cyberlaxamana

by Douglas Romanoff Eric Ries champions the Lean Start Up Methodology as a means for entrepreneurs to more efficiently manage financial and human resources while increasing their odds of success. At the root of his approach is the idea that entrepreneurs should measure progress in units of validated learning, rapidly iterating through build‐measure‐learn cycles designed to test hypotheses and refine business model elements. By avoiding excessive subjectivity, and instead gathering empirical and measurable evidence, the entrepreneur operates with less risk and more cost effectiveness. Although Toyota’s management philosophy is credited as the inspiration for lean concepts, the true origins of the approach lie in a discipline outside the realm of business. The Scientific Method has served as the gold standard of systematic inquiry for chemists, biologists, and physicists over many centuries. According to its tenets, researchers should gradually refine elements of a scientific model thr...

by Arun Agarwal (Twitter: @arun_agarwal ) Recently I had the opportunity to take Launching Technology Ventures with Tom Eisenmann at the Harvard Business School, and learn the latest and greatest about the process for building capital efficient startups using the “lean methodology.” Lean is a movement started by Eric Ries that encourages entrepreneurs to design cheap experiments to test their products and positioning in the marketplace and get real data, rather than relying on the founder’s grand vision which can often lead to building a business that is 10, 90, or 180 degrees off from actual market needs. My project for the course involved a “science-based” hardware business. I worked with a university professor in Switzerland to spin a fundamental technology out if his lab that we believe could revolutionize on-chip and off-chip digital communications. Tools and techniques that lean methodology suggests using include highly agile product development cycles, launching early, build...

by Joyce Chan My experience in biotech has taught me one thing: this business is complicated!  Believe it or not, figuring out the science behind the function of a molecule or chemical pathway is the “easy” part.  Though it involves countless hours and the dedicate talent of brilliant scientists, the research portion is methodical, rational, organized.   Monetizing a drug or diagnostic involves the buy in of a dizzying number of decision makers (investors, payors, providers, regulators, etc), each with their own assumptions, expectations, and opinions.   Much like a high maintenance boyfriend, a lean biotech startup needs the nurturing care of an understanding and patient partner that is willing to guide and put up with the drama in hopes that one day, he’ll pay off. Changing Him Is Hard and Takes A Lot of Time Most lean startups are flexible. We see iterations of the new product within months of customer feedback.   Facebook has continuously it...

by Richard Zhu  We had a very interesting cleantech case in HBS Launching Tech Ventures course this week – Aquion Energy: a novel energy storage firm using lean start-up techniques despite its long product development cycle. So different from consumer internet business, Cleantech companies don’t have much chance to pivot; they don’t have many opportunities to test their product with users; product development is so science and engineering driven that it is very time and capital-demanding. Compared to the cases we had on internet, especially social networks, starting-up in cleantech is like a long cold winter: you really need to figure out how to survive this brutal weather before embracing beautiful spring and summer. (Yeah, that’s what HBS can teach you by locating at Boston!) Couples of thoughts on how to survive: Polar bear or tree frog: who is born to survive the winter? We talked a lot about founder-product fit in the past cases. The right experience, skill, and knowledge are ...