Founding a startup company is as trendy today as founding a garage band was in the 1990s. Showcase startups such as Dropbox or Airbnb have demonstrated how an idea and a healthy entrepreneurial spirit can turn into a billion‒dollar hypergrowth company. However, not everyone manages the leap from vision to financial breakthrough.
Despite numerous success stories, many young entrepreneurs fail due to a lack of demand for their product. Lean startup principles are changing the way in which companies develop and market products. The guiding principle here is to find products for customers — and not vice versa. The Lean Startup methodology focuses on risk minimization, speed and the development of a sustainable and profitable business model. Build, Measure, Learn, Repeat is the recipe for success which this thesis examines in both theory and practice — or to put it in Mark Zuckerberg’s words: Move fast and break things.