The New Way to Build a Successful Startup – Lean and On Target

The newer model for starting businesses relies on hypothesis, experiment and testing in the marketplace, from the day a company is founded. That is a sharp break with the traditional approach of drawing up a business plan, setting financial targets, building a finished product and then rolling out the business and hoping to succeed. It was time-consuming and costly.

The preferred formula today is often called the "lean start-up." Its foremost proponents include Eric Ries, an engineer, entrepreneur and author who coined the term and is now an entrepreneur in residence at the Harvard Business School, and Steven Blank, a serial entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford.

The approach emphasizes quickly developing "minimum viable products," low-cost versions that are shown to customers for reaction, and then improved. Flexibility is the other hallmark. Test business models and ideas, and ruthlessly cull failures and move on to Plan B, Plan C, Plan D and so on — "pivoting," as the process is known.

By STEVE LOHR

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/lean-start-ups-reach-beyond-silicon-valleys-turf.html?_r=1&ref=science&nl=business&emc=dlbka34

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Innovation Corps nurtures scientific entrepreneurs http://matr.net/article-47444.html

How to Build a Web Startup: Lean LaunchPad Edition http://matr.net/article-46470.html

Adopt the New Startup Model: Nail It Then Scale It http://matr.net/article-46412.html

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Crash course to startup savvy

Launched this semester by UT engineering professor Bob Metcalfe, a legendary inventor and tech entrepreneur, 1 Semester Startup gives undergraduates the chance to learn from some of Austin’s most successful company founders.

"The big surprise was that there are so many people out there who want you to succeed," Harrison said. "They’ve told us to get ahold of them after this class, whenever we need help."

Metcalfe, who joined UT as professor of innovation at the Cockrell School of Engineering this year, co-invented Ethernet, which has become the dominant computer networking technology. Then he founded 3Com Corp., which built Ethernet into a huge new business. He later became a venture capitalist with Polaris Venture Partners in Boston.

At UT, he "did not want to add another lecture course on startup theory and/or skills, nor have students do class project startups," Metcalfe said. "We aimed this one at undergrads starting companies in the tradition of (Dell Inc. founder) Michael Dell and (Whole Foods founder) John Mackey."

Lori Hawkins

Full Story: http://www.statesman.com/business/crash-course-to-startup-savvy-2012305.html