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Is the Lean Startup Dead?

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51–60 of 246 posts

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#51
post #8

As a bootstrapper, I see the point of what this article is trying to say. It's been increasingly difficult to create products that can find product market fit/validation and reach a scale where the income justifies the effort. And to top it off, the MVPs are becoming much more full product than simple landing page MVPs of years past -- and all of this requires a lot of capital (time, money, connections, volunteers, e…

> MVPs are becoming much more full product than simple landing page MVPs of years past -- and all of this requires a lot of capital It depends. If you're a developer then it's just your time.

> Just your time

The older you get the more expensive this becomes.

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

youtube leaves a lot to be desired from a quality stand point.

Yet it still has a massive first mover advantage.

The advantage it had was a cavalier approach to piracy iirc. Didn't they use that to bootstrap before going legit?

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#53
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it increasingly difficult? Has something really changed in the past few years?

I'd guess the shift from Desktop to SaaS, the demands of keeping a service running 24/7 are quite high compared to just offering a download.

I was delivering reliable SaaS applications in 1999, and by that time I was already behind the pioneers by 5+ years. So that's not anything new, and on balance I don't think the demands are any higher. Some things have become harder, others easier.

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#54
post #41

How much equity do you need to give away to get VC money for an unproven business idea? Is there a ballpark figure? I heard like $100k for 20% or something but I guess that's more like angel investing? What's the minimum amount of work you need to do before getting money with no track record as a founder?

A common approach is to have friends and family invest $50-250k using a SAFE note with a ~$2M cap (e.g. five $10k checks)

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#55
post #49
post #37

I wish it wasn't so but I do think to the degree you can declare something dead the lean startup is. The problem is that lean startups requires a number of things that aren't accessible anymore. A) Maybe the most important is time. You need time in a good environment to actually develop something. Which has become a lot more costly. B) Large companies are controlling more areas than ever. People often wary of regulat…

>A) Maybe the most important is time. You need time in a good environment to actually develop something. Which has become a lot more costly. Why do you think that is? I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly. >B) Large companies are controlling more areas than ever. People often wary of regulation as a barrier, but as time goes by the market participants creates their own barriers. Many areas are just harder to…

There are small startups born out of targeted smart application of code today that are similar to a lone hacker and sold to Google. eg Graphics Fuzz with it's intelligent code reducer which Google bought to use with Android.

https://www.graphicsfuzz.com/howitworks.html

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#56
post #45
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solo entrepreneurs are not starting a startup, not as I (and most people) understand the term. After all, those thousands of "solo entrepreneurs" are starting things like coffee-shops, restaurants, garages, etc. They're examples of entrepreneurship, sure, but not startups. Startups are specifically organizations that are trying to grow very big, or that are looking to try a new business model. The reason the spotligh…

Pretty interesting how much argument there is against this view on HN. I guess most people coming here now are not familiar with Paul Graham's essay (maybe most HN posters don't even know who Paul Graham is any more) http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html > A startup is a company designed to grow fast. Being newly founded does not in itself make a company a startup. Nor is it necessary for a startup to work on technol…

Interesting how you assume that because Paul Graham wrote that, it is true, and that everyone who thinks differently must not be familiar with what he wrote because surely nobody could disagree with him!

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#58
post #49
post #37

I wish it wasn't so but I do think to the degree you can declare something dead the lean startup is. The problem is that lean startups requires a number of things that aren't accessible anymore. A) Maybe the most important is time. You need time in a good environment to actually develop something. Which has become a lot more costly. B) Large companies are controlling more areas than ever. People often wary of regulat…

>A) Maybe the most important is time. You need time in a good environment to actually develop something. Which has become a lot more costly. Why do you think that is? I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly. >B) Large companies are controlling more areas than ever. People often wary of regulation as a barrier, but as time goes by the market participants creates their own barriers. Many areas are just harder to…

>Why do you think that is? I'm not sure what you're referring to exactly.

Complexity. Consumers demand more complex applications. Platforms have more complex requirements.

Re: Is the Lean Startup Dead?

#59
Lean Startup may or may not be dead but my Boss is going to continue to misuse the term MVP regardless. It pains me to think that this term isn't going away. I believe it will be used by managers for a long time to make developers forgo good development practices in lieu of getting that minimal ~viable~ product out.
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