The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries
★ Top 25 book of 2011 · #13 on Best Books of 2011
Ries argues that startups fail because they build things nobody wants, not because of poor execution. He urges founders to test ideas continuously with customers and adjust their plans as feedback arrives.
Best for: Founders and corporate teams launching new products under uncertainty
The Lean Startup is #13 on BookWard's Best Books of 2011, out of 53 2011 books that cleared our data bar.
What The Lean Startup is about
Eric Ries, an entrepreneur, argues that most startups are built to fail, yet those failures can be prevented. His claim is that companies rarely fall short because of bad execution, missed deadlines or blown budgets. They fail because they build something nobody wants. Ries treats a startup's main job as finding out what customers will actually buy, and he calls his answer validated learning: gathering steady feedback so a team can adjust its plans bit by bit rather than clinging to an elaborate business plan. He says this applies whether a new venture starts in a garage or inside a large Fortune 500 company. It will help founders, product teams and anyone launching something new under uncertainty.
The Lean Startup on the Best Books of 2011
The Lean Startup came out in 2011. Of the 53 books first published in 2011 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #13 on our Best Books of 2011 list.
Why it made the list: 1,564 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (76 ratings); 96 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2011 list
- Start with Why Simon Sinek, #11
- Outwitting the Devil Napoleon Hill, #12
- Cinder Marissa Meyer, #14
- Gone Girl Gillian Flynn, #15
See all Best Books of 2011 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2010 Best Books of 2012.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 1,375 want to read it, 96 are reading it now and 92 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.9 out of 5 from 76 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 85 | 55% |
| Reader love | 32 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 83 | 20% |
Questions about The Lean Startup
When was The Lean Startup published?
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries was first published in 2011.
Was The Lean Startup one of the best books of 2011?
The Lean Startup is #13 on BookWard's Best Books of 2011, out of 53 2011 books that cleared our data bar. 1,564 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (76 ratings); 96 are reading it right now.
Why is The Lean Startup on the Best Books of 2011 list?
1,564 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.9 out of 5 (76 ratings); 96 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2011
- Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari, #1
- The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller, #2
- Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman, #3
- Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson, #4
- The Son of Neptune Rick Riordan, #5
- The Mark of Athena Rick Riordan, #6
See the full Best Books of 2011, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
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