Lean Startup Co. was born from the global movement launched by Eric Ries’ The Lean Startup and The Startup Way. We pioneered and continue to lead the way in education on innovation, modern management and the Lean Startup methodology for the Government, Enterprise, and Nonprofit sectors.
Our expert faculty coach your organization through implementing new practices that, when supported by accountability and strong leadership, will lead to cultural transformation.
Mission Statement
“Empowering teams to systematically vet, shape and de-risk new business ideas.”
Imagine if entrepreneurship was a core function of every organization; we could solve some of the world’s biggest problems. We teach organizations everywhere in this fast-changing world how to innovate with customer-centric, data-driven metrics for success. We help you build products that matter, products that people want and need.
Welcome to our community and thanks for learning about what we do. We hope you’ll check out our library of online media, join us for a live event and let us know how we can help you bring the entrepreneurial spirit to your organization.
Founders
Eric Ries
Co-Founder & Author
Eric Ries is an entrepreneur and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way. He serves on the advisory board of several technology startups and has been named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School, named one of the Best Young Entrepreneurs of Tech by BusinessWeek and honored with a TechFellow award in the category of Engineering Leadership. Previously, he co-founded and served as CTO of IMVU. He is currently Founder & CEO of the Long-Term Stock Exchange.
Team
Adam Berk
Faculty
A lean entrepreneur, lean teacher, and serial entrepreneur who helps large organizations implement innovation at scale.
Ben Hafele
Faculty
Ben Hafele is an experienced Lean Startup practitioner, program manager, educator, and coach. He built a successful lean innovation program at Caterpillar and has worked with hundreds of startup businesses spanning five continents. Ben thrives on operationalizing Lean Startup concepts and driving alignment and engagement with senior leadership.
Andi Plantenberg
Faculty
An innovation consultant who builds entrepreneurial capabilities in the enterprise.
Dan Olsen
Faculty
Author of The Lean Product Playbook, passionate about product management and helping companies adopt Lean Startup principles.
Hisham Ibrahim
Faculty
A product leader, coach, consultant and lecturer specializing in customer-driven innovation.
Jonathan Bertfield
Faculty
Jonathan Bertfield has been a member of the Lean Startup Co faculty since 2016. In that time Jonathan has worked with internal teams to design and deploy Lean Startup inspired innovation management frameworks at multiple global corporations and government agencies.
Lori Watson
Chief Finance and Operations Officer
Lori Watson is our Accounting and Administrative Manager. With over 20 years of experience in accounting and administration, Lori has worked with companies to refine their accounting systems and processes
Marilyn Gorman
Faculty
Marilyn Gorman is a highly experienced learning professional, facilitator and executive coach.
Advisors
Chris Guest
Topology Eyewear
Chris is the Chief Marketing & Growth Officer at Topology Eyewear, working at the intersection of Lean, Growth, Brand Marketing and Category Design.
Cindy Alvarez
Microsoft
Cindy Alvarez is the author of Lean Customer Development: Building Products Your Customers Will Buy and Director of User Experience for Yammer (a Microsoft company).
Dan Martell
Clarity
Dan Martell is the co-founder of Clarity a marketplace that connects entrepreneurs to get great business advice.
Hiten Shah
Quick Sprout
Hiten Shah started three SaaS companies, Crazy Egg, KISSmetrics and Quick Sprout. Two are self-funded & the other is venture backed. Hiten enjoys helping others think.
Hugh Molotsi
Faculty
Hugh Molotsi advises and invests in startups and is an active practitioner and teacher of Lean Startup Methodologies.
Laura Becker
Laura Becker is a B2B Sales Consultant with an entrepreneurial mindset, always working at the intersection of Sales, Marketing and Customer Success.
Laura Klein
Users Know
Laura fell in love with technology when she saw her first user research session in 1995. Since then, she's worked as an engineer, UX designer, and product manager at both startups and large companies in Silicon Valley.
Manuel Rosso
SevenR Services
Manuel Rosso has been practicing Lean Startup principles since 2006 when he worked with Eric Ries and the rest of the IMVU team as VP of Product and Marketing.
Zach Nies
Techstars
Zach Nies is Managing Director at Techstars for the Boulder program and a member of the faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder.