The Lean Explorers Club solves many of the problems with traditional startup accelerators. In particular, it:
- Focuses on helping explorers search for and validate a repeatable, scalable, and viable business model by running fast and low-cost experiments that test business model hypotheses,
- Is based upon the Lean Launchpad accelerator created by Steve Blank and now used by many companies and institutions around the world, including by law within the US NIH and NSF.
- Is open to ALL applicants, i.e. there is no cohort or limit on who can participate (beyond the resources available to serve participants adequately), as often only a smaller number will persist with the process,
- Is ongoing, i.e. doesn’t have a start or finish date or set duration, individuals and teams can join whenever they want and stay as long as they want (within the full duration of the accelerator),
- Is flexible, i.e. allows teams to start where appropriate and pivot if their hypotheses are invalidated since it uses the highly iterative Customer Development process, and
- Allows micro-investments later, when important early hypotheses have been validated, and investors can choose to fund more-expensive experiments and business model validation.
