This podcast is produced by The Lean Startup Conference, December 9 - 11 in San Francisco. Visit http://leanstartup.co for more information.

The 2013 Lean Startup Conference helps entrepreneurs learn from each other. Brimming with founder stories you’ve never heard, fresh case studies and in-depth expert advice you can use the day you get home, the conference delivers advanced lessons in entrepreneurship. This year’s event has key sessions for corporate entrepreneurs, non-profit leaders, educators, government staff and growing startups—and it includes a slew of ways to meet other attendees relevant to you.

The speakers in this podcast are Eric Ries of The Lean Startup and Scott Butler of Blackbaud.

Bringing Lean Startup To Big Companies | Eric Ries & Scott Butler

Steven Hodas | When Lean Startup Arrives in a Trojan Horse--Innovation in Extreme Bureaucracy | The Lean Startup Conference 2013

Steven runs an procurement-innovation program in one of the world’s most notorious bureaucracies: the New York City Department of Education. In a fear-driven atmosphere, with lots of incentive to not be embarrassed, he’ll talk about the challenges he’s faced and progress he’s made testing new ideas.

When Lean Startup Arrives In A Trojan Horse: Innovation In Extreme Bureaucracy | Steven Hodas

As a well-known startup veteran, investor and author, Ben Horowitz brings unusually deep insight to the hard questions that entrepreneurs face. Eric Ries interviews him and gives you a chance to ask questions, too.

A Conversation With Ben Horowitz | Eric Ries & Ben Horowitz

Nothing strikes fear in the heart of an entrepreneur like the simple question, “What’s the ROI?”  You have to answer or you won’t get funded.  Answering using traditional approaches forces you to fabricate revenue assumptions that have no basis in reality — and you’ll be held accountable.  It’s a no-win scenario that kills innovation.

Lean Startup mentor and speaker David Binetti will focus on this specific issue at the Lean Startup Conference in November. In this webcast we preview his talk with a one-on-one discussion and learn how to get Product and Finance teams speaking the same language while achieving their individual objectives.

Measuring Lessons With Dollars | David Binetti

In this participatory, fishbowl-style panel, Lean Design experts discuss how Lean systems allow teams to more quickly iterate upon and scale their ideas. Panelists Courtney Hemphill (Carbon Five), Ken Skistimas (GE Digital), and Amy Neuman (Autodesk) will cover the process, infrastructure, and team configurations inherent to Lean Design. Expect solid takeaways on how to incorporate these practices into your organization, and the chance to ask questions of our panelists. Moderated by Amee Mungo (GoKart Labs).

Getting Teams to Move Fast | Amy Neuman, Ken Skistimas, Amee Mungo & Courtney Hemphill

IBM is on a mission to create a sustainable culture of design and to bring a human-centered focus to its thousands of products and services. Since 2013, the company has hired over 1,100 designers to work alongside engineers and business leaders across the company. In this multidisciplinary setting, how does the Lean Startup approach interplay with design thinking? How can teams bridge the gap between user experience insights and real business opportunities? Phil Gilbert, General Manager of IBM Design, will discuss how IBM’s approach to continuous innovation at a global scale is transforming the way the company works.

Design Thinking and Lean | Phil Gilbert

Looking to save your team countless hours and dollars? To get unstuck? Learn how the design sprint can give you a superpower: the ability to build and test nearly any idea in just 40 hours. The sprint—a five-day process for answering critical business questions through designing, prototyping, and testing ideas—is a “greatest hits” of battle-tested business processes any team can use. Sharing this shortcut to learning and innovation is Jake Knapp, creator of Google Ventures’ sprint process, co-creator of Google Hangouts, and author of The New York Times bestseller Sprint.

Sprints: How To Build and Test An Idea In Just 40 Hours | Jake Knapp

Lean Startup is often characterized as a scientific methodology, while the innovation process requires creative leaps of imagination. How do you reconcile these two worlds, let alone get them to exist in harmony? The intersection of these two concepts is the Grand Unifying Theory of product development. Stuart Eccles, co-founder of innovation studio Made by Many, will show you how to use Lean Startup to go beyond the testing of ideas and into the active generation of them.

The Vision Before The Experimentation: Applying Lean Startup To Creative | Stuart Eccles

Over the last 10+ years we have seen a number of large enterprises experiencing (near) Kodak moment and struggling to drive growth as they navigate through long term disruption to their business. In this talk Sonja will share learnings from award winning innovation program at Pearson and will outline how principles and practices of Lean Product Lifecycle and active portfolio management can help companies navigate disruption, increase innovation and transform their portfolios and why mindset, leadership and cultural changes are key to success.

Tips For Applying Lean Startup In A Large Organization, A Case Study With Pearson | Sonja Kresojevic

Charles Hudson is an entrepreneur who recently founded his own VC firm. He’ll provide real world perspective on what it means to source funding for your business. He’ll also talk about how his firm, which often invests in very early stage ideas, approaches working with startups.

Sourcing Funding For Your Business | Charles Hudson

The decisions that we make in a given day are driven by numerous cognitive biases designed to save us time and energy. Often, these mental shortcuts serve us well, but occasionally, they lead us astray and drive us to make poor decisions — and this is particularly true about our health. Jawbone’s Kelvin Kwong will discuss the psychology behind decision making and how his team applies behavioral science research to build a product that changes how we move, sleep, and eat.

Designing Behavior Change For Health | Kelvin Kwong

What happens when a small group of mavericks decide to launch an unauthorized version of Lean Startup inside a huge multinational firm like Cisco? Over 1,100 new organic-growth ideas, including a surprise Shark Tank-like ending. Presented by Steve Liguori, (Founder Liguori Innovation and former GE Exec Director of Global Innovation) with Alex Goryachev (Cisco Senior Director Innovation Strategy and Programs) and Oseas Ramirez Assad (Cisco Senior Manager, Business Development and Innovation Enablement.)

Using Lean Startup Inside A Big Company | Oseas Ramirez Assad, Alex Goryachev & Stephen Liguori

Michael Perry, founder of the innovative virtual employee Kit, grew his business from a small team housed in a 200-sq ft space (in the back of a law firm) to a company acquired by Shopify. He leads a dynamic presentation about what it’s been like on both sides of the table.

How Staying Lean Made Us Big | Michael Perry

We all want to make product decisions backed by good data. But you can’t just A/B test your way to success: Whether you’re just incubating a new project and starting from zero, or you’re spinning wheels feeling mired in too much noise, learn how to leverage empathetic design to find and focus on needs your customers care about – and build exceptional products. Tom Nguyen, Principal at Adobe and co-creator of Adobe Spark, shares real-world examples and actionable best practices to help you apply constraints, powerful stories, and a growth mindset to align your team and spark success for your organization.

Radical Simplicity: Solving The Right Problems To Build Products With Impact | Tom Nguyen

Gone are the days when Lean Startup was used only by two guys in a garage. The methods have gone mainstream and are being practiced in industries across the globe. To date, our Lean Startup Co. Education Program Faculty have coached more than 30 teams from intelligence agencies including the NSA and NGA. 

In this webcast, hear from Erin Bugg of the NSA, their Lean Startup Co. coach Marilyn Gorman, and Co-Founder of Lean Startup Co., Heather McGough, who discuss the transformation of the Agency culture around the pillar of innovation. Topics include: getting stakeholder buy-in and challenges in facing bureaucracy, making decisions at speed underpinned by data, delivering value to customers, translating the method across disciplines, and more. 

Email us: education@leanstartup.CO
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Follow Department of Defense @DeptofDefense
Heather McGough can be reached on Twitter @UrbanitySF

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How Lean Startup Co. Coaches Support Department Of Defense Innovation | Erin Bugg & Marilyn Gorman

We recently hosted a conversation between Mikael Cho, Co-Founder & CEO of Unsplash, and Elliot Susel, Faculty Member at Lean Startup Co., about how Unsplash put community at the center of their product.

In Elliot and Mikael’s conversation, they discuss:
- How starting with something small and high quality can lead to something much bigger.
- How to encourage your community to participate in your product design.
- Why it’s important to make “being useful” your first priority instead of making money.
- The importance of trusting your intuition but also seeking feedback.
- And much, much more...


Co-Founder & CEO of the photo-sharing startup, Unsplash, Mikael Cho, spoke with Lean Startup Co. faculty member, Elliot Susel, about how a simple problem with photo access filled the needs of a community of photo lovers. 
 
The most successful startups often tap into an unfulfilled need that nobody has gotten around to filling. Unsplash did just that in the photography space. Mikael, who comes from the design industry, saw a problem that needed solving before he ever planned to start a company from the solution. When building the website for his design business, Crew, Mikael quickly realized that finding good photos that didn’t cost a lot of money was “a really crappy process.” 
 
He wanted a way to remove the licenses from photos so users could have access to high quality photos without paying a lot or jumping through hoops. The easiest solution was just to take them, themselves. They hired a photographer.
 
Left with a bunch of unused photos after the shoot, Mikael wanted to use them to create a photo-finding experience that would be the opposite of his own bad one. “We made the ideal experience for someone who wanted to use photos, and we could use our own,” he said.
 
With a $9 domain name for Unsplash and a Tumblr theme for $19, they threw up a simple website in three hours with one goal: to upload ten new photos every ten days for anyone who wanted to use them. From there they used public Dropbox links hooked up to a MailChimp newsletter and a Google Docs sign up form. 
 
Their website was so simple Mikael says they were actually embarrassed by it and didn’t plan to share it too widely. The only bit of advertising they did was to post a link to Unsplash on Hacker News, a site where they’d never had much success, so if it flopped, it would be no big deal. Instead, what followed, Mikael calls a “happy accident”: tens of thousands of people signed up on their Google Doc and began accessing the photos.

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How To Build A Community Centered Product | Mikael Cho

We recently hosted a webcast conversation between Jessica Korthuis, Founder and Chief Brand Strategist at SOHUIS, and Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, to discuss how you can incorporate lean into your marketing and brand strategy.

In Jessica and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss:
- What companies should do before making the decision to rebrand.
- Tools and exercises that can help you execute a successful brand strategy.
- How to validate the brand strategy you implemented actually worked.

And much, much more…


Jessica Korthuis started her first company with her husband after her corporate dream job was eliminated. She didn’t have a ton of experience helping entrepreneurs brand themselves but she had a lot of experience in marketing communications and a can-do spirit. “We built this super-crappy website and then poof, we just started our first agency,” Jessica said.

The agency grew organically to include such clients as TED Women, Red Bull and Stanford University, but was completely bootstrapped. “It was this absolutely scrappy thing,” Jessica said.

Through the local business ecosystem in Orlando, Florida she learned about Lean Startup, which is where she got involved in helping entrepreneurs brand themselves using Lean Startup tools.

Jessica admitted that she was naive at that early stage of her business, but that was both a strength and a weakness. On the one hand, she said, it helped not to know how much work was in front of them, but it was also scary. Her biggest takeaway from starting with so little knowledge is that sometimes the best thing to do is to, “Just start.”

Once she was deeper into the process, Jessica saw the value in Lean Startup methods and began to use it, suggesting founders should learn who your early adopters are going to be and determine your minimum viable product (MVP) as early as possible, but “Don’t try to slay the dragon all at once,” she said.

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Applying Lean To Marketing And Brand Strategy | Jessica Korthuis

We recently hosted a webcast conversation where Elliot Susel, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, spoke with Aaron Levy, Founder and CEO of Raise The Bar about the need for better leaders, unlocking potential, and psychological safety in today's shifting marketplace.

In Aaron and Elliot’s conversation, they discuss:
- How leaders are made and not born, meaning good leadership is a trainable skill.
- The iteration process Aaron went through to develop a product focused on leadership development.
- Why an environment of emotional safety is so important and how to create this in your workplace.

And much, much, more…


Aaron Levy has always been intrigued by human behavior. Specifically why, when we [as humans] know better, why don’t we do better? “People don’t go from knowledge to action,” Aaron says, “and that’s always baffled me.”

This observation and led Aaron to study the science of behavior change and how it applied to the world around him. In work and in life, he constantly observed and studied people, both leaders whom he had an opportunity to work with and his friends — that is to say, millennials — who were figuring out their career paths in their respective industries. The latter group led him to notice a curious trend; no matter how much money they were making or how cool their company or office culture was, his friends were all either thinking about leaving their jobs or had left already. 

After speaking with as many of these people as he could, Aaron got down to the “why?” of it all: that individuals aren’t achieving their best potential despite the fact that both they and their companies want them to excel and succeed. So even though there was an aligned vision between company and employer, there was a big gap, and it all came down to leadership.

“The core point of leverage in any organization is your manager,” Aaron says, “and unfortunately most managers suck.”

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Get The Most From Your People By Being Open, Honest, And Direct | Aaron Levy

We recently hosted a conversation between Claire Lee, Head of Early Stage at Silicon Valley Bank, Liz Curtis, CEO & Founder at Table + Teaspoon, and CJ Legare, Lean Startup Co. Chief of Staff, about the realities facing female entrepreneurs today.

In Claire, Liz, and CJ’s conversation, they discuss:
- Why Liz decided to start Table + Teaspoon, a “Rent the Runway, but for table settings.” 
- What Claire calls the “Single Digit Club” and what we can do to change it.
- The importance that mentors have played in both Liz and Claire’s career.

And much, much more…


Liz Curtis didn’t always intend to be an entrepreneur, least of all in the world of entertaining. In fact, she was studying to become a lawyer when she started Table + Teaspoon — a blog that featured decorating ideas, entertaining tips and recipes. The blog was initially just a creative outlet for Liz as she pursued her career as a corporate litigator, but eventually, it became a much bigger idea that she launched into a business. 

In 2013, while she was still practicing law, Liz decided she wanted to build something “rather than tearing things apart,” the latter of which she felt she was doing as a lawyer. Liz pivoted on her career and started interviewing with startups to do something — anything — to hop aboard their rocket ship. But after verbally agreeing to join a startup about to launch their new app, she “realized that she’d rather build her own rocket ship.” 

So in 2013, she left law behind and started looking at what tech-enabled solutions were needed in the entertaining space, a huge market lacking any innovation and thus ripe for disruption. After getting her hands dirty and exploring a little bit of everything in the industry  — catering, interior design, flowers, weddings — she landed on her current business model which she describes as “Rent the Runway, but for table settings.” The bootstrapped idea launched as a prototype in the Fall of 2016, went nationwide in 2017, and late last year she started raising her seed money, which, according to Liz, “is the hardest thing I’ve done in my life, including taking the California bar exam.”

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The Realities Facing Female Founders | Claire Lee & Liz Curtis

We recently hosted a conversation between Sarah Paiji Yoo, Co-Founder & CEO at Blueland, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how becoming a mom led Sarah to create a company that is reimagining how we consume household products to eliminate the need for wasteful plastic packaging. 

In Chris and Sarah’s conversation, they discuss:
- How Sarah got the idea for Blueland and why she felt so compelled to solve the problem of wasteful plastic packaging.
- How the team developed and tested their first product idea: toothpaste
- How they took these initial learnings and pivoted to cleaning spray products.

And much, much more…


When serial entrepreneur Sarah Paiji Yoo became a new mom, she wasn’t looking to find her next business idea. She had made the conscious decision to step back from work to find a balance between being a new parent and being a businesswoman. But it was the very act of being a mom that gave her the idea for what would eventually become her company, Blueland. 

Sarah was horrified to discover how many microplastics are in the water she was using to mix formula for her baby — the very same water that we all drink. She discovered that all of the plastic we consume in society is ending up in our oceans and waterways where they’re broken down into microscopic microplastics that end up in our food and drinking water. 

So Sarah made the conscious decision to cut back on her own plastic consumption. But she quickly discovered that was easier said than done. Oftentimes, there aren't any items on the shelves that give consumers a choice to opt for something more eco-conscious. From ketchup bottles to toothpaste to detergent, it’s all single-use plastic packaging. 

But rather than getting discouraged, Sarah got an idea. She realized that she could go beyond having an impact on her personal consumption, by creating products that gave all consumers a more Earth-friendly alternative.

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How Parenthood Sparked a Business | Sarah Paiji Yoo

We recently hosted a conversation between Ryan Caldbeck, Founder & CEO at CircleUp, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how to navigate through a major pivot.

This episode is part one of the conversation with Ryan and part two is coming up next week. Even more exciting, Ryan is also speaking at the Lean Startup Conference this week in San Francisco. Tickets to the conference are still available at LeanStartup.co.

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An Honest Account Of An Entrepreneur’s Pivot: Part One | Ryan Caldbeck

We recently hosted a conversation between Ryan Caldbeck, Founder & CEO at CircleUp, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, focused on what it’s like as a CEO to take your company through a major pivot. This episode is part two of their conversation.

In Chris and Ryan’s conversation they discuss:
- How to create a culture that gives support to people that want to be vulnerable and authentic for the benefit of the company and for themselves.
- The unique challenges CEO’s face and how they can build a support system for themselves.
- How Ryan has utilized Lean Startup methodologies as an entrepreneur.

And much, much more…

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An Honest Account Of An Entrepreneur’s Pivot: Part Two | Ryan Caldbeck

We recently hosted a conversation between fiifi Founder & CEO, Theron McCollough, and Lean Startup Co. Advisor, Chris Guest, focused on Theron’s experiences working in the world of startups and his recent return to the role of an entrepreneur as he launches his new venture. 

In Chris and Theron’s conversation, they discuss:

- Given Theron’s background advising and investing in hundreds of startups, what insights has he taken with him as he re-enters the world of entrepreneurship? 
- And now that he is a player again, does he follow the advice he would have given when he was a coach?

And much, much more…


For more than a decade, Theron McCollough has been working in the world of startups. Fairly early on in his career — when he was working with Pivotal Software — he began to notice how Lean Startup techniques could help a business scale. And while he took note of the usefulness of testing, iterating, and failing, one of the biggest things he learned was the importance of asking customers what they think. 

The simple act of reaching out to the customer can be incredibly helpful and enlightening. “You would be amazed at what you find out,” Theron says.

It’s one of the things that is easy to understand in theory, but Theron cautions, entrepreneurs have to put it into practice to see how it works. “Until you actually do it, you don’t understand what the struggles are,” he says, adding, “once you get in there, you realize how much information every single customer or potential customer can give you to save you from wasting time and energy.” 

As an added bonus, it’s also a great way to develop a customer base. If you adopt their feedback and apply it to your product or business, “they’re going to be a customer for life.” Because they’ll not only feel heard, but you’ll have created something that made their business (or life) better.

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Advice From An Entrepreneur, Intrapreneur, Investor And Advisor | Theron McCollough

This conversation between Alton McDowell, Co-head of Technology and Disruptive Commerce at J.P. Morgan, and Eric Ries took place at the Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco.

Eric and his team are known for creating a movement within the startup community and have helped companies make lasting impacts and experience sustainable growth. In this conversation, he talks with Alton about startup trends, lessons he’s learned along the way, and best practices entrepreneurs can follow.

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Building A Startup For Long-Term Success | Eric Ries & Alton McDowell

We recently hosted a conversation between Michael Barlow, Co-Founder & CEO at Fernish, Lucas Dickey, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer at Fernish, DeMarcus Williams, Director of Silicon Valley Bank Early Stage Practice, and Hisham Ibrahim, Lean Startup Co. Faculty Member, about six rookie mistakes that block growth in early stage startups.

In the conversation, they discuss:
- How to implement good hiring and retention practices to ensure you’re surrounding yourself with the right team.
- The importance of maintaining a consistent company narrative.
- Tips to avoid getting stuck in analysis paralysis.

And much, much more…


Fernish’s founders Lucas Dickey and Michael Barlow have prime backgrounds in product management, engineering, design, sales, and finance. Their collective resumes include time in the trenches at Amazon and J.P. Morgan. When it came to launching their subscription service for home furnishings, though, they often traded expertise for proof of concept. Dickey and Barlow are methodical about ensuring each course of action boosts growth, regardless of what their egos may be telling them. This attitude is working in their favor. In the two years since they founded Fernish, the company has grown to 35 employees and their customer base numbers in the thousands.

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Analysis Paralysis And Other Innovation Blockers | Michael Barlow, Lucas Dickey, & DeMarcus Williams

We recently hosted a conversation between Ralph Morales III, Head of Innovation Practice at SmartOrg, and David Binetti, Innovation Consultant, about solutions for some of the trickier innovation puzzles facing intrapreneurs. This conversation was recorded during the 2019 Lean Startup Conference in San Francisco and we’re excited to make it available to you as a podcast.

In the conversation, they discuss:
- Testing a range of assumptions and knowing when to move from one to the next.
- The importance of taking a lot of smaller bets to help you find and be ready for the big opportunity.
- Scoring each risk with ignorance and value ratings to show executives the uncertain value.

And much, much more…


Ralph Morales III is a unicorn intrapreneur. He began his career in finance and ended up in innovation, a rare trajectory. More specifically, he worked at HP during what he calls the “sunshine moment for new business innovation,” moving from his role as financial marketing analyst to eventually becoming the Director of Innovation, where he was scouting and incubating innovations in virtual reality, IOT solutions, and industrial 3-D printing. He’s currently Head of Innovation Practice at SmartOrg, which helps drive corporate growth by connecting innovation and finance through strategic portfolio management. 

“I'm proof that people can change,” Morales says of his career path. “Part of it is just being a curious learner. My dad was always fixing things. He used to say, ‘Solve the puzzle.’ People come with problems. People who solve puzzles add value.” 

Morales and Innovation Consultant, David Binetti, discussed solutions for some of the trickier innovation puzzles facing intrapreneurs at the 2019 Lean Startup Conference.

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Knowing When To Say, "Next!" | Ralph Morales III

We recently hosted a conversation between Christopher Lochhead, bestselling author and #1 charting podcaster, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about why category design is so powerful, how to best wield it, and why entrepreneurs should naturally embody it.

In the conversation, they discuss:
- What is category design and who are some companies that have successfully implemented it.
- How category design gets you out of the comparison trap.
- What it takes as an entrepreneur and intrapreneur to implement category design.

And much, much more…


Christopher Lochhead values standing out over fitting in. He wants entrepreneurs to create markedly different products, not just better versions of old standbys. His #1 charting podcasts, "Follow Your Different" and "Lochhead on Marketing," and bestselling books Niche Down: How To Become Legendary By Being Different and Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets instruct entrepreneurs on developing and dominating new categories of products and services—and shifting consumer paradigms in the process. Lochhead eschews conventional marketing wisdom and evangelizes “category design,” which he calls “a secret art built on the thinking of legends.”

Lean Startup Co. advisor Christopher Guest  recently chatted with Lochhead to understand why category design is so powerful, how to best wield it, and why entrepreneurs should naturally embody it.

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Name The Category, Own The Market | Christopher Lochhead

We recently hosted a conversation between Christina Greenberg, Co-Founder of Edgility Consulting, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about how Christina recruited to build a diverse and inclusive organization and how you can do the same.

In the conversation, they discuss:
- The founding story of Edgility Consulting and why they decided to focus on helping youth-serving nonprofits and education organizations find, hire, and keep talent.
- How they examined their own recruiting methods and what they could do to create an environment where all different kinds of people would want to work for them.
- Specific plans and strategies you can implement to recruit for a diverse and inclusive staff.

And much, much more…


Christina Greenberg is an expert in pivoting outside her comfort zone. The co-founder of Edgility Consulting has branched out, business-wise, multiple times in service of a larger vision. In her case, that vision involves supporting a diverse and inclusive industry standard. Her Oakland-based firm helps youth-serving nonprofits and education organizations find, hire, and keep talent.

Before co-founding Edgility, Greenberg worked in fundraising, policy, and nonprofit management. But she tapped into her true passion when she started recruiting in the education sector, “making that magical connection” to place someone where they’d have the most impact. She spent four years working for a program that mentored and trained aspiring principals for low income communities in the Bay Area. After taking a maternity break, Greenberg returned to the workforce as a consultant. She found enough clients needed her unique expertise in education to launch a business, Redwood Circle Consulting. Five and a half years in, it was time to expand. Greenberg and a business partner, Edgility co-founder Allison Wyatt, launched their firm from opposite coasts. 

They weren’t sure what the company’s full scope would look like from the start, says Greenberg, but they established guiding principles. They wanted to build upon their shared talents in the recruiting space. They wanted to focus on organizations for “underserved youth and families—low income families, families of color, and students that were struggling for one reason or another in the school systems that we have today.” And finally, they wanted a lean business with little overhead, zero drama, and high expectations for what they could accomplish. 

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There Is Value In Diversity And This Company Is Diving Into The Movement | Christina Greenberg

We recently hosted a conversation between Jesse Thomas, Co-founder & CEO of Picky Bars, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about the impact of passion, patience and a focus on growth that led to consistent, year-over-year growth for the energy bar company.

In the conversation, they discuss:
- How Jesse struggled to find balance in his life while working for a VC-funded startup.
- How a personal need from Jesse’s athletic training led to the creation of Picky Bars.
- The benefits of self-funding and keeping expenses low.

 And much, much more…


Jesse Thomas is the co-founder & CEO of Picky Bars, not to mention a professional triathlete and two-time ironman champion. Born and raised in Bend, Oregon, Thomas excelled in track and field while at Stanford University and later narrowly missed earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, largely due to an injury he suffered during steeplechase trials. After he shifted to cycling, Thomas ultimately put a stop to his athletic career when a fall while biking left him with a broken neck. Rather than give up, however, he shifted his focus to the startup world.


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Combining Passion And Necessity To Create A Business | Jesse Thomas

We recently hosted a conversation between Brianne Kimmel, Founder & Managing Partner at Work Life Ventures, and Chris Guest, Lean Startup Co. Advisor, about entering this new era of work and business. 

Brianne Kimmel shares her experiences on how our current accelerating speed is impacting startups and what it means for enterprise organizations and government. 

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