Start-ups are very risky. As Eric Ries put it:
Most founders have horrifically bad ideas at the start.What differentiates the successful start-ups from the unsuccessful start-ups is something we call the pivot. The idea is that as we test those ideas against reality, we discover a surprising truth, that within each bad idea is the kernel of a good idea waiting to come out...
I call it a pivot because when tenacious founders discover that there's something wrong with their idea, they don't just give up and abandon the whole thing. Instead, they keep one foot firmly rooted in what they learned with the previous idea, and move the other foot in the new direction. So it's not a complete change...
And the premise of the lean startup is actually simple, it's just that if we can reduce the time it takes to do those major iterations, those pivots, then we can increase the odds of finding product/market fit and of being successful before we run out of money.
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