Famed US venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has taken aim at the \u2018lean\u2019 start-up model, claiming that it overlooks the importance of sales and marketing and gives entrepreneurs \u201cpermission to give up very fast\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andreessen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, challenged the lean start-up model when he spoke to Eric Ries at a conference in San Francisco earlier this week.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ries is the author of The Lean Startup<\/i>, which aims to change the way companies are built by encouraging quick iteration and inexpensive prototyping of ideas.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andreessen said while the lean start-up model is hugely popular, there are several ways entrepreneurs can misinterpret it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n However, Mick Liubinskas, founder of Sydney-based tech seed fund Pollenizer, which prides itself on its lean start-up principles, has offered rebuttals to each of Andreessen\u2019s points.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the two tech start-up heavy hitters have to say about going lean:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andreessen:<\/strong> \u201cI would serve this as a challenge for the lean start-up community, especially the ones with the really audacious goals,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they start audacious because otherwise the product will never get to market. The Macintosh \u2013 that product had to exist in its entirety for people to wrap their heads around it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think the lean start-up idea, as brilliant as it is, and as widely applicable as it is, should halt us from investing in these big ideas right out of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liubinskas:<\/b> \u201cIt\u2019s always lean to different degrees. [With regard to the Macintosh,] Apple does quite a good job in that they take the biggest risks, but they also have the biggest failures,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAlso, there are more tools around now. One part of starting up lean is the marketing available. Previously for me, if I wanted to test the market I had to build [something] and get it out there.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI understand what he\u2019s saying\u2026 But I think every start-up should aim to be as lean as they possibly can. The leaner you are, the faster your speed of learning.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andreessen:<\/strong> \u201cWe see lean start-up methodology being used inappropriately as an excuse to not take sales and marketing seriously,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFounders tell us that all that matters is product, and sales and marketing will happen automatically.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liubinskas:<\/b> \u201cI think that\u2019s the complete opposite of what I see. The whole point of lean, for us, is to get in front of customers as soon as you can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou should be able to get in front of a customer within an hour \u2013 call up a customer and try to sell it to them or put it on a landing page and try to sell it to them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFrom our perspective, it has to reach the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Andreessen:<\/strong> \u201cTaking the stigma out of failure is very exciting. But we see founders who give up too quickly. It\u2019s permission to give up very fast,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWe joke around the office that the worst is the fetish for failure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cYou want to preserve the good of the idea when it comes to pivoting, but you don\u2019t want people to be intentionally encouraged to fail.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMaybe it\u2019s time to add a bit more stigma. The entrepreneurs I admire, I admire the ones who pivot but I really admire the ones who have persisted.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liubinskas:<\/b> \u201cBringing it here, some people are now using this [acceptance of failure] as an excuse to fail,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFailure is okay as long as you keep going, do it fast and get somewhere. If you fail 50 times and don\u2019t produce anything, you\u2019ve learnt some big lessons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIn Australia, we\u2019re just getting comfortable with failure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Famed US venture capitalist Marc Andreessen has taken aim at the \u2018lean\u2019 start-up model, claiming that it overlooks the importance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Not all start-ups can be lean start-ups<\/h3>\n
Don\u2019t use the lean start-up model as an excuse to skimp on sales and marketing<\/h3>\n
Don\u2019t develop a \u201cfetish for failure\u201d<\/h3>\n