Perhaps the mantra for 2010 will be “Fail CHEAP”. I work at a startup that has gotten a ton of recent traction. We have proven our model is scalable and attractive. It took us about 12 months to arrive at this particular model, and I wish that we could have arrived here much sooner, because we would have preserved much more investor cash. Luckily for us, we did not have the “rocket fuel” problem, so pivoting was easy and (relatively) inexpensive.

Perhaps the mantra for 2010 will be “Fail CHEAP”. I work at a startup that has gotten a ton of recent traction. We have proven our model is scalable and attractive. It took us about 12 months to arrive at this particular model, and I wish that we could have arrived here much sooner, because we would have preserved much more investor cash. Luckily for us, we did not have the “rocket fuel” problem, so pivoting was easy and (relatively) inexpensive.

Perhaps the mantra for 2010 will be “Fail CHEAP”. I work at a startup that has gotten a ton of recent traction. We have proven our model is scalable and attractive. It took us about 12 months to arrive at this particular model, and I wish that we could have arrived here much sooner, because we would have preserved much more investor cash. Luckily for us, we did not have the “rocket fuel” problem, so pivoting was easy and (relatively) inexpensive.

But life changed quickly. I had to fire most of my friends and colleagues to survive. 122 people to 33 in a few weeks. Leaving would have been easy. I stuck around and cleaned up the mess. We built a real company and 5 years later sold it when we were doing $14 million in recurring revenue and had $36 million in backlog. Not Google, but a result nonetheless.

My point: young, inexperienced people who are “responsible” can be fooled into thinking that “this is how business is done.” I have had people I consider very ethical repeating some of the “fail fast, just shut the business down if it doesn't work” lines. I know Hiten and you guys are at the center of the lean startup movement and I have huge respect for everybody involved. But I think that your closeness to the issue means that you may not realize how the original message has gotten lost in the “Chinese Whispers.”

Cindy, I'm sure if we sat down one day and compared notes our outlook on startups would be pretty similar. Lean startup is the right idea. I'm attacking the phrase, not the core principles. Thanks for sticking around and debating and keeping it professional. I appreciate it.

You tell me you see “CEOs who prefer to “fail fast” so he/she can move on to their next brilliant idea” — honestly, I don't doubt you. There are all kinds out there! It does seem incomprehensible to me, though — wouldn't you want to at least TRY to make your company work? Try to validate your idea and reduce risk? All I'm saying is, it seems like it would take more than a provocatively phrased meme to turn a responsible person into an irresponsible one.

failure is ok. I have no problem with it. I'm on record as saying I prefer working with second time entrepreneurs even if their first business failed. but when you come up with a tag line that says, “fail fast” you can't expect people to all know what you meant when you created it. Calling them “incompetent/irresponsible wannabe entrepreneurs who interpret the theory du jour to mean whatever they want it to” is probably not fair.

The nice thing about working with entrepreneurs who blindly follow their idea is that if you lose faith you can change jobs. The contra where you as an employee believes and the CEO prefers to “fail fast” so he/she can move on to their next brilliant idea and make more money is a travesty.

If KISSMetrics launches its analytics platform and users want a different feature set then you pivot – even if 180 degrees. But if you guys suddenly said, “Eff it. Analytics is too hard – let's create a GroupOn competitor” that wouldn't be fair too Polaris and the money they've invested in you.