Ash Maurya

I’ve previously described the importance of nailing your customer’s problem as the initial battle. But it’s about way more than just getting their attention. When you can describe your customer’s problems clearly and succinctly — even better than they can, there is an automatic transference where they

I often get asked to weigh in on the age-old question of whether entrepreneurs are born or made. I believe that true entrepreneurs are born — not made. Startups are inherently uncertain and a lot like roller coasters. One day, you could be on top of the world, full of confidence,

Last time, I showed you how to model a multi-sided business using a Lean Canvas. In this post, I will show you how to get more specific and test the viability of these types of business models. I’ll extend the simple back-of-the-envelope technique for ballparking direct business models I

Facebook Lean Canvas: How to Model a Multi-sided Business Today I will show you how to model a multi-sided business using a Lean Canvas. Products like Facebook, Google, Twitter, and YouTube all fall into this category. This post builds upon an earlier one on modeling direct business models, which I

Last time I emphasized getting specific on your revenue streams — down to the customer segment, pricing model, and customer lifetime assumptions. In this post, I will show you how to use these simple inputs to ballpark your business model and test whether it’s worth pursuing. If you don’t

I created the Lean Canvas back in 2009 as a way to more effectively document my most critical business model assumptions for my products which were predominantly SaaS software products at the time. Lean Canvas is now taught at over 200 universities (including high schools), close to 100 startup accelerators,

The true job of an entrepreneur is to systematically de-risk their business model over time. While you might be excited by your idea’s potential, others don’t see what you see. What they see instead is something untested and risky. * You have to derisk your idea to convince your

(This is a guest post by Garrett Moon, Founder of TodayMade. It’s not enough to talk to customers. You have to know how. In this post, Garrett shares his lessons learned for crafting effective customer interviews. Enjoy… -Ash) When my business partner and I drafted our first outline for

The following is an excerpt from my book: Running Lean How to Iterate From Plan A to a Plan That Works In my post Why You Should Never Ask Customers What They’ll Pay? I covered how to set initial pricing for your product by first understanding your customer, their