Introduction Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses (Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, 2011) became one of the most hyped books in the startup scene in 2011 and was predicted to “change everything” (Blank, 2013). Through its new perspective on how startups could be build. The basic approach of being lean in building startups was originally mentioned in 2008 for entrepreneurs in the software business, but became known beyond these border with the publication of Ries’ book. The Lean startup approach describes the creation of a startup using as little capital as possible to successfully …show more content…
Commonalities and similarities in the arguments across them will be valued as indicators of the argument’s validity. As there are already plenty of reports favoring the Lean Startup, this paper will have a biased look on its flaws. Lean startup and Lean Manufacturing – the unequal same? In early 2013, Ries once said in a Q&A session that the closest analogy of the Lean Startup Movement is Lean Manufacturing. (Ries, 2013). Lean Manufacturing originated in Toyota’s Production System (TPS), a socio-technical System developed by Toyota which’s goals are to eliminate progress waste while throughout providing high quality products (Toyotal-Global, n.d.) It is a way to produce slimly/lean and use resources efficiently to ultimately increase the value for the customer. Ries claims that the Lean Startup Approach also strives to reduce waste and increase efficiency (Ries, …show more content…
Especially companies with audacious goals have to hit the market at one point with force (Mougayar, 2013), to “get the rocket into space” (Andreessen, 2012). Lean Startup favors all small steps, incremental innovation and continuous improvements (Ries, The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, 2011). But as one won’t launch a plane until perfectly crafted - some products need to be presented as a whole to convince customers and assert on the market (see inferior products). LSU in Web 2.0 startups If one considers to be a startup manufacturer, Lean Startup makes little sense. The LSU approach stems its advantages from being cheap in failure and iteration. The manufacturing of prototypes is an expensive endeavor. Being forced to repeatedly build new prototypes after a new round of iteration (and that is what it means to be in alignment with the LSU approach) is a monetary duty no startup can afford (Pelling, 2011).