The iteration process Aaron went through to develop a product focused on leadership development. - Why an environment of emotional safety is so important and how to create this in your workplace. And much, much, more… Aaron Levy has always been intrigued by human behavior. Specifically why, when we [as humans] know better, why don’t we do better? “People don’t go from knowledge to action,” Aaron says, “and that’s always baffled me.” This observation and led Aaron to study the science of behavior change and how it applied to the world around him. In work and in life, he constantly observed and studied people, bot

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Jessica Korthuis, Founder and Chief Brand Strategist at SOHUIS, and Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, to discuss how you can incorporate lean into your marketing and brand strategy. In Jessica and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - What companies should do before making the decision to rebrand. - Tools and exercises that can help you execute a successful brand strategy. - How to validate the brand strategy you implemented actually worked. And much, much more… Jessica Korthuis started her first company with her husband after her corporate dream job was eliminated. She didn’t have a ton of experience helping entrepreneurs brand themselves but she had a lot of experience in marketing communications and a can-do spirit. “We built this super-crappy website and then poof, we just started our first agency,” Jessica said. The agency grew organically to include such clients as TED Women, Red Bull and Stanford University, but was completely bootstr

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member Elliot Susel, and Aviv Stern, Chief Data Officer at Social Point, a gaming company, to discuss using lean analytics in mobile game development. Don’t have time for the full webcast now? Catch the webcast highlights and tips from their conversation in our companion blog below. Aviv got started working for Fortune 100 companies in a corporate environment in data back when data analytics was called “business intelligence,” he said. No matter what you call it, Aviv said the goal of analytics is finding a way to use data to benefit a business. Aviv praised the Lean Startup method for being intrinsically data driven, a good selling point when you’re trying to convince founders or a small product team to invest in data analytics. “Each of the stages, like build, measure, learn, has integrated into it [a] data-intrinsic approach,” Aviv pointed out. Convincing product development teams to do A/B testing early on—in which you put

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Kris Newcomer, Executive Director at The Firefly Sisterhood, and Marilyn Gorman, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Lead, on using Lean Startup methods to launch a successful non-profit as well as make positive changes outside of the business world. In Kris and Marilyn’s conversation, they discuss: - How Kris found The Lean Startup book and then used it to launch The Firefly Sisterhood nonprofit. - How the methodology helped her move forward and make decisions despite not knowing all the information. - How they used “Pivot or Persevere” as they were building their organization. And much, much more… Kris Newcomer is the first to admit that she became the Executive Director of Firefly Sisterhood — a non-profit organization that connects women recently diagnosed with breast cancer with inspirational survivors — by being in the right place at the right time. The idea for the non-profit originally came from an internal competition at General Mills called “The Big Bold

We recently hosted the third webcast episode of a mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners on Lean Startup in the hard sciences where we spoke with Jason Whaley from Rhapsody and Chris Thoen, former CTO of Givaudan, the world’s largest flavor and fragrance company and former Managing Director of Open Innovation at Procter & Gamble. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member Hisham Ibrahim. In Hisham, Chris, and Jason’s conversation, they discuss: - How to bring the small startup mentality to big corporations - The importance of ambidexterity in leaders so they can maintain the right balance between managing the core business and continuing to innovate - The importance of open innovation in order for companies to grow in today's fast-paced marketplace And much, much more... Chris Thoen spent nearly the entirety of his 32-year career working in science and innovation, and he’s done so while deftly balancing between working for large corporations and small startups - often finding ways to

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Mark Graban, Author, Professional Speaker, and Consultant, and Marilyn Gorman, Faculty Lead at Lean Startup Co., focused on the importance of metrics and how visualizing data can help foster better learning and more improvement for your organization. In Marilyn and Mark’s conversation, they discuss: - Why you shouldn’t react equally to every uptick or downturn in a business metric. - How to distinguish between signal and noise in metrics and respond accordingly, which includes not overreacting. - How to use “Process Behavior Charts” to make better management decisions. And much, much more... The Lean Startup Conference 2018 is sold out but you can still catch all the keynote talks with our free live stream (Nov 14-16). Sign up here: https://lsp.formstack.com/forms/livestream_registration_2018 For the past twenty years, Mark Graban, author of the book "Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More" and senior advisor to the software company Ka

We recently hosted a conversation between Lars Lofgren, Senior Director of Growth at I Will Teach You To Be Rich, and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., about implementing lean product development into your organization and how to choose the right value proposition. In Lars and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss: - How Lars moved the company from a rigid waterfall product development process to a more lean approach. - Why the most important part of the product development process is choosing the right value proposition. - How to choose the right value proposition through customer interviews, surveys, and AB testing. And much, much more… When Lars came on to I Will Teach You To Be Rich, the company was engaged in a waterfall approach to product development where they released a bunch of courses at once and hoped they’d make “a bunch of money,” he said. The process had some hits, but just as many misses, and he knew it was time to make some changes. As his role shifted from generating new l

Our Lean Startup Conference is just a few weeks away, and this week we were lucky enough to host a conversation with one of our keynote speakers, Noam Wasserman, author of the bestselling book The Founder’s Dilemmas, and the author of the new book Life Is a Startup. Noam spoke with Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, Elliot Susel, about the overlap in founder and life lessons and the importance of proactively tackling those issues in our business and personal lives. In Elliot and Noam’s conversation, they discuss: - Why focusing on people decisions is just as important as product. - Key business lessons we can learn from founders and how we can apply those same lessons to our personal lives. - The importance of doing research well. And much, much more… It was still early in his career when Noam Wasserman recognized the importance of focusing on the people around you. He was just starting out as an engineer when he noticed a pattern. “If we focused on anyone besides ourselves….it was the customers, and a ke

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Sonali Shetty, Entrepreneur & Founder of Kova Digital and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., focused on innovation and why it’s so important to speak to your customers early and often. In Elliot and Sonali’s conversation, they discuss: - The three major types of innovation. - The importance of making it someone’s job in your company to work on innovation. - Why it’s important to speak to your customers early and often to learn about what they want and need. And much, much more… About ten years ago, Sonali Shetty recognized an approaching shift in the way companies could interact with their customers. Apple had just opened the app store, social media was on the rise, and Facebook had opened up their API to third party app developers. All of a sudden, companies could now directly communicate with their customers and client base. It was a new frontier. “I wanted to...educate [startups and corporations] on what this change meant for them and ho

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Matt Candler, Founder & CEO of 4.0 Schools, and Marilyn Gorman, Faculty Lead at Lean Startup Co., about how lean principles are being used in education. In Marilyn and Matt’s conversation, they discuss: - How early assumptions about what your customers want can hurt your credibility and waste time. - Why it’s important to know the problem you are trying to solve, and then having the courage to experiment in a small way. - The importance of building something for a customer segment rather than a one-size-fits all product for everyone. And much, much more... Seven years ago, 4.0 Schools founder and CEO Matt Candler set out to change the future of schooling. As a lifelong educator, he recognized that innovations in education were few and far between and that the people who were best able to come up with new, groundbreaking ways to reach and teach the students, parents, and members of our communities, were the educators themselves. So 4.0 Schools was created

We recently hosted a conversation between Mikael Cho, Co-Founder & CEO of Unsplash, and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., about how Unsplash put community at the center of their product. In Elliot and Mikael’s conversation, they discuss: - How starting with something small and high quality can lead to something much bigger. - How to encourage your community to participate in your product design. - Why it’s important to make “being useful” your first priority instead of making money. - The importance of trusting your intuition but also seeking feedback. - And much, much more... Co-Founder & CEO of the photo-sharing startup, Unsplash, Mikael Cho, spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Elliot Susel, about how a simple problem with photo access filled the needs of a community of photo lovers. The most successful startups often tap into an unfulfilled need that nobody has gotten around to filling. Unsplash did just that in the photography space. Mikael, who comes from the design industry

We recently hosted the second episode on a mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners on Lean Startup in the hard sciences where we spoke with Jason Whaley, General Partner at Rhapsody and Jeff Uhrig, CEO of Sirrus. Rhapsody is a venture capital firm that specializes in startups in the hard sciences, and Sirrus is a Cincinnati-based developer of novel chemicals that will reduce the time, energy requirements and environmental footprint of many manufacturing processes. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Hisham Ibrahim about how they were able to take smart steps to successfully build - and sell - Sirrus in just five years and how believing in themselves is an important part of the process. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education

We recently hosted a conversation between Jensen and Elliot focused on taking the leap from a big company to launching a start-up and the differences between those two company cultures. In 2014, Jensen Harris had a conversation with Kieran Snyder about their mutual dissatisfaction with writing software. “Here we are, 40 years into the post typewriter era, and still, all the software [we have] to write [does] the same thing a typewriter did,” he says. So, sixteen years into his career at Microsoft, Jensen Harris decided it was time to set out and try something new: launch his own startup. “Although I loved much of what I was doing...I felt like it was time to make a change,” he says. So Jensen and Kieran decided to go for it. They quit their big corporate jobs and set out to raise seed money for Textio - augmented writing software that uncovers meaningful patterns in language to help you know how your words are going to work and guides you to stronger communication in your writing. “It’s the biggest advance

We recently hosted a conversation between Hisham, Aidan, and Carsten about how Lean Startup is applied in the hard sciences. This is part one of a new mini-series we’re doing with Rhapsody Venture Partners. Our first conversation focuses on the startup, Hazel Technologies. Carsten Boers is Managing Partner of Rhapsody Venture Partners, and Aidan Mouat is Co-Founder and CEO of Hazel Technologies. Their two companies meet at the intersection between science and entrepreneurship. Rhapsody is a venture capital firm that specializes in startups in the hard sciences, and Hazel Technologies makes products that improve the shelf life and quality of produce when stored. They spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Hisham Ibrahim about how they work together as “a well-oiled machine,” as Carsten puts it, and the lessons that have emerged from the process. Email us: education@leanstartup.co Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup https://leanstartup.co/education/

Gone are the days when Lean Startup was used only by two guys in a garage. The methods have gone mainstream and are being practiced in industries across the globe. To date, our Lean Startup Co. Education Program Faculty have coached more than 30 teams from intelligence agencies including the NSA and NGA. In this webcast, hear from Erin Bugg of the NSA, their Lean Startup Co. coach Marilyn Gorman, and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Co., Heather McGough, who discuss the transformation of the Agency culture around the pillar of innovation. Topics include: getting stakeholder buy-in and challenges in facing bureaucracy, making decisions at speed underpinned by data, delivering value to customers, translating the method across disciplines, and more. Email us: education@leanstartup.CO Follow Lean Startup Co. @leanstartup Follow Department of Defense @DeptofDefense Heather McGough can be reached on Twitter @UrbanitySF www.leanstartup.co/education

Lean Startup Week 2016 Highlights by Lean Startup

We all want to make product decisions backed by good data. But you can’t just A/B test your way to success: Whether you’re just incubating a new project and starting from zero, or you’re spinning wheels feeling mired in too much noise, learn how to leverage empathetic design to find and focus on needs your customers care about – and build exceptional products. Tom Nguyen, Principal at Adobe and co-creator of Adobe Spark, shares real-world examples and actionable best practices to help you apply constraints, powerful stories, and a growth mindset to align your team and spark success for your organization.