
How The Lean Startup Became A Best Seller (And Movement) - with Eric Ries - trevor99
http://mixergy.com/eric-ries-lean-startup-best-seller/
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AndrewWarner
I've had other authors refuse to do interviews till the first week that their
books go on sale. They want people to get a chance to buy their books after
watching their interview.

Eric discovered that he could sell his book for months before it launched and
that the NY Times Best Seller list would count those sales AS IF they were
made in the book's first week.

That allowed him to spend months selling his book and refining his sales
process.

What I've found in my interviews is that successful founders often discover
these little nuggets of understanding that give them a leg up over others.

The other thing that's interesting about my conversation with Eric is that he
didn't have to come to that discovery on his own. He learned it by studying
another Best Selling author, Tim Ferriss.

If you want to understand the reason for Mixergy, that's it right there.

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gujk
The world's first movement based on exhaustive study to figure out exactly
what people wanted to hear before telling it to them. Exactly the opposite of
what wee celebrated Steve Jobs for, isn't it? Are marketing gimmicks really
the soul of the new internet generation? Not real products that male people's
lives better?

I met a marketing analyst who used incredibly sophisticated Machine Learning
techniques to figure out which banking customer segments are more likely to
respond to a mail campaign that was addressed to "Our Neighbor". It's
disheartening that marketing tricks are what so many are putting their best
thinking to, and these successes are what we celebrate..

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AndrewGCook
It's great that Eric Ries used his own lean startup methodology to figure out
what influenced people to buy the book.

Eric built a website to take pre-orders so he could A/B test the book's cover,
title, and marketing to figure out how to get as many preorders as possible,
Since preorders count as orders when your book launches, he managed to become
a best seller.

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AndrewWarner
Yup. Also, he had Lean Startup groups throughout the country that helped
promote and sell the book (and Lean Startup vision).

Also, he gave up his speaking fees and asked event organizers to sell books
instead.

Also, he found a way to bundle book sales with ticket sales.

Also, he had a proven idea.

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casca
If anyone else prefers to download videos and watch later at their leisure,
this one can be found here: [http://mixergy-
cdn.wistia.com/deliveries/595300a2494d37e6386...](http://mixergy-
cdn.wistia.com/deliveries/595300a2494d37e6386deab8442e78ba1a2d09eb.bin)

Just rename to .flv and you're good to go.

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mark_l_watson
Eric Ries wrote a great book, he deserves the success he is having with it.

I have bought 3 copies: one for myself, and 2 for customers as gifts.

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bomatson
Very intelligent, calculated marketing (especially Lean city-wide events, $30
bucks per event and you get the book). Congrats, Eric!

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sanj
Neat! I looked and I've been using the term "Lean" to describe development for
14 years now:

[http://web.archive.org/web/19970602013356/http://www.scrawls...](http://web.archive.org/web/19970602013356/http://www.scrawlsoft.com/)

~~~
rpark31
This Web page defines "lean" as "small, tight code that won't waste your time
or resources".

But lean as defined by Ries is not about code as much as it is about using
validated learning to test market assumptions and only build what customers
have verified that they want.

I'm not saying that lean startup methodology is a panacea for guaranteeing
startup success; but it isn't about a style of coding, or minimizing how much
you spend on your startup.

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j45
Sweet interview, nice to see how he published a book in a different way.

