The Lean Startup Research Project

One of my most important projects is a research project about early stage entrepreneurship and the Lean Startup. Eric Ries and I are collaborating to test, as robustly as possible, what early stage entrepreneurs actually do when they build their companies and how those ideas impact outcomes.

Several things make this a groundbreaking new project. For one, this will be one of the first solid investigations into startups applying lean startup ideas (not sure what Lean Startup is about? Go see Eric’s blog Startup Lessons Learned). But we aren’t shilling Lean Startup in this research. We have designed a robust study, with appropriate control groups, to understand what ideas and actions entrepreneurs actually use to build their companies. Another unique aspect is that this will be one of the first longitudinal, case-based studies, so we will actually observe live what is happening as entrepreneurs engage the challenges they face. Lastly, this will be a robust study. Our goal is to be at least as robust as one of the earliest management thinkers, Frederick Taylor, and much more robust than the research in many popular management books. In fact, this study will stand up to the most robust standards of academic and practitioner research. Our ultimate goal is to explore the mangaement science of entrepreneurship in a way that hasn’t previously been discussed.

I’ll share stories, ideas, and insights from this research and other relevant research here in addition to discussing the Durant School of Entrepreneurship.