Don’t be in a rush to get big. Be in a rush to have a great product. Eric Ries More Quotes by Eric Ries More Quotes From Eric Ries The lean startup method is not about cost, it is about speed. Eric Ries method speed cost Sustainable growth is characterized by one simple rule: New customers come from the actions of past customers. Eric Ries growth simple past Most companies are busy making their products worse, not better. Updating is almost always a disaster. Eric Ries disaster company busy When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak created Apple computer in a garage in Palo Alto, it heralded the beginning of the PC revolution that ultimately dealt a death-blow to dozens of older companies. Eric Ries apples blow jobs Nowadays people talk about PayPal's founders as prescient geniuses who would inevitably change the world. It was, however, not so obvious that PayPal would taste its first major success by helping people sell Beanie Babies on eBay. But they had a vision, a hope, and the perseverance to try multiple iterations until they got it right. Eric Ries ebay perseverance baby All innovation begins with vision. It’s what happens next that is critical. Eric Ries innovation next vision By the time that product is ready to be distributed widely, it will already have established customers. Eric Ries ready products customers A head start is rarely large enough to matter, and time spent in stealth mode-away from customers-is unlikely to provide a head start. The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else. Eric Ries matter winning way Better to have bad news that's true than good news we made up Eric Ries good-news news made If you can’t out iterate someone who is trying to copy you, you’re toast anyway. Eric Ries toasts copies trying The biggest start-up successes - from Henry Ford to Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg - were pioneered by people from solidly middle-class backgrounds. These founders were not wealthy when they began. They were hungry for success, but knew they had a solid support system to fall back on if they failed. Eric Ries zuckerberg class fall A Start Up is an institution designed to thrive in the soil of extreme uncertainty Eric Ries institutions soil thrive New Customers come from the action of past customers Eric Ries customers action past There was a study done in the early 20th century of all the entrepreneurs who entered the automobile industry around the same time as Henry Ford; there were something like 500 automotive companies that got funded, had the internal combustion engine, had the technology, and had the vision. Sixty percent of them folded within a couple of years. Eric Ries technology couple years There is no greater country on Earth for entrepreneurship than America. In every category, from the high-tech world of Silicon Valley, where I live, to University R&D labs, to countless Main Street small business owners, Americans are taking risks, embracing new ideas and - most importantly - creating jobs. Eric Ries jobs country america Meritocracy is a good thing. Whenever possibly, people should be judged based on their work and results, not superficial qualities. Eric Ries superficial quality people The attributes for entrepreneurs cut both ways. You need the ability to ignore inconvenient facts and see the world as it should be and not as it is. This inspires people to take huge leaps of faith. But this blindness to facts can be a liability, too. The characteristics that help entrepreneurs succeed can also lead to their failure. Eric Ries entrepreneur cutting people If you don't know who your customer is, you don't know what quality is. Eric Ries quality customers knows Using the Lean Startup approach, companies can create order not chaos by providing tools to test a vision continuously. Eric Ries vision tools order We need to reengineer companies to focus on figuring out who the customer is, what's the market and what kind of product you should build. Eric Ries focus kind needs