What is Lean Startup?

Lean Startup is a methodology for the development of new business models, one of the most accepted techniques in recent years in the business environment. To understand the success of this methodology, we must first understand what it consists of and what are its advantages for any entrepreneur. This discipline was developed by Eric Ries and it comes in turn from Japan, from “lean manufacturing”: in essence, it invited us to part with all expenses and resources that are not destined to create value for the final consumer, focusing on objectives, thus being more efficient and giving greater value to the fundamental parts of the production chain.

Eric Ries' methodology was born in Silicon Valley, and is based on the creation of a minimum viable product (MVP) that can be activated as soon as possible, a product that will be subject to the final consumer's litmus test and that we will be improving and refining based on the data and measurements resulting from its implementation. The process is fed back into a constant cycle of building a product, measuring data and learning to improve it.

Zappos is a real case and example of the application of this discipline. They were absorbed by Amazon in 2009, but their growth in the middle of the dotcom bubble and their success have a lot to do with the launch methodology. We are talking about the year 1999 when there were serious doubts about whether an online shoe store could succeed. With a very small investment, Nick Swinmurm set up a basic shoe sales page with photos of the products obtained from local stores, and a commitment to serving potential customers online and shipping himself if sales occurred. Once it was verified that the model worked and that there was demand, it was when he developed his business, also taking into account everything he learned in that test phase.

And the thing is that Lean Startup is a cycle designed for entrepreneurs that they cannot take risks of great magnitude, one of their greatest fears and therefore one of the barriers that an entrepreneur faces when approaching their business model. But how does this methodology help to reduce risks in a startup? Basically starting from a experimental model, itinerant and with a validated learning. Take entrepreneurship as an experiment from which we can obtain knowledge, making theory a reality and using the mistakes made as bases from which to learn (save time and money for the company) according to the author of this methodology. We could summarize this philosophy in three fundamental pillars: a minimum viable product, a process and principles. Now, go ahead and start!