Yottaa Gets $9M for "Anti-Lean" Startup Approach

http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2012/05/22/yottaa-looking-more-like-akamai-gets-9m-for-anti-lean-approach/

by gthuang1 • 14 years ago

32 13 14 years ago

rcavezza2• 14 years ago

"lean" is about validated learning, not the size of your team.

davidw• 14 years ago

I recall reading in someone's book - maybe Blank's - that Lean Startups can help when there is market risk, but not "innovation risk" - will the team actually be able to create the thing they have in mind? Something like a new cancer drug was the example - the market is not a problem, the problem is whether you'll be able to create it.

Ramone• 14 years ago

The normal usage of the term "Lean" (ie from Toyota) actually has little to do with validated learning and more to do with the elimination of wasteful aspects of production that don't directly lead to customer value. Usually that means "pulling" work out of a team based on need rather than trying to anticipate need that might never materialize (like the need to scale workforce and infrastructure, which is the case here). FTA: "The idea, he says, is to be “global from day one and have scalability built in.”". Of course in any pull system, validated learning is built-in, because new customer demand is new information, but the focus of Lean is actually the reduction of wasteful production. He'll have wasted a lot of time/money if demand doesn't match the infrastructure he's built.

rcavezza2• 14 years ago

In this context, its about eliminating waste through validated learning.

krschultz• 14 years ago

You are spot on. Unfortunately the 'Lean Startup' book basically overloaded a lot of words around Lean. I love the concept in the 'Lean Startup' book, I also love Lean methodology in manufacturing.

But it is confusing as hell to talk to people in both fields becuase a lot of words have different meanings now.

taligent• 14 years ago

Never actually heard of this company before but they seem to be playing in a great space IMHO. It seems to be a combination of Cloudflare, Pingdom, Akamiai and New Relic. And for many sites having to have accounts with them all is a hassle.

Now if they could only combine a vulnerability scanner as well ...

mildweed• 14 years ago

I use Yottaa as a band-aid for inherited websites at my agency. When a client comes to us, asks us to rebuild their site and take over their old site in the mean time, we use Yottaa to speed the heck out of their poorly-hosted, poorly written previous site.

Also, don't be confused when the sales guys call and say they're from "Yoda". The space muppet is the correct way to pronounce yotta, the SI prefix.

retube• 14 years ago

how does yottaa actually speed up websites? does it involve shifting your website to their platform/severs?

g_brett• 14 years ago

"Lean startup" has been great but it also had its side effects - lots of people automatically assumed it without knowing what it meant and how to apply to a particular company. Related, it is amazing to see how many developers think "agile development" as "no design, no documentation and no architecture".

There are more than one way to build a great company. Hope Yottaa can share some more data points.

6ren• 14 years ago

I'm not sure it's possible to "iterate quickly", if it takes a year to build the product - unless you can anticipate what changes will be needed, which is the problem Lean tries to address. However, I agree that some deep projects do require a year (or years).

azylman• 14 years ago

What? Anti-lean? Lean isn't about "small teams", it's about no waste. Needing a big team (which it sounds like these guys do) doesn't preclude you from being lean. If you have a big team and you DON'T need it, THEN you're "anti-lean".

ww520• 14 years ago

I think the Anti-Lean term here means big capital investment and long development cycle to build the product vs. the typical small amount of investment and short development cycle in the Lean shops.

It doesn't invalidate the Lean development approach, just describing the opposite of it. It's like matter vs anti-matter, which doesn't state anything negative about matter, just having the opposite property.

Yottaa Gets $9M for "Anti-Lean" Startup Approach

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