Reddit reviews The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
We found 14 Reddit comments about The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
I'm an artist. Basically... I paint when the surf is flat. I spend a ton of time in the water.
Before art I ran my own small web design firm. Actually, for a semester back in college I considered heading the law route as well. Incredibly happy that I didn't go that direction. All in all I've been working for myself for the past 4 years. I can't imagine going back to a structured 9 to 5. I live walking distance from my favorite break and get in the water damn near every day.
I was always told working for yourself was "too risky", but I encourage you to consider it if you're looking for something that will allow you to hit the water as much as possible. Might be getting carried away here, but the two books that truly helped me take the plunge are Crush It! and (more recently) The Lean Startup.
Happy to answer any other questions on the subject. Hate seeing people waste time doing things they hate.
That's nice to hear... Anyway, what I'd consider a very relevant reading from a Dogecoin perspective is Lean Startup by Eric Ries.
What has happened with Doge is that it has, so far, failed to make the jump from early adopters to mainstream consumers. Which is a bigger problem than with any other coin, as pretty much the mission statement of Doge is to be a friendly crypto, a "crypto of the masses". So Doge has so far failed its primary mission statement.
Thing with early adopters is that we're forgiving. We use google. We're techies and hackers, and can do hacks. A developer with an early adopter mindset might completely misread the priorities of a mainstream consumer.
I remember asking about the MultiDoge instability here, and an experienced shibe said that MultiDoge shouldn't really be used, and most shibes get by with an online wallet and paper wallets... Well that's nice and all, but that isn't what's written on [dogecoin.com].
And you might say "who cares what is written there", but the fact is, the mainstream consumer cares. The mainstream consumer cares about stuff like missing icons, like being "recommended" a download that doesn't work absolutely seamlessly, like the "About" tab of Core still saying Litecoin (might have been fixed since, been a while since I saw that), etc.
They hear about Doge, think Doge is awesome, go to dogecoin.com, and for reasons such as pointed out above, quickly decide it's either "not ready yet", or "is abandoned", and we lose them for good.
One of the best business books I've read about how to methodically test and validate business ideas is "The Lean Startup" by Eric Reis (https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6?ie=UTF8&btkr=1&ref_=dp-kindle-redirect). His advice is simple but very powerful if used appropriately. But as far as the idea block you're experiencing... don't worry about it! A truly novel and original idea is exceedingly rare. Most successful companies were not the first to think of something, they just did it better than everyone else. Google wasn't the first search engine. Facebook wasn't the first social network. So don't let the fact someone else is already doing it slow you down! Look at it as validation it's a market worth getting into and then figure out what the incumbents are doing wrong : )
In general, when it comes to things like SEO, SEM, etc you are better off sticking with blogs and content sites like SEOMoz, Marketing Sherpa, and Danny Sullivan/Search Engine World. By the time a book is written it's usually out of date in these fields.
AKA: Lean Startup
Great book. Great methodology. Very applicable to gamedev. Would recommend.
Almost zero businesses can be started with zero dollars upfront investment. That said, start cheap. Don't make 500 iPhone cases, make 1 iPhone case, take a LOT of pictures of it, and see how many people preorder it, then make that many, or cancel the preorder (and return the money!) if it doesn't look like enough orders to be worth your time.
/u/leolani recommended the lean startup method. I really, really think you should check that out. A lot of the questions you're asking here are directly addressed by the book.
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6/
Basically though, the goal is to figure out the minimum viable way to move forward. What is the minimum it take to validate a concept? What does it take to make a minimal proof of concept after that validation? What is the minimum required to market that proof of concept to get sales? All those questions are answered in the book, and I promise you you'll learn from it.
Apply the scientific method to company building - first described by Steve Blank and Eric Reis with is "Lean Startup" concept:
https://steveblank.com/2015/05/06/build-measure-learn-throw-things-against-the-wall-and-see-if-they-work/
​
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1543001422&sr=8-3&keywords=the+lean+startup
No investor is going to give you money to build an app from an idea. That's just not how it works. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and the only time this happens is with serial founders who have started (and successfully exited) several companies before. If you've never built a multi-million dollar business, you aren't getting VC money without a MVP (minimum viable product), strong user growth, and a solid team of cofounders.
If you want to make your idea a reality, take some online courses in app development and design. Build it yourself. Put it out there and see if people use it. Use strategies in The Lean Startup to grow users, revenue or whatever KPI is most important to getting investors.
Also, about "partnering" with someone who knows how to build apps... as someone who previously ran a digital agency we used to get that all the time. I can't tell you how many "potential clients" came in and pitched us on their "billion dollar idea" wanting to give us 2, 3, 5% if we would spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in development up front. The answer was always no. If we really wanted to build an app startup we would have done it internally, not for a small insignificant percentage of a company where we didn't even know the founders.
I'm not trying to burst your bubble, but the answer is always "just do it." Just build it. Just try it yourself. Free and easy money (even investment capital) just doesn't exist out there. If you want it bad enough you'll figure out a way to build it.
I would be careful going down this route. Before spending your savings , you need to validate if the idea even works. I've been in the startup world and you need an MVP (minimum viable product) or a way to vet the idea for cheap.
Read this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6
Here is a good read about the startup environment and the challenges they face. Author is a former exec. Best of luck in the interview!
The Lean Startup
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004J4XGN6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1569879228&sr=8-3
This book explains it https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation-ebook/dp/B004J4XGN6/
You can find loads of summaries and blog posts on the internet. The book is very popular.
I agree - seems like a lack of direction is what hinders you, rather than a tech choice. I would recommend reading the following "bibles" of product development
The Lean Startup
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4XGN6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
​
Inspired
https://www.amazon.com/Inspired-Create-Products-Customers-Love/dp/0981690408
​
These books are very accessible and will get you up to speed really quickly.
Thanks! I'll check it out.
Right now the business is going alright. It's been a side hussle and brings in around 3-5k a month, but only leaves me a paycheck of around 750-1,250/month.
Honestly the only thing holding us back is production size and logistics. Thing is I need to buy a bigger local and get it certified, which costs more mullah that I could possibly save in the short term. . .
Here is the book in Amazon for future reference
I don't know if this is still a big deal, but a few years ago it was all about The Lean Startup by Eric Ries (spanish paperback edition) (kindle edition). I work with startups all the time, and the terminology is definitely part of the nomenclature now. I don't usually read these sorts of books, but I read this one and it was fairly reasonable.