Lean Startups

Aspiring entrepreneur Ranga Yarlagadda had a rare  opportunity to attend a "Lean Startup" event this past weekend in LA. He tells us that it was a mind-blowing experience that really altered his perspective in several ways.

He put together a quick note (see below) sharing his thoughts and insights. We felt that this would be of great utility to anyone about to start-up and hence, here it is:


What was the event about?

Ø According to the website "Lean Startup Machine is a three-day workshop where attendees use Customer Development and Lean Startup principles to validate an idea for a new product or service"

Ø The goal is to build a Minimum Viable Product - the minimum amount of effort you have to do to complete exactly one turn of the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop.

Ø The winner of the event is defined as "The team that shows, through evidence, the most customer validation for a new product or service."



What did I learn?

Ø SO, YOU HAVE AN IDEA? An idea in itself is worth NOTHING. Ideas are dime a dozen these days, lots of people have lots of ideas, and everything you ever possibly thought of, someone has for sure thought about it. ACT on your idea, let it take a life of its own a.k.a let it out and see what is possible!

Ø YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE CUSTOMER? Trying to really really understand the customer is imperative. If you can get a customer to really explain to you what the problem is, what he thinks should be done about it, that is GOLD. We all think we know how to do market research (at least I did), by fielding surveys and questionnaires, but go talk to REAL people on the street and they will almost always have some interesting insights. Folks in the lean community call it, "Get Out of The Building" or GOOBing. Cliched but rarely ever taken care of before building something.


Ø DON'T SPEND YOUR LIFE ON SOMETHING NO ONE WANTS! Do NOT persevere if what you're solving/building is not painful enough. People love telling stories about how they ate frozen food, slept on friends couches, roughed it out when it was tough and went on to strike GOLD. These make for amazing media stories that people love to read, but the real trick is to know when to walk away and when to persevere.

Ø BE A PIRATE! Do whatever it takes to make it, because the only time anyone cares is when you make it, otherwise no one gives a damn! Just to give you an example, we created fake landing pages among other things that were endorsed by reputed brands and names, did they sue us? Of course not! Do they know? I doubt! Did it drive traffic? Maybe! Like my friend said, I am not promising you that I will take you to the moon, but as long as it's in the "possible" realm, DO IT!

Ø TOO MANY COOKS SPOIL THE BROTH! We were a team of five, all smart and insightful in our own unique way, but it is a nightmare to quickly agree on something and execute! Agreed, there wasn't enough time to gel, but I think it's best to have lots of advisors (it's free and you don't have to take them seriously if you think otherwise) initially and 2-3 people at the most involved in building a company. 

Ø YOU CAN BUILD A COMPANY OVER THE WEEKEND! Yes, that is right, you heard me, if I did it over the weekend, anyone can. It really is that simple. What a lot of people (with fulltime jobs) struggle with is this notion that they are busy in their "real" jobs and that they need to quit to start something substantial. Complete BS! So stop giving yourself (and the rest of the world) excuses and commit to doing something. I'm not saying it's easy, but a little commitment goes a long way you know!

Ø YOU CAN GET CUSTOMERS TO PAY WITHOUT HAVING DONE ANYTHING! Say what? That is correct! Don't spend six months building the "latest and greatest" version. Stick to the basics and always ask yourself, what is the least I can do to satisfy/acquire a customer? And then, always exceed their expectations, get their feedback, and iterate.



What do I plan to do?

Ø TAKE ACTION! Easier said than done, but this is at the heart of LEAN. It is a call to action to quickly run "business experiments" to test your hypothesis. And this can be done without a team!

Ø INVALIDATE MY ASSUMPTIONS! This one is hard to swallow, but you have to learn to quickly know if your assumptions are right or wrong. And if they are wrong, just move on to your next big idea. Trust me the world will be a better place!

Ø NETWORK! NETWORK! Go out and actively seek the people you aspire to become one day. The community thrives on this! No matter how busy their lives are, they always WANT to everyone around them to succeed. It is incredible how much you can learn over a cup of coffee from a few folks.

You can reach out to Ranga at https://www.facebook.com/ranga.yarlagadda

Ode to an entrepreneur

Starting your own business is a risky thing

We wonder what ideas we can bring 

To ensure that the venture is a success 

And not one where your head is buried in your chest

The entrepreneur actually learns on the job

Over time, the right crowd and he hobnob,

Discuss ways how the business can grow

And how to shut down operations if they are slow.

He takes decisions that are termed as rash

The sceptic thinks that he is full of trash

However, there are a few who believe

And will raise money and make others see

That the project was indeed not a waste

In time, the sceptic will improve his taste

The project will boom for a while 

And the proprietor will travel many a mile

And then one day, when it will arrive

The entrepreneur will have a different drive

The profit made from project one 

Will be used for project two (but he won't be done)

And once again the cycle will go on

And will never stop, but don't think of it as a spawn

It's of course the life of an entrepreneur, you see

Because for him, a life without risk will never be


Addendum by Mukesh, from his experiences: 
You need to go there, and you need to drive.
To drive is all what you should always thrive.
Its not just about to live, but to feel alive. 



Addendum by Sasikanth, from his experiences: 
And like a kid, do not wail
When your first ventures, they all fail
Many such ghosts you have to flay
To make your mark and have a say

Common Sense #Fail

In my previous post I mentioned about writing on 'common sense' later, so here it is.

Entrepreneurship is a lot of learning. A big portion of it is breaking of some of common-sensical myths. It would be a huge help to learn about them beforehand for entrepreneurs (Especially if he/she is getting into business without much of a background of it.)

We observe lot of patterns and rules in life, and after some time we start calling those as common sense (Usually, based on what we think is common. Anyway that's a different point). 

Some examples:

• If you fill a bottle with water it will fill up
• If you drink it, it will get empty and your stomach will fill up
• If you throw a ball up, it would come back

Ok, I'll stop here lest I be labelled silly again.

There are similar ones that a first timer business person would imagine to be just common sense and expect them to be true, but learns the hard way usually:

• If there is an extra work, there will be an extra pay too 
• If you deliver what client wanted and he approves it, you will get paid. 
• When someone says, "We are looking to have a long term association with you", he means it.  (After some initial days we started having a good laugh when someone uttered this line, while bargaining)
• Finance guys will only take as many leave as others. (This one is my favorite. People involved in payment collection would know how many times have they heard "Our finance guy is on leave today")
• People will take email as proof of communication. (Oh yes, this is wrong too)
• Someone who wanted a thing very very urgently, gets it delivered in time, will also make payment in the same very very urgent fashion. 
• You will be paid and valued for things which require mental work   (I was once told work required in conceptualisation and graphic designing in brochure printing was like chutney along with Idli and should be free)

And then I came across this classical quote:

Just because you are vegetarian, it doesn't mean a lion will not eat you.

And it cleared up a lot of things. A lot of things which were not making sense to me earlier, started making sense. And now all of those learnings I mentioned above are just -- common sense :)

Intention is not to dissuade a budding entrepreneur. It is just meant to make him/her aware of what is to come, and reducing the surprises. These are usual issues that all businesses face (Especially in India. More about that later though), and most of them get through. So get yourself prepared, and just go get it.

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My points have been mostly on payments, as it is all about business and business is a lot about money. There are other points too, but these were on top of my head. Will add more when I remember them.

Meanwhile if you have been an entrepreneur, or are currently now, please feel free to add your "common sense items" in comments.