Nail It then Scale It: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Creating and Managing Breakthrough Innovation [Paperback]

Nathan Furr (Author), Paul Ahlstrom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2011

Why do most new businesses fail, yet a few entrepreneurs have a habit of winning over and over again? The shocking discovery of years of research and trial is that most startups fail by doing the “right things,” but doing them out of order. In other words, human nature combined with our entrepreneurial drive puts us on autopilot to become part of the 70% to 90% of ventures that fail. From Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs, the Nail It Then Scale It method is based on pattern recognition of the timeless principles and key practices used by successful entrepreneurs to repeatedly innovate. These processes and principles have now been distilled into a handbook to guide entrepreneurs and innovative product managers to victory. Stop following conventional wisdom and join the few entrepreneurs that can consistently take their innovative idea all the way to a successful company launch.

Product Details

• Paperback: 258 pages
• Publisher: NISI Institute; 1St Edition edition (June 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0983723605
• ISBN-13: 978-0983723608
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Game Changing Classic August 14, 2011

By Ted Jr

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Nail It then Scale It ranks up there with game changing classics like Porter's Competitive Advantage, McKenna's Relationship Marketing, and Moore's Crossing the Chasm. Nail It then Scale It is based on real-world experience that is validated by many millions of dollars of investment in entrepreneurial startups. The Nail It then Scale It process underscores that the seeds to entrepreneurial success are sown before you build anything.

Nail the customers' pain.
Nail the solution customers are willing to pay for.
Avoid the traps of conventional wisdom that lead most entrepreneurs to failure.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

Why Believing in Your Product Leads to Failure. "All too often, entrepreneurs fall in love with their product or technology, they ignore negative feedback from customers, and they spend years building a product based on a vision that no one else shares."

Why Having too Much Money Leads to Failure. "Money allowed the entrepreneurs to execute their flawed business plan rather than to stay laser focused on the market so that they could find the facts about what customers wanted and adjust accordingly."

Where Do Winning Innovations Come From? "The key difference... is not to just ask customers what they want but to deeply understand the customers--their motivations, their needs, and most important, the job they are trying to get done... Thomas Edison stated that `I find out what the world needs. Then I go ahead and try to invent it'."

As Ahlstrom points out, commitment of money is a very powerful validation. "The price your customers are willing to pay is the measure of the degree to which you have nailed the solution."

Fail Fast and Learn to Change.... "By remembering to fail fast, you focus on rapidly testing your assumptions, iterating swiftly, and then, because you have less attachment, you can see when you need to abandon one approach in favor of a better approach."

Focus on Simplicity. "Somewhat counter-intuitively, simplifying increases customer adoption and reduces costs. Customers are attracted by simplicity and confused by complexity... Entrepreneurs should focus on developing the minimum feature set to close a customer purchase."

Unquestionably worth my time. Read more ›

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Without Question the Best Book for Entrepreneurs July 15, 2011

By Robert J. Stevens

Format:Paperback

Since 1995 I succeeded in creating two software startups without funding and failed in others. For the past several years I've read programming books hoping to find a technical edge, and entrepreneurial books to determine what I did wrong and what I must do to get it right the next time.

I concluded that more programming is pointless until I find the right idea and validate my business model, but the entire process wasn't clear to me.

Then I read, Nail It then Scale It. Complimentary to the book Boom Start, it is the best entrepreneurial book I've ever read. Within the first twenty pages I recognized my previous mistakes. Now I better understand the entire process of innovation, identifying deep customer pain, testing and validating solution hypotheses.

This book teaches the innovation and validation process from start to finish. By applying its best practices, l have the confidence I need to build the next big thing--one that delivers a simple, elegant solution that customers' want.

Five stars--I highly recommend it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for every product innovator July 14, 2011

By jallgood

Format:Paperback

Building products that people want is hard and costs lots of money (mostly because we miss the mark the first, and second, and third time around before we get it right). I read Nail It Then Scale It and it immediately resonated. As an entrepreneur I find myself constantly in product development mode. The steps outlined in the book cut time (50%+) and cost (80%+) out of our product development cycle. Nail It Then Scale It doesn't dance around theory, it dives right into the nuts and bolts of identifying need, and the step-by-step process of building a great product that will sell the moment it ships. Good entrepreneurs have solid product intuition - great entrepreneurs will follow Nail It Then Scale It and find out how to nail it the first time around. Great read - strongly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A balanced and practical approach for startups August 8, 2011

By M. Landa

Format:Kindle Edition

There are several books and methodologies around this common and critical theme for startups: how to reduce market-related mortality rates among IT-based startups, and how to maximize their potential.

Some methodologies focus more on the customer (Customer Development by Steve Blank), others on the product development (Lean Startup by Eric Ries), another on the business model (Business Model Canvas by Alexander Osterwalder).

"Nail it, then Scale It" provides a summary of basically all the current theories, but in an interconnected, coherent, well-balanced, AND PRACTICAL MANNER, as well as proposing additional concepts that fill the gaps of other authors.

I strongly believe this book should be the first reading of anybody interested in modern startup incubation theories due to its broad coverage, practicality and easy-reading format, and then you could go deeper with more theme-specific books, such as "Four Steps to Epiphany", "Lean Startup", "Business Model Generation", etc.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars READ IT and REVOLT! July 25, 2011

By bcummings

Format:Paperback

This book goes way beyond the principles and best practices for entrepreneurs and should be standard material for B-schools across the country. Gone are the days of the business plan and the traditional reliance on focus groups and customer feedack. This is a revolution whose time has come with a mission to train entrepreurs to think differently. By focusing on the pain points in the business process you learn a new way to develop your product on the path to start-up success.
READ IT and REVOLT!!