Lean Startups for Social Change: The Revolutionary Path to Big Impact

by Michel Gelobter

For years, the lean startup has been revolutionizing both new and established businesses. In this eye-opening book, serial social entrepreneur Michel Gelobter shows how it can do the same for nonprofits.

Traditionally, whether creating a new business or a new program, entrepreneurs in all sectors develop a plan, find money to fund it, and pursue it to its conclusion. The problem is, over time conditions can change drastically—but you’re locked into your plan. The lean startup is all about agility and flexibility. Its mantra is “build, measure, learn”: create small experimental initiatives, quickly get real-world feedback on them, and use that data to expand what works and discard what doesn’t.

Using dozens of social sector examples, Gelobter walks you through the process. The standard approach wastes time and money. The lean startup will help your organization vastly increase the good it does.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published November 2, 2015

Reviews

[Jay French · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suspect this is a pretty good book. I can tell you it’s not a very good audiobook. I listened to this. What really made listening difficult is that the text of the book references a number of graphics and tables that are ignored on the audio. In the best audiobooks that have this issue, the tables and graphics are described. Here, you are referred to the table for information, then the book continues assuming you know that information. A good editor with the license to modify the content of the book would fix this by including descriptions of the tables. Some audiobooks include PDFs of the charts, but I downloaded this from the library’s Hoopla service, and there were no PDFs included. And those are hard to review when you are listening while driving, anyway. Even if the tables and charts were somehow made available, this would have still been a difficult listen. The book occasionally leans on lists, and lists are difficult to follow. And lists containing lists are poison in audio – I believe these show up here as well.

As for the content of the book, this seems to have taken information about lean startups, perhaps from other sources, and mapped that information on to social startups. While I’m not up on lean startups, this seems to be a valuable thing, documenting a new way to experiment with solutions and outcomes, failing fast, understanding the need to change, or pivot, when things don’t go as anticipated or when change occurs. After having listened to the book, I do feel that there is some value here, perhaps great value, for those considering an enterprise for social good that haven’t already been dipped into the lean way of doing things. If you are one of those people, buy the book, as you will refer to it over time. The audio version is only good for some basic background, and perhaps as reminder after reading the book.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is AMAZING. If you are looking for a step by step guide for how to implement lean startup principles in your social sector innovation/mission, look no further. This book will be my guiding anchor/reference as I launch my social innovation this year. I am so grateful for this book. It turns an otherwise overwhelmingly blank slate into a play-by-play, framework filled, practical, accessible road map to effective, smart, fast, disciplined innovation.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The intros to agile/lean process are useful and welcome, not to mentione the real-life examples. To help you avoid confusion, note social sector = non-profit/government (e.g. non-profit), as that wasn't immediately clear to me. Worth the read - enjoy!

[Juan Del Cerro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó el acercamiento al proceso de Lean Startup enfocado a las empresas sociales.

Genial para alguien que quiere iniciar un proyecto sustentable de impacto social.

[Eirini Efthymiadou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Social sector entrepreneurs are applying their creative energy and rigorous analysis to some of the world’s most difficult problems - problems that have persisted because they resist easy solutions. This book shows how the Lean Startup principles and methodology can be applied to social enterprises, so that innovators and leaders across the social sector can accelerate and expand their impact to meet the challenges of our times. It provides organisations with a framework to quickly test new ideas and validate those that might be most effective. Lean Startup thinking encourages social sector entrepreneurs to get out of their heads and to test their proposed solutions in the real world to actually create massive, transformative social change.