“We see Lean Startup methodology being used inappropriately as an excuse to not take sales and marketing seriously,” he said. “Founders tell us that all that matters is product, and sales and market will happen automatically. The ‘if they build it it will come,’” mantra, which he noted is not always an acceptable approach for those looking to grow.
I can't help but wonder... who are these people and what in the world made them think that being a Lean Startup in any way obviates the need for sales and marketing? If you read one of the seminal books of the Lean Startup world, @sgblank's The Four Steps To The Epiphany you see that he makes it absolutely clear that sales and marketing matter. There's a lot of material in there about demand creation, channels, pricing, and other sales and marketing topics.
IMO, anybody who says "we don't need to worry about sales and marketing because we're a Lean Startup" is clueless and probably hasn't actually done any research on the whole Lean Startup approach, beyond reading headlines on HN and maybe a blog post or two.
I would completely agree. At the core of it, customer discovery and learning what product your customers want/will pay for (and thus you should build) is the core of subscribing to being a "lean startup." Product does matter, but what matters more is building something someone would pay for
“We see Lean Startup methodology being used inappropriately as an excuse to not take sales and marketing seriously,” he said. “Founders tell us that all that matters is product, and sales and market will happen automatically. The ‘if they build it it will come,’” mantra, which he noted is not always an acceptable approach for those looking to grow.
I can't help but wonder... who are these people and what in the world made them think that being a Lean Startup in any way obviates the need for sales and marketing? If you read one of the seminal books of the Lean Startup world, @sgblank's The Four Steps To The Epiphany you see that he makes it absolutely clear that sales and marketing matter. There's a lot of material in there about demand creation, channels, pricing, and other sales and marketing topics.
IMO, anybody who says "we don't need to worry about sales and marketing because we're a Lean Startup" is clueless and probably hasn't actually done any research on the whole Lean Startup approach, beyond reading headlines on HN and maybe a blog post or two.