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Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

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Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#11
post #2

I'm curious to have a look - I ordered mine a few weeks ago. I was a bit disappointed by Eric Ries' book - after reading "Start Small, Stay Small", I've grown even less interested in hand wavy, "big picture" business books, and want more practical advice of stuff I can do. I'm not a huge company that wants to hire Eric to help me 'get lean'. I'm one guy working alone with limited time, and really appreciate it when a…

David we're in the same boat: i've read Rob Walling's "Start small stay small" and other stuff on the net and now I'm thinkin about this Steve Blank book, hoping it will help to develop the Customer part of the project i'm thinkin about.

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#12
post #2

I'm curious to have a look - I ordered mine a few weeks ago. I was a bit disappointed by Eric Ries' book - after reading "Start Small, Stay Small", I've grown even less interested in hand wavy, "big picture" business books, and want more practical advice of stuff I can do. I'm not a huge company that wants to hire Eric to help me 'get lean'. I'm one guy working alone with limited time, and really appreciate it when a…

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It. They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example.

Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#13
Watch out for the dark UX pattern on the page. There are 2 ways to buy the book from Amazon.

The first button is $39.99 + $5 shipping.

The second button is $26.40 + free shipping.

Here's an image to show you which link does what: https://img.skitch.com/20120330-bumpat24ar3dg3um252k59ndfd.p...

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#14
post #2

I'm curious to have a look - I ordered mine a few weeks ago. I was a bit disappointed by Eric Ries' book - after reading "Start Small, Stay Small", I've grown even less interested in hand wavy, "big picture" business books, and want more practical advice of stuff I can do. I'm not a huge company that wants to hire Eric to help me 'get lean'. I'm one guy working alone with limited time, and really appreciate it when a…

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It . They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example. Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

I'm just discovering the lean startup methodology, and I was wondering which book (or other resource) is best for an overview of the methodology, as applied for a small startup, from a very practical point of view.

Start Small Stay Small was very close, but it did not espouse much Customer Development.

As you point out, it's not Eric Ries book. I suspect it's not Steve Blank's Manual, as it's more of a reference. Maybe the Manual has a brief overview as well ? I mean, to use it as a reference, you first need to understand the method and what to look out for.

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#15
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It . They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example. Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

I'm just discovering the lean startup methodology, and I was wondering which book (or other resource) is best for an overview of the methodology, as applied for a small startup, from a very practical point of view. Start Small Stay Small was very close, but it did not espouse much Customer Development. As you point out, it's not Eric Ries book. I suspect it's not Steve Blank's Manual, as it's more of a reference. May…

I'd start with Nail it, Then Scale It.

Specifically for customer development, I'd check out The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany.

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#16
post #2

I'm curious to have a look - I ordered mine a few weeks ago. I was a bit disappointed by Eric Ries' book - after reading "Start Small, Stay Small", I've grown even less interested in hand wavy, "big picture" business books, and want more practical advice of stuff I can do. I'm not a huge company that wants to hire Eric to help me 'get lean'. I'm one guy working alone with limited time, and really appreciate it when a…

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It . They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example. Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

This looks like a rip off of Ash's Maurya's Running Lean: http://www.runningleanhq.com/

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It . They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example. Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

This looks like a rip off of Ash's Maurya's Running Lean: http://www.runningleanhq.com/

Except it seems to have been published before Ash Maurya's.

Re: Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For practical advice, I'd strongly recommend Nail it, Then Scale It . They go as far as including exactly call scripts / emails to send, for example. Eric's book seemed more like marketing material for lean targeted at big cos who have no idea what it is.

This looks like a rip off of Ash's Maurya's Running Lean: http://www.runningleanhq.com/

Steve Blank has been in the StartUp world for decades, just check his about page: http://steveblank.com/about/

And compare it to the author you're talkin about http://www.ashmaurya.com/about/ that clearly states in his page "In late 2009, I ran into into Steve Blank’s lectures on “Customer Development” from where I followed the trail to Eric Ries’ early ideas of the Lean Startup."

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