I read through Eric Reis’ “The Lean Startup” yesterday. It was a good read, and provided a good framework for how to think of your startup’s business. The idea that your business is based on assumptions and you should find ways to test those assumptions before moving forward wasn’t exactly earth-shattering to me, but it certainly gave me a kick in the butt to start testing my business assumptions.
The writing could have been better. Many paragraphs lie below headings that have little to do with them. Some of the examples didn’t demonstrate what Eric was talking about, and some of the *cough*groupon*cough* were a little embarressing to read.
Eric admits the book is about theory and is short on practicum, but some practical steps or questions for the reader at the end of each chapter would have made it a lot more clear what he was talking about. I’m trying to apply it to my own business, but there’s not a good way to know if I’m doing it correctly without getting some kind of mentor or group. And if that’s where the real learning is, why read the book?
tl;dr it was a good book for me, and didn’t take too long to read. Not sure if I would recommend it to others.