Is Building a Lean Startup Worth the Effort?
The concept of Lean Startup is now about 10 years old and many startups have chosen to be lean while trying out the concept. Has the concept and theory been proven correct or has it been a futile effort?
What is a Lean Startup?
A lean startup mentality is one where the founders choose to get the product or service into the hands of the consumer faster than a traditional startup would. Lean businesses operate on reduced costs and are consistently refining the overall vision as the company is bringing in money from the earliest stages of business.
Most businesses spend years working on refining a product or service before allowing it to be sold to the end user. Tons of money is spent on research and development while no money is being brought in to offset business costs. These companies operate at a loss for years until the product or service has been fully vetted and is ready for release to the public.
Why Use the Lean Startup Concept?
The lean startup concept allows for businesses to test their theories while making money instead of blowing tons of money on research and development. Each time a new development happens with your product or service, you can receive feedback fairly immediately from live customers that are using what you have provided. With research and development in a lab, you have no live feedback from customers and could end up wasting a bunch of money on developing something that doesn’t end up meeting the customers needs.
Common Misconceptions
- That all lean startups have a “just do it” thought process. The truth is that startups can have ordered processes in place rather than disordered chaos.
- Lean means just spending less money than traditional startups do. The truth is that lean startups are about testing a vision, not just about keeping costs low.
- Startups operating on a lean methodology are not just about “failing fast and failing cheap.” Lean startup founders and managers develop processes and implement them to get the ball rolling faster for the company. Continuous innovation is the name of the game for lean startups.
Bootstrapping
Working smarter, not working harder is why most startups with lean processes attempt to build sustainable businesses for the long term rather than play around with the idea of whether or not the idea is a good one to begin with.
Bootstrapping is starting a business part time and using a smaller number of resources with the intention of having an established customer base already once production and sales are in full swing! As time goes on, more resources are added and then employees as the project is built and gains forward momentum.
Is building a lean startup a good way to go about building a business from the ground up? From experience, yes! Lean startups consume less financial resources and less time before seeing a profit while allowing you to test out your business theory and make corrections based upon live customer feedback as you go.
Would love to hear your thoughts on lean startups vs traditional growth businesses!
Thanks for reading,