External Resources

"My hope all along was to find ways to eliminate the tremendous waste I saw all around me: startups that built products nobody wanted, new products pulled from the shelves, and countless dreams unrealized". Ries, Eric. The lean startup: How today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Currency, 2011.

When I began my search for an answer to the puzzle of why the best firms can fail, a friend offered some sage advice. "Those who study genetics avoid studying humans." Christensen, Clayton M. The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.

"By understanding what causes customers to “hire” a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they’ll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs Theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts."   Christensen, Clayton M., Taddy Hall, Karen Dillon, and David S. Duncan. Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice. New York: Harper Business, 2016.

In short, although we still obsess over hits, they are not quite the economic force they once were. Where are those fickle consumers going instead? No single place. They are scattered to the winds as markets fragment into countless niches. The one big growth area is the Web, but it is an uncategorizable sea of a million destinations, each defying in its own way the conventional logic of media and marketing.   Anderson, Chris. The long tail: Why the future of business is selling less of more. Hachette UK, 2006.

The StartupWay combines the rigor of general management with the highly iterative nature of startups. It is a system that can be used in any organization that seeks to practice continuous innovation, regardless of size, age, or mission.  

Wade Foster, founder and CEO of Zapier, shares his contrarian takes on building a billion-dollar company — from fundraising advice, go-to-market strategy, and hiring mistakes.