Question 1
A startup is a learning experience interview with Jessica Mah provides insights on how Lean Startup Principles help change the situation of startup businesses. Jessica was having difficult time managing finances, in the beginning; she is a computer science graduate, Lean principles increased efficiency. They got their money they applied for due to their passion for building a business; they convinced the finance company that they want people to put their credit card number on their website and find value from their website, they were impressed. The second step was valued stream in which they laid back and made a goal to get more customers in inner. They tried to pitch customers and raised money; it helped them find one million dollar find. They didn’t spend their money quickly and started hiring people; they build useful products that made money. They planned what features customers wanted in their products; during the HR phase, she tried a lot of good or bad people and hired them. She fixed her hiring mistakes quickly by firing some bad employees. Their struggles and success all helped them to understand the complex parts of building an engineering business and got them the entire understanding of its operations. They eliminated the unwanted stuff and only kept people who were valuable for the business. After removing the waste, they made sure that next steps in business would be smooth without any interruptions. It is the principle of flow; proceeded with their plan to make the business look very different from the executive summary. Lean startup helped them to change their ways, they were overcoming their mistakes and learning from experience. They build a clubhouse culture in inner; they build control through angel investors without losing much equity. It made it easier to make money and customers; the Pull part comes into play here. Perfection was the greatest part where they improved their corporate culture further and involved every employee in constant effort to make a business successful from struggling one.
Question 2
The most amazing thing Jessica did being the boss with her partner and made critical business decisions like hiring and firing people. Even though their hiring mistakes cost them half their funding, but she kept her cool and learned from her mistakes. She showed the tremendous amount of effort and courage to pursue her dream in a fun way. She focused on spending their one million dollars on right problems; she raised money wisely and refrains from wasting it on wrong things. She had pressure to spend the investor’s money to make the company grow faster. She fired someone who was not top notch was productive. She did not accept half productivity; she always wanted employees to deliver 100%.
Question 3
They are doing fine now; they are growing customers, contacting their current customers to help them improve their features and business in the accounting product. They are patiently progressing the company with customer feedback and talking about the problems customers go through. They are going smoothly towards their planned goals; they are making a few shifts in the few areas where they think customers are having biggest issues; they are thinking strongly about building a business that brings the best value to the customers.
They are improving their company culture and the way their employees interact each other and with customers. The employees understand their customers after some time, and their customer base is getting smart and tech savvy. The ability of Jessica and her dynamic team is to see the opportunity in the time of struggle, their patience, and hard work has brought them success, and the future looks very bright for these entrepreneurs.
References
Jessica Mah: A Startup is a Learning Experience [Entire Talk] | Stanford corner. (2017). Ecorner.stanford.edu. Retrieved 21 July 2017, from http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2850/A-Startup-is-a-Learning-Experience-Entire-Talk
Pohl, K., Böckle, G., & Linden, F. (2010). Software product line engineering. New York, NY: Springer.
