Lean Startup is a concept that is revolutionizing the way that startups are built by utilizing a process that eliminates much of the risk associated with launching a new company. According to Steve Blank who is one of the founders and biggest proponents of Lean Startup, it is simply a methodology that “favors experimentation over elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iterative design over traditional big design up front development.”
Earlier this month, the Harvard Business Review published an article by Steve entitled "Why the Lean Start-Up Changes Everything". The premise of the article is that the principles of Lean Startup are not just for startup founders in Silicon Valley, but for small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, non-profits and even governmental agencies. My partners and I at User10 couldn't agree more, but we want to add one more potential benefactor to that list... Teenagers.
In fact, Teens have possibly the most to gain from the principles of the lean startup, which is really exciting. To us, lean startup is much more than just a methodology for customer validations and agile development. Lean Startup is literally a formula for achieving success both in life and in business.
Let me explain
As a parent, there are three values that I deeply desire for my children.
1. That they excel in whatever they choose to do in their life and career
2. That they are able to spend the majority of their time doing something they truly love
3. That they are able to have a positive impact on the world around them
No matter how old your children are, it is probably safe to say that you desire something similar for your children. And if you don't have kids, then think of a cousin, brother, sister or any child that you want to be successful.
Fortunately for us, Steve Blank, Eric Ries, Alexander Osterwalder and countless others have been working diligently to document and teach startup founders critically important lessons that we can all use to teach our kids how to find success in their own lives. But before we do, a few things will have to happen. First, the main concepts will have to be simplified so that it can be easily and effectively explained to someone who is not in the startup world. Secondly, it will have to be modified so that anyone can benefit from its message.
The Fundamentals
The first problem that we wanted to address was the fact that while the Business Model Canvas and its 9 sections are a vast improvement over the traditional 200 page business plan, it still left quite a few people scratching their heads trying to understand it. In fact, most people who we have talked to about the canvas have no idea that the left side of the canvas is all about the production of a product or service, the right is all about the customer and that the Value Proposition joins the two in the middle. To solve this, we simply boiled down the entire concept of the Business Model Canvas down to its most fundamental components.
We want to be absolutely clear that we are not saying that these other elements are not important to the overall success of the business model, they are. It’s just that we want to be able to explain the entire idea of the business model canvas in a few short words so that the person learning can quickly experience that “ah ha!” moment of clarity. Then, we can easily introduce the other elements and their importance. By doing this exercise, what we came up with are three easy to remember words, “Make”, “Value” for “People” represented by the three major segments of the canvas.
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We call it the MVP Business Model, which in this case, MVP does not stand for Minimum Viable Product, but for “Making, Value for People”. To us, the entire BIG IDEA of business can be distilled into the act of “Making Value for People”, no more, no less.
Where this idea becomes very interesting is when we substitute the word “Customers” for “People” and put the individual at the core of the process. By doing this we are saying that anyone who figures out how to add more value to the people around them then they consume in resources will always find success both in life and business. At the same time, while we agree that profit and losses are a great way to measure business success, true success can be measured in many different ways. If we were to actually put this into a formula that we could solve for, it would look something like this
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As long as you are able to create more value for other people than resources that you consume, you will always moving forward on a path of success. It is when you add less value to the people around you then what you consume that you find yourself in a bad situation, wondering why you are not moving anywhere or even worse, backwards.
What we like about this concept as it relates to teens, is that we can teach such a critical life lesson such as value creation to those who don’t necessarily identify with business or entrepreneurship. The core lesson is that no matter what you want to accomplish in life, you can always find a way to turn your existing knowledge, interests and talents into a unique value proposition that serves the people around you. It’s that value that is the key to unlocking just about anything that you want to achieve. The formula works the same whether it is a business creating value for its customers, an HR department creating value for its employees, or a teacher creating value for his or her students. The more that our graduating students understand this basic business concept the more they will be able to accomplish not only for their own lives but for the people and community around them.
So what are we doing about it?
On paper this all sounds like a nice concept, but unless there are actual teens who are being exposed to these ideas we will just be wasting time talking about it. So we decided to test out some of these ideas. We talked to dozens of students, parents, teachers, principals and business owners and they all agreed that it is a topic that needs to be unpacked and further explored with real teens, real goals and real business ideas.
We are currently partnering with dozens of junior high and high schools in Colorado on a program we are calling the Teen Startup Challenge to deliver a video based curriculum to our students that will unpack the ideas of the MVP Business Model.
Teen Startup Challenge is an exciting program designed to support teens in Colorado, start and operate profitable community-based businesses over the summer.
To participate, all students’ need is an internet connection and the desire to turn their passions into a real business. Participating Teens will get 10 video-based lessons directly to their inbox each week over the summer, absolutely free.
Each video lesson is 3-5 minutes, focusing on tangible action steps that’ll guide them on their way to success. After each lesson, they will receive a “challenge” with clear goals and tasks to accomplish that week. Based on the results, a weekly winner is chosen and awarded a prize that will propel their business to the next level.
The 10-week program will include:
Introduction to the MVP Business Model
Starting with YOU
Creating Value
Developing Your Brand
Establishing Credibility
Delivering Value
Customer Relations
The Connection Economy
Realizing Value
Broadening Your Reach
If you are interested in partnering with us to explore this critically important topic, please contact us here http://teenstartupchallenge.com/contact/ and we will be in touch with you on ways that you can help.
Thank you,
Judah Musick
President, User10
Co-Founder, Teen Startup Challenge