The Lean Startup Review

For most of May and part of June 2017, I have been reading “The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses” by Eric Ries.

Here is someone I can look up to; he is a founder of several startups in Silicon Valley and works closely with many others. I also share a common background with him: undergraduate studies in computer engineering.

It is certainly one of the best business books I have read to date.

Startup vs. Business

For starters, a startup and a business are not exactly the same thing. A startup, unlike a normal business, is set up to solve a need that is still unmet, and its chances of success are often minimal (high uncertainty). Consider Dropbox, which enabled us to store our files online, or WhatsApp, which revolutionised communication.

A traditional business, however, is often a replica of another money-making entity elsewhere. Uganda is lauded as the most entrepreneurial country in the world, but in the world of scalable technology startups, we still have a long way to go.

Continuous Learning

The book emphasises that the great companies of the 21st century will be those that continuously learn from the ground up and keep evolving to create value for their customers.

In this day and age, continuous learning—building, measuring, learning—is the way to go. I hope you can grab yourself a copy too.