Mark interviews Eric Ries, author of the New York Times Bestseller The Lean Startup. This episode is all about building businesses in the most efficient and effective way possible. This includes having a "business hypothesis," knowing when to go after the money, and how to "Fail Fast" while continuing to build a better product. We'd like to thank our sponsors Fenwick & West, and MozyPro--Protect your data, protect your business. For more, visit http://thisweekin.com/venturecapital Timecodes: 00:00 Welcome, our guest is Eric Ries, founder of the Lean Startup Movement. 00:45 Intro to Eric 01:17 Background, before the Lean Startup 01:53 Yale during the Dot Com Bubble 3:35 The real entrepreneurs come out during a down economy 4:15 Eric's startup history 6:30 Why did it take so long to ship? 8:17 How did you decide to go with either shrinkwrap or web only product? 9:14 What was the root cause of the failure of your first company? 11:00 Mark on over-hyping PR 11:50 Startup problems! 13:43 Why would you talk to journalist? Why waste energy? 14:20 People go too fast to internationalize 14:45 Eric: The vital function of a startup is to learn how to build a sustainable business 15:40 Discussion of Awe.sm 17:30 Can you make startups science? 19:30 A teachable moment for entrepreneurs: HAVE A HYPOTHESIS! What do you do better, different, or what do you want to achieve? 20:42 Looking for the "Up and to the Right" charts 21:20 Starting points for business should be a problem 22:10 Eric: Innovation Accounting 22:53 Eric's book: The Lean Startup 24:00 Big money vs. Little money 25:40 The fundamental goal should be to eliminate waste 26:44 Too much capital is not good 26:54 Mark on the negatives of the "Fail Fast" movement 27:45 Eric: The thing that is supposed to fail fast is your bad ideas, not your company 31:10 Mozy Pro Ad 34:00 Imvu 35:29 Why people use social media. Will these norms change? 36:30 Eric: Social media is great for people with social capital 38:00 Should you use avatars? 40:05 What happened after Imvu 41:00 Transitioning from software to writing 42:20 Did agile development influence you? 43:20 The inception of Lean Startup 44:45 Telling an entrepreneur to focus is like telling a fat person to lose weight 46:18 iOS Vs. Android 46:50 Engines of Growth 48:30 Vanity metrics 49:00 Startups are all naked in the mirror 51:10 Astrology and causality in startups 52:00 Actionable metrics 53:35 Opposition to departmental silos 54:20 Semi-autonomous teams 57: 00 How do you rectify company mission and customer demand 58:00 Apple is iterative 1:01:01 Why Steve Jobs got fired 1:01:45 Fenwick and West AD 1:03:03 So what comes next? 1:03:35 Eric: what is society going to do? Most people are working on failing ideas. 1:05:35 Middle class job of the next generation: software development! 1:06:05 The skills gap 1:07:15 The "College Deal" and why it needs to change 1:09:50 We need education!

• published: 22 Nov 2011
• views: 27167