CHAPTER SIXStartup Agility

Executing with Focused Flexibility

A startup is an experiment: An inquiry into how the world might look under the vision of the startup’s founders.”

—Eric Ries, Co-Founder, IMVU

Despite the eagerness and optimism of passionate entrepreneurs, there is no such thing as a sure thing. Each new venture is a learning lab in which the founder’s ambitions and ideas are tested against market realities and cold financial facts. The birth of a business is an inherently creative process in which possibilities are generated, torn apart, refined, and reconstituted, all to adapt to environmental uncertainty that will persist long after the startup phase.

Passionate founders must especially guard against betting the bulk of their ...

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