startup and a visionary entrepreneur?


By Paul Higgins I


really like the ideas around ‘lean’ methodologies for startups that have been developed from their manufacturing background in Eric Ries’ new book, The Lean Startup, but I don’t think that ‘lean’ is the key to startup growth in every case.


Ries aims to ensure that your startup grows its


customers, its product, its team, its


financials, and its business model in sync: slowly, iteratively, and securely. He argues that expanding markedly along any single axis will lead to wasted investment and ultimately failure:


“startups often accidentally build something that nobody wants...it doesn’t matter much if they do it on time and on budget”


The Startup Genome project produced a report entitled A Deep Dive Into The Anatomy Of Premature Scaling referencing Sequoia Capital-backed startup, Color, which managed to raise $46m in Venture Capital funding before its launch. Startup Genome asserted that Color had grown out of sync because it had a huge PR campaign, a highly- experienced and extensive management team, lots of capital, but no product and no customers.


Can you be a lean


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