We are delighted to partner with Springboard to bring you the UK launch of Eric Ries’ ‘Lean Startup’. Springboard bring a great wealth of experience in all things ‘entrepreneurship’, are longstanding evangelists of ‘Lean Startup’ principles and are all about those people that ‘do’, rather than ‘talk’ startups. Springboard’s very own Joséphine Goube muses on Eric’s bestseller.
“Until recently I had not read the Lean Startup book. I was not being lazy, nor am I too busy: I am just reluctant to read business theory in general. Especially when it is about entrepreneurship. It is good to fail; why would you not want me to try it out for myself and learn? Failures are often great stories to tell when you have healed and recovered from them. How could I know that I could not handle spicy food if I did not try my friend’s Saarthak’s indian food? Moreover, experiences are unique; they are different for each of us. When my friend Saarthak was eating his dish, I was red and indulging in liters of water. Sometimes, it’s faster to feel the theory than to learn it.
However, I cannot resist any longer to ignore the Lean Startup book and eventually I read it. How can I fight against such a fierce marketing campaign anyway? At first, as a native French speaker, I didn’t understand it and thought it was a concept related to startups in the fitness sector. I was fine not understanding. Then, everyone was talking about it. Not just Eric Ries and #leanstartup tweeters, not just the entrepreneurs I meet and work with: even my close friends. The day my roommate woke me up saying “you have to read this, it will change your life”, I knew I had to read it.
Eric Ries is a magician. He has succeeded in charming all my circles of friends to make them believe that he has found the genome of entrepreneurship. Or maybe he is just a normal guy (just super smart), and has made a ‘science what was an art’ (dixit Marc Andresseen).
How do we know if his book is wrong or right? Well, as a matter of fact he has succeeded in making everyone talk about the concept of the lean startup – regardless whether he is right or wrong, he wins: like a self-fulfilling prophecy, startups are thinking lean.”
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