The Lean Entrepreneur:
How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets
By Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits
With foreword by Eric Ries and illustrations by Fake Grimlock
For far too long, the entrepreneurial community has been operating on a
fallacy. Aspiring entrepreneurs, blinded by the belief that creating and
putting out a good product is enough to find success, soon realize that
an outstanding vision is not enough to create a sustained business.
While companies continue to develop doomed products, this “Myth of the
Visionary” stands strong: people will continue to believe that having a
vision and acting upon it is enough to build a successful business. But
this path that worked for the few notable visionaries, like Bill Gates
and Steve Jobs, is the exception rather than the rule. Entrepreneurial
visionaries are not born—they are made. Anyone can be a visionary. All
they need is to know how.
In The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with
New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets (Wiley; $37.95; February 2013,
978-1-118-29534-2) authors Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits move
beyond the myth, using their own entrepreneurial experiences to provide
a four-step framework for building a business based on a product people
actually want. Cooper contributes his experience as a startup thought
leader and speaker, while Vlaskovits’ talent as an entrepreneur and
startup advisor brings an additional source of expertise to this
illuminating book. Eric Ries began the “lean” movement with his book The
Lean Startup, butCooper and Vlaskovits use their entrepreneurial
expertise to expand on these proven concepts, adapting them to suit the
needs of the entrepreneur.
The Lean Entrepreneur serves as a universally applicable roadmap to
success. Rather than simply explain the concepts, Cooper and Vlaskovits
offer a wealth of supplementary materials to ensure that readers can
understand how these concepts will improve their business. Enriched with
case studies, illustrative graphics, worksheets, and skill-building
exercises, the book is a comprehensive guide to evolving a vision and
improving a company step by step.
Throughout the book, the authors cover a wide range of best practices
for business success, teaching entrepreneurs how to:
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Approach risk head-on
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Test market ideas immediately
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Foster stronger customer relations
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Test different business model risks
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Use powerful, low-cost analytics
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Create a customer funnel based on buyers’ processes
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Eliminate unnecessary time and effort
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And more!
The entrepreneurial world is known for being unpredictable, but Cooper
and Vlaskovits show that it doesn’t have to be. If armed with the tools
necessary to create sustained business, visionaries can and will go far.
As a must-read guide for any entrepreneur who wants to know exactly how
to create innovative business, The Lean Entrepreneur is the perfect
step-by-step guide to taking action and facilitating long-lasting change.
