Science versus Entrepreneurship

The Lean Startup is heavily rooted in the Scientific Method and defines learning as the measure of progress. On the one hand, empirical learning (favoring facts over opinions) is critical for testing key assumptions and keeping our unbridled passion for our products in check.

Reasonably smart people can rationalize anything, but entrepreneurs are especially gifted at this.

– Running Lean

But the pursuit of empirical learning can also be taken too far. I’ve seen too many entrepreneurs use it as a cop out for not achieving business results.

I advise a number of early stage entrepreneurs and will often check in on their progress. Entrepreneurs, being overly optimistic in nature, will generally report things as going well.

My next question to them, however, is:

“How many customers have you signed up?”

The answer is often disappointing but they always highlight the amount of data (aka learning) they are gathering.

This is where I draw a sharp distinction between science and entrepreneurship.

Science is driven by the pursuit of raw knowledge

where learning is truly the measure of progress.

But entrepreneurship is a lot more directed.

Our jobs, as entrepreneurs, is building

a repeatable and scalable business model before running out of resources.

While empirical learning is a key part of that process,

if you can’t quickly turn that learning into measurable business results,

then you are just accumulating trivia.