Lean Startup Machine is NOT a hackathon.

It’s an intensive three-day workshop which teaches entrepreneurs and innovators how to build disruptive products.

How It Works

The workshop kicks off with a series of product pitches that help attendees organize into teams. Everyone works on a NEW idea. Each team then develops its problem hypothesis, solution hypothesis and a series of assumptions which are core to the success of the business.

Next, each team creates an MVP, or “Minimum Viable Product.” The goal of the MVP test is to “Get Out Of the Building,” speak with real customers and to collect cash or non-cash currency which serves as validation.

The process promotes a problem-centric approach to business ideation. By continuously validating and invalidating assumptions, teams are forced to pivot their solution (and even problem) toward a true customer pain; rather than creating a solution and after-the-fact seeking customers with a problem.

The event culminates with each team pitching its new solutions and its experience using the process. In this competition the winning team is not selected based on who has the best idea, but instead on which team honors the process and gains the most insights through its pivots.

Watch: Alumni Describe Their Experience

Brian Watson – Analyst, Union Square Ventures

 
Melissa Perri – Project Manager, OpenSky

The Team

Trevor Owens, CEO and Founder 

Trevor is an entrepreneur and thought leader on Lean Startup methodologies. As Founder & CEO of Lean Startup Machine, he has helped thousands of startup founders and individuals from organizations including Google, Salesforce, News Corp, Intuit, and others, start hundreds of new businesses on five continents. Owens is active in the community as a coach for the White House’s Innovation Fellows program and as a featured guest speaker at Princeton & Columbia University.

Grace Ng, Design Lead & Co-Founder

Grace is Co-Founder and Design Lead of Lean Startup Machine, an innovation education company that has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and individuals from organizations including Google, Salesforce, News Corp, Intuit, and others, start hundreds of new businesses on five continents.

As the youngest thought leader on Lean User Experience (Lean UX) in the world, she has been a featured guest speaker for the White House’s Innovation Fellows, Princeton University, and an instructor for Singularity University and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Obie Fernandez, Chief Technology Officer

Obie is an entrepreneur, best selling Ruby on Rails author, and the Chief Technology Officer at Lean Startup Machine. He previously founded Hashrocket, one of the worldʼs most revered Rails web development shops, which he led to over 35 employees and almost $7M in revenues in 2010.

Fernandez brings over 15 years of programming and product development experience to the Lean Startup Machine team.

Drew Nagda, Director of Corporate Partnerships

Drew is the Director of Sales. He is responsible for clients including NewsCorp, Salesforce, Wharton School of Business, & University of Florida. Prior to Lean Startup Machine, Drew worked in sales at SinglePlatform (acquired by ConstantContact in ’12).

Rafael Balbi, Director of Operations

Rafael is the Director of Operations. He oversees workshop execution and expansion on a global level. Rafael started his journey at Lean Startup Machine as the coordinator for Lean Startup Machine in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Prior to joining Lean Startup Machine, Rafael was the Founder of Franklin’s Lab, which focused on helping aspiring entrepreneurs reach their potential. Rafael is also a Skillshare Master Teacher.

Andrea Luxenberg, Executive Assistant

Andrea is the Executive Assistant. She manages day-to-day office operations. Prior to Lean Startup Machine, Andrea was an Administrative Assistant at Kohort.

Sam Hysell, Strategic Partnerships

Sam is the head of Strategic Partnerships. He is in charge of collaborating with like-minded organizations that want to provide value to aspiring innovators (intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs) worldwide.

Our Advisors

• Eric Ries, Author of The Lean Startup
• Brant Cooper, Co-Author of The Lean Entrepreneur
• Patrick Vlaskovits, Co-Author of The Lean Entrepreneur
• Hiten Shah, Co-Founder of KISSmetrics
• Farb Nivi, Co-Founder of Grockit
• Evan Korth, NYU Computer Science & Co-Founder HackNY
• Larry Lenihan, Managing Director of FirstMark Capital
• Jason Saltzman, Co-Founder Alley NYC
• Ian McFarland, Founder of Neo

Hall of Fame

• Ryan MacCarrigan, Director of Marketing at Advsor.com
• Boris Grinkot, Partner at ScaleIQ
• Aksel Gungor, Co-Founder of Acclaim
• Jefrey Bulla, Engineer & Entrepreneur
• Rob Caucci, Co-Founder of SpaceSplitter
• Eugenia Koo, Analyst at RRE Ventures