Lean? Did you mean Learn?
I'm having a hard time building my first startup, Xtremgo. Why? Because I had to reset my brain. I discovered lean. Aka startup 101.
I started writing a loooong post about it as I decided to enter the AppSumo Lean Challenge. But I ended up thinking it would be better to go to the point. The lean way ;)
Photo credit: Red Bull Illume, 2010.
BEFORE MARCH '10:
- I wanted to create a Facebook/Amazon/whatever for extreme sports;
- I only had assumptions;
- I spent a whole year working on a business plan and studied tons of market studies;
- I didn't build any working prototype, just some Photoshop mockups showing a zillion features;
- I was able to say that I would generate X M€ revenue in Year 5;
- I maybe talked to 1 person who could have been interested in my idea.
IN MARCH '10:
- I entered The Founder Institute Spring semester in Paris, France (900km each week to go there, as I'm living in Andorra -> people said I was crazy, I prefer to think that I'm freaking persevering!);
- I pitched my initial idea to Adeo Ressi. He listened carefully. Then he killed it. (Best quote ever: "Why don't you test it right now? Set up a fake page, spend $50 in Adwords, and wait for visits. If you get some, it'll tell you something.").
A whole year killed in 5 minutes. Boom! So I decided to RESET MY BRAIN.
AFTER MARCH '10:
- we refreshed the concept, focusing on a marketplace for adventure week-ends;
- we started learning from scratch how to run a startup (thanks Twitter, for giving me the opportunity to discover Steven Blank, Mark Suster, Eric Ries, Ash Maurya, 37 Signals…);
- we started building a prototype focusing on a MVP;
- we hired a technical cofounder;
- we engaged with our community to get as much feedback as possible;
- we made our first sales;
- we won a 100k€ prize in a startup contest.
So what? Lean saved us and it's another fairy tale about startups? Hell no. Lean startup is amazing. But it's freaking difficult as a newbee.
LESSONS LEARNED:
- Leopard cannot changed its spots. Culture, school heritage… Unfortunately, the whole package has not disappeared! It's a long process, and it's easy to leave the lean path;
- Go outside. Gather feedback and suggestions. Say thanks. Not yes. We ended up developing features for one early adopter that nobody wanted to use later. Ridiculous;
- Keep efficiency everywhere. We spent way too much time (like months!) on design, without adding real value. Stay neat, run A/B tests. Period;
- Be your first user. To understand how you have to deliver. I was so much focused on building Xtremgo that I stopped doing adventure sports. I lost connection with the basics;
- Focus on creating value. Bootstrapping is key, as raising money (at least here in Europe) is freaking time-consuming. If you're having hard time to keep high standard on delivering your service, that's a good sign. Investors will come faster, as you'll have metrics to sex it up;
- At first, do things you won't scale. We spent too much time thinking how to build a scalable service from day one. Learn first, by any way. Then analyze and iterate;
- Retention, not Revenue is the Ultimate Validation (Ash Maurya). Don't focus on sales for the money as we did first, but rather understand why people are using your service, and how to lock them in (there are hundreds of tools to help you that way, at a *cheap* cost - thanks AppSumo);
- Be eager to learn. From mentors, peers. Twitter makes it that easy to engage with people all around the world. Don't miss it;
- Human is the biggest asset, do not underestimate it. If something goes wrong in the team, act quickly. I delayed hard decisions when we hit internal issues, and I ended up loosing the 2/3 of my team;
- Keep passion at the top. It's your startup fuel. Without it, you cannot change the world…
Lean startup is taking a huge hype right know. I'm happy as I'm really convinced it's the perfect way to do. But guys, it's not easy as a ON/OFF switch. Be careful about that. Either way, go on! To quote Mark Suster, just f*cking do it!
Matt.
