---
title: The Lean Startup — the book | RGM® Glossary
url: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/the-lean-startup/
updated: 2026-06-10
source_html: https://realgrowthmatters.com/glossary/the-lean-startup/
---

# The Lean Startup

/ðə lin ˈstɑɹˌtəp/proper noun

The business plan died on this book's publication day — the experiment replaced it.

Author
:   Eric Ries

Published
:   September 2011, Crown Business

Core loop
:   Build → Measure → Learn

Sales
:   1M+ copies

## Forms & parts of speech

lean startup · noun phrase

The method the book named.

"We run **lean startup** here — every roadmap item is a hypothesis."

## What the book says

*The Lean Startup* defines a startup as a temporary institution operating under extreme uncertainty, whose only real progress is validated learning. The method: turn beliefs into testable hypotheses, build the minimum viable product that tests the riskiest one, measure real behavior with innovation accounting (cohorts and actionable metrics, not vanity charts), and decide — persevere or pivot. The loop's speed, not the team's output, is the startup's metabolism.

## The ideas people quote

The MVP — the smallest experiment that generates real learning, famously Dropbox's demo video and Zappos' founder photographing shoe-store inventory; the pivot — a structured strategy change keeping one foot in what was learned (Groupon began as a protest platform); vanity versus actionable metrics; the five whys for root causes; and 'achieving failure' — flawlessly executing a plan nobody wanted.

## How to read it now

Its vocabulary won so completely that misuse is the main risk: MVP now often means 'sloppy v1,' pivot means 'panic,' and lean means 'cheap' — three readings the book explicitly rejects. Read it with Blank's customer development (its acknowledged parent) and modern PLG practice, and it remains the cleanest training in hypothesis discipline a marketer or founder can get.

**Worked example.** A team plans six months of feature work for a launch nobody validated. The book's protocol compresses it — the riskiest assumption (will agencies pay for automated reporting?) gets a two-week test: a landing page, a concierge version assembled by hand for five pilot agencies, a price on the page. Three of five convert and renew. The six-month roadmap shrinks to the two features the pilots actually used, and the launch lands on evidence instead of hope.

**Failure modes to watch.** Shipping junk and calling it an MVP; pivoting on mood instead of invalidated hypotheses; and measuring vanity metrics while quoting innovation accounting.

## Synonyms & antonyms

### Synonyms

The Lean Startuplean startup methodology

## Origin & history

Grew from Ries' 'Startup Lessons Learned' blog (2008) — which Steve Blank required him to write as a condition of investing in IMVU — and his conference talks systematizing IMVU's rapid-deploy culture. Crown Business published it in September 2011; the title nods to Toyota's lean manufacturing.

Etymology: [source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lean_Startup).

## Usage trends

Search interest for this term over the last five years:

[View interest-over-time on Google Trends →](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=lean%20startup&date=today%205-y)

## Common questions

Who wrote The Lean Startup?
:   Eric Ries, published September 2011 — built on his IMVU experience and Steve Blank's customer development.

What is the build-measure-learn loop?
:   Turn the riskiest assumption into a minimal product, measure real customer behavior, learn whether to persevere or pivot — fast.

What is the book's definition of a startup?
:   A human institution designed to create something new under extreme uncertainty — its progress measured in validated learning.

## Related tools & calculators

- tool[Experiment planner](/tools/experiment-planner/)
- tool[Funnel drop-off analyzer](/tools/funnel-drop-off-analyzer/)

## Resources & people to follow

- book*The Lean Startup* — Eric Ries (the subject)
- book*The Four Steps to the Epiphany* — Steve Blank (its parent)
- referenceTheLeanStartup.com

Curated, non-competitor resources verified per term.

## Related training

- module[Growth marketing foundations](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)

## Disciplines

Areas of marketing where the lean startup is a core concern:

[Growth strategy](/training/growth-marketing-foundations/)[Analytics](/training/marketing-analytics/)

## Read next

## Related terms

[Eric Ries](/glossary/eric-ries/)[Steve Blank](/glossary/steve-blank/)[Product-market fit](/glossary/product-market-fit/)[A/B test](/glossary/ab-test/)[North Star metric](/glossary/north-star-metric/)

## Sources

1. trends[Google Trends — "lean startup"](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=lean%20startup&date=today%205-y)