Compellio a tech company based in Luxembourg developing business software and services for innovators and entrepreneurial people is organizing the Lean Startup Night in Luxembourg on February 27. We asked Denis Avrilionis and Theofilos Papasternos for more details.
Photo: Denis Avrilionis, Founder of Compellio / Credits © Compellio
What is Lean Startup method?
Lean Startup is an innovation management methodology for developing new businesses and products. This method was first introduced in 2008 by Eric Ries who applied lean management principles to high-tech companies with the aim to help them:
- Accelerate new business creation and shorten product development cycles
- Reduce risks and costs related to bringing new solutions to market
- Gather valuable insights from users, customers and stakeholders
In a nutshell, the core idea behind the Lean Startup method is to induce fact-based decision making within organisations by using a combination of hypotheses-driven experimentation, iterative product releases and validated learning.
Why is it a key methodology for startups?
Startups typically operate in an environment with high uncertainty, limited resources and need for speed. Startups that apply the Lean methods and invest their time into iteratively building products or services to meet the needs of angel customers can significantly reduce the market risks and avoid the need for large amounts of initial project funding and expensive product launches and failures.
The very powerful characteristic of Lean Startup is that it works seamlessly with all the main methods applied in entrepreneurship and innovation (e.g. design thinking, customer development, business modeling, agile development, growth hacking, etc.) and thus provides a holistic framework for startups to launch their Minimum Viable Product (MVP), build early traction and manage pivots.
And for corporates?
The era of rapid digitisation of practically every major industry can be very exciting for those corporate players who can quickly identify new market opportunities and build sustainable growth engines around them.
However, managing innovation in large organisations has become a very challenging task. On one hand corporates need to balance between exploiting their core business model and exploring opportunities for new growth, and on the other hand to collaborate with startups in accelerating their time-to- market and enlarging their product/services/customers portfolio.
The Lean Startup can help corporate innovators to design better products, boost employees’ creativity and operate with more speed, agility and precision. The goal? Innovate better, innovate faster. The risk? Being the next Kodak or Nokia.
What do you expect from the Luxembourg’s chapter?
The Lean Startup Luxembourg chapter that is launched with the Lean Startup Night Luxembourg on 27 February at the LHoFT is about sharing experiences on how to combine software development in startup mode with customer-centric approaches that prevail in corporate innovation programmes.
At Compellio we are delighted to see that Lean Startup is a subject that motivates the business community in Luxembourg and we wouldn’t want to miss the opportunity to reinforce Luxembourg’s positioning in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship. We also hope that this initiative would contribute in reinforcing the links among local actors to further engage in a collective effort aiming at exchanging meaningful insights on this domain.
During the Lean Startup Night in Luxembourg, the focus will be in particular on how to:
For corporates
- Collaborate with tech startups to accelerate new product development
- Apply startup methodologies in internal innovation, open innovation and intrapreneurship programmes
For startups
- Leverage corporate knowledge, resources and networks
Understand risks, value chains and decision-making processes to accelerate sales & partnerships
