Ballad of The Lean Startup

With IMVU not growing
And revenue not flowing
And with piles of cash monthly burning,
They asked “Is it a mess,
Or is it progress?”
Then measured by validated learning.

With their customers confused
Eric’s ego was bruised —
All his basic assumptions were nixed.
They had to unload
All that beautiful code
Before the product could ever be fixed.

“What’s the last six months for,
Tossing my code out the door?”
Asked Eric all in a tizzy.
But he got his first taste
How to eliminate waste,
And make progress instead of just being busy.

You must build and release
So says Eric Ries
Then validate by query, wallet, and churn.
Ruthlessly measure
Though it gives you no pleasure —
That’s the only true way to learn.

So don’t fly blind
Or make up your mind
Stuck to ideas like a Nazi guards soup,
Relax your tight ass
And gather data en masse
To reduce total time through the loop.

Congrats, Eric, on the success of your book. It’s well-deserved.

Contribute more in the comments!


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8 responses to “Ballad of The Lean Startup”

  1. wow….I hear this with a nice acoustic guitar behind it…..strumming softly….say in the key of E! great counterpoint to what I think too too many startups imagine the process to “be” too! #Kudos lad….well done!

  2. Excellent book and the The Lean Startup methodology has so many applications outside of traditional ‘startups’ (as Ries points out)

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