Why Is Peter Thiel NOT A Fan Of The Lean Startup Movement?
Sramana Mitra
Founder and CEO of One Million by the One Million (1Mby1M) Global Virtual Accelerator
This question was recently discussed on Quora. I wrote an answer there, which I have expanded on for this post.
Most likely because of its short-term oriented view.
The weakest point of the methodology, in my opinion, is the excessive emphasis on quick validation and pivot. If you don’t have internal conviction, you look for instant validation. But often, especially if you have strong vision and internal conviction about a market, a product, a direction in which you want to take your industry, you won’t be able to score a quick validation. You would need to give yourself and the market some runway. The Lean Startup principle that Eric Ries espouses ignores this whole line of thought.
The natural question that comes out of the above discussion is: As a startup CEO, how do you decide whether to keep pushing on with a new startup or throw in the towel?
In this context, I want to point you to a case study: Crossing the Desert, Hitting the Jackpot: Taboola CEO Adam Singolda.
Adam went four years with no revenue, and somehow managed to stay afloat.
Year five, Taboola had $1M in revenue.
Year six, $100M in revenue.
Today, the company has over $200M in revenue, and is kicking ass in a new category called Content Marketing.
This being said, pure persistence won’t do it. You need to be creative, experimental, AND persistent. What isn’t working, and what is working – these two questions need to be your constant companions.
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Technical Product + Project Manager in blockchain and AI space
8 年I ran into this problem. During my startup weekend experience, I noticed that only those who had market approval (validation) were chosen and aggrandized. Others who just like to build cool stuff were not. As a bitcoin entrepreneur, I am also running into this problem personally. I suppose, one has to bleed to be on the cutting edge. The trick is not to die while bleeding. Easier said than done.
Berater für die Lieferantenbef?higung der BMW Group
9 年The point with a lean start up is not to dismiss a business idea immediately but to develop and drive a product to increase customer value. Maybe Peter Thiel misses in his consideration of the lean start up approach that it still can be long term based but with a high focus on continuous business adjustments.
MD at Stealth Commodities Trading Startup
9 年Peter Thiel has a point. Also, love Adam Singolda's military perspective. It's one I relate to very well. What he doesn't tell you is that mission success in the military is often achieved while overcoming mountains of bureaucracies. Much better to be out here!
Innovative and experienced software engineering manager - Web | Cloud | Extended Reality (XR)
9 年"This being said, pure persistence won’t do it. You need to be creative, experimental, AND persistent." This is a great point Sramana! Neither pure persistence nor mindless (as opposed to strategic) pivoting are good approaches (generally!).
Professional Services | Cloud Migrations
9 年Sorry your title totally misled me..I re-read more carefully..."You would need to give your market a runaway.."Yes agreed with all the points that you need to take time and experiment..But that Peter Thiel has short term view that is something I don't agree and thats because I read his book zero to one and some of your points about experimenation and taking time until you get it right is mentioned in there as well. Thanks