May I call you Steve? I am following this with intense interest. As a candidate graduate for a Masters in Management I am learning and contemplating how it can be ported to brick and mortar businesses and make it part of my thesis. I would like ask also if there is any material in Spanish if not, I would gladly volunteer to translate and disseminate this incredible resource and revolutionary methodology.

Respectfully yours,

Javier A. Dominguez
javier@versimind.net
404-437-6091

I’ve now read “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” multiple times and am on my second copy of the book (the first one was left on in the seat back on an airplane. Finding your book, for me, was like being a villager in a remote part of the world working out some basic proofs of geometry on my own, and then finding a plane ticket that takes me to MIT. “Aha!” doesn’t really do it justice.

So I was happy to see that the people at the conference, in the room in Boston and on Twitter knew that you were the wellspring from which the Lean Startup methodology came.

When it was your turn to speak, the energy in the room in Boston rose appreciably. People sat up straighter, stopped side conversations, came back from the bathroom or phone calls, and generally were glued to the screen.

Also, we were monitoring the Twitter feed next to the video feed, and the energy there was appreciably different for you than for even the other terrific speakers. If you ever need a little encouragement during the “E-school not B-school” work that lies ahead, just save a copy of the Twitter feed with the #sllconf hashtag starting about 5 minutes before you started speaking and ending shortly after your presentation so you can pull it out and read it.

Congrats again, and my sincere thanks for the book.

But I had a hard time understanding the new market concept. Well, I understand what you mean, but I dont feel comfortable deciding in what market a startup belongs.

What about for example http://www.odesk.com? Was odesk in a new market when it started? All it did was really to take screen shots of the freelancers. Just a new way of selling the same old stuff.

But if you look at their growth curve it seems to fit in with the 5 year curve for startups in new markets: http://www.odesk.com/community/oconomy/odesk_growth

Can anyone recommend any better reading on market types?

I caught the whole second half of the SLL conference via live stream (from Ann Arbor, Michigan) and was glad I came that close to being there in person. Great job by all.

On the topic of founders being caught off guard when fired … I suspect you’ve seen the video of Steve Jobs 2005 Stanford commencement address, in which he tells his story about being fired from Apple, but just in case, the link is below. His account about what happened immediately afterward (after he recovered from shame!) is a great illustration of your theory about scalable start-up entrepreneurs thriving in the start-up box. Before he became an exception, anyway.

Keep up the good play! And thanks!
-Karen Gates

I spent most of Sunday working on http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2010/04/25/startup-lessons-learned-conference-coverage-roundup/ and plan to continue to update it through the end of May as more folks blog their insights and reactions.

Anyways, in the span of 40 minutes you encapsulated exactly why I chose to work at scalable startups en route to become an entrepreneur.

If you missed any of it we posted a recap of the event + slides from some of the speakers here: http://thestartupdigest.com/2010/04/24/startup-lessons-learned-woodstock-for-entrepreneurs/

I came across Eric recently in an interview done by Robert Scoble (great hour but expensive time wise). As usual Steve, thanks for the share (link organizing) and influencing Erik a few years back. I hadn’t realized he was one of your students.

Looking forward to the videos and slide decks.

Are there any interesting events happening in the June 12-14th window, I’ll be travelling back from Maui and convinced my fiance to stop in the Bay Area (we’re considering moving to the west coast).

Thanks,

Mike Buckbee

I’m following this community with great interest, but forgive me for saying that your Woodstock reference is a bit hyperbolic.

The most important thing I learned was the concept of Minimum *Desirable* Product (Andrew Chen I think). *Desirable* resonates with me more than *Viable* or *Feasible* because it implies an emotional reaction. Emotions spark viral movements. Startups, like viral movements, are predicated on reaching a Gladwellian Tipping Point. Sorry…but Viable implies bean counters and Feasible implies over-propellered. The language we use helps us frame the startup, but I digress.

Kent Beck’s recognition that we need to make engineering trade-offs depending on whether we’re “Learning” or “Building” was cathartic for coders with an engineering bent. Such a key recognition from someone with such well-established engineering chops, allows post-Agilists to free themselves to consider more than rapid delivery & embracing change.

Retrospectively, WHAT WORKED for me was discovering more about the Learning phase and Customer Discovery. What DIDN’T WORK for me was a regurgitation Agile principles like continuous integration. Any team worth its salt has the Agility thing down — Agilists are adept at Delivery. The salient question is for post-Agilists and for entrepreneurs is, “How do we build shit that inspires people?”