LEANSTACK

We build world-class tools, content, and coaching resources that help entrepreneurs succeed.

Authored Running Lean
Authored Scaling Lean
Created Lean Canvas

Founder/CEO

WiredReach

WiredReach enables the creation of dead-simple peer to web applications that blur the boundaries between the desktop and web. Our flagship product is BoxCloud - a dead-simple way for creatives to share large files with clients and co-workers.

Founder

Sonus Networks

Prior to founding WiredReach in 2002, Ash was Director of Software Development at telecom technologies inc., which was subsequently acquired by Sonus Networks in 2001. Ash built and led the development team responsible for tti’s distributed Voice over IP Softswitch product.

Director of Software Development

telecom technologies inc

He joined tti as a local number portability (LNP) expert at a time when tti was transitioning from a professional services company to a product company. He help put together a team and led the development project for their flagship product.

Nortel

Was part of an initial team of 5 people that later grew to 70 working on a local number portability administration system.

Software Engineer

Founder/CEO @ LEANSTACK | Bestselling author and founder

I have bootstrapped several products to millions of users and worked with thousands of early-stage entrepreneurs worldwide - helping them systematically find repeatable and scalable business models using my battle-tested playbooks. 

Instead of:
-Spending several months building a product you hope people will buy.

Imagine a world where you:
- Spend several weeks defining a product you know people will buy.

For aspiring or early-stage founders:

If you’re looking to bootstart your idea, consider joining my 30-day Business Model Design Challenge below: 

You'll learn how to:
- Find or test a big idea worth pursuing,
- Design a business model blueprint,
- Stress-test your idea before investing time, money, and effort. 

Join the next Business Model Design Challenge:
https://runlean.ly/challenge

Ash Maurya

“Startups don't starve. They drown...”

They drown in too much information, too much analysis, too much conflicting feedback, too much "important" work.

Where do you start?

Even mantras like "right action, right time," I espouse, run up against practical ground realities.

Most people simply guess or vibe their way, but here’s the expensive reality: When you don’t have a systematic way to prioritize and pick what feels most urgent or what the loudest customer complained about, you end up burning time, cash, and momentum.

In this week's YouTube video, I outline a 4-step prioritization framework I use for picking where to focus. It combines a popular product priorization framework, RICE, with Fermi Estimations.

RICE stands for:
• Reach: How many customers will this impact?
• Impact: What's the value per customer?
• Confidence: How certain are we?
• Effort: What's the cost to build?

The formula: (Reach × Impact × Confidence) ÷ Effort

But here's the problem most people face: How do you score objectively without fooling yourself?

Should onboarding be a 7 or an 8? Is that feature worth $5,000 or $7,500?

This is where Fermi estimation comes in...

Instead of false precision, I use order-of-magnitude scales:
• Reach: 1, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,000
• Impact: $100, $1K, $10K, $100K
• Confidence: 20%, 50%, 80%
• Effort: 2 hours, 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months

You go from fudging numbers to justify the thing you want to build to prioritizing the right work. More in the full video...

Running Lean & Lean Canvas | Helping first-time founders (everywhere) succeed through battle-tested playbooks.

The biggest mistake in launching a startup isn't moving too fast.

It's validating for too long.

After validating hundreds of business models, I've seen a pattern: Most founders get stuck chasing validation—surveys, interviews, feedback loops—hoping that one more data point will finally give them certainty.

But here's the truth: You'll never have perfect validation because startups are not an exact science. And no funnel ever converts anywhere near 100%.

The real question isn't "How do I get perfect validation?"

It's "How do I know when I have SUFFICIENT evidence to move forward?"

Three validation traps that waste time:

Trap #1: Confusing Learning with Traction
I've had founders tell me: "I ran over 50 customer interviews!" That's great—but when I ask "How many customers did you convert?" the number is disappointingly low or zero. In startups, you don't get a gold star for following a process. You get results from traction.

Trap #2: Waiting for Statistical Significance
Some founders dismiss customer conversations as "not statistically significant" and instead chase landing page experiments. Here's reality: When 10 out of 10 people tell you they don't want your product, that IS statistically significant. Plus, people grossly underestimate how much traffic and conversions you need for statistical significance. With limited runway, you can't afford to wait.

Trap #3: Over-Planning
Founders spend months creating pixel-perfect pitch decks, 5-year financial models, comprehensive competitive analysis, and elaborate business plans. Then they launch and learn it's all wrong. This isn't "being thorough." This is analysis paralysis disguised as validation.

The solution? The Minimum Success Criteria Framework.

You don't need perfect validation. You need minimum sufficient evidence at three levels:
- Founder level (3-year goal)
- 90-day cycle (quarterly traction)
- Experiment level (2-week tests)

Define your minimum threshold BEFORE you start, not AFTER. Make it specific, measurable, and tied to traction—not vague vibes like "everyone loved it."

Full framework breakdown in this week's YouTube video.

First-time founders obsess about their

- company/product name,
- domain name,
- logo.

Good names and domains are hard to come by and premature optimization. 

Second-time founders obsess about building something worth naming. 

Then they buy whatever name they want. 

Starting Risks  Scaling Risks.

Stop Obsessing Over Your Startup Name

You can teach an AI agent to code, but can you teach it to build, measure, and learn? 

We just did. 

Check out the latest LEANSpark episode here: 
https://lnkd.in/gDcqKPwz

Stop building MUPs
MUP = Maximally Undifferentiated Product

Most MVPs Fail Because Founders Build the Wrong Thing

Next unlock achieved: 
LEANSpark can now design and run 90-day cycles and LEAN sprints. 

It has full memory of your business model, metrics, and experiments... So you don't have to do context/prompt sit-ups... It's ready to hit the ground running when you are.

When there's lots of uncertainty, you need light-weight dynamic models, not heavy-weight static plans.

Choose
- a Lean Canvas over a Business Plan
- a Fermi Estimate over a financial forecast spreadsheet
- a Traction Roadmap over a Product Roadmap

Yesterday: Episode 1 went live.

146 founders got full access to the first behind-the-scenes validation session.

What they're watching: The backstory behind the most ambitious project I'm undertaking: Build a daily AI-cofounder for systematic startup validation.

This isn't theory. It's real work. Real uncertainty. Real decisions.

13 weeks of systematic validation, completely over-the-shoulder.

You can watch Episode 1 (the pilot) here: https://lnkd.in/g9WvtG9H

Full access (all 13 weeks): https://lnkd.in/gBSar2bS

Next Friday: Week 2 - Business Model Stress-testing

 #LeanStartup #ProductValidation #BuildingInPublic

Open article: Your AI co-founder for systematic validation by leanspark.leanfoundry.com

Your AI co-founder for systematic validation

You have a starting business model. You know what needs to be tested.

But you're staring at 50 different experiments you could run.

Which one do you start with?

Most founders freeze. Analysis paralysis sets in.

Or worse - they try running all 50 at once and make slow progress on everything.

Time is your scarcest resource. 

And you make the most progress by focusing on the right actions, not all actions, at the right time. 

---

Episode 3 of the LEANSpark Over-the-Shoulder series (dropping Friday) shows you how I solve this:

✓ Why 90-day cycles are the "Missing Middle" between your 3-year goal and daily tasks

✓ How to design a validation cycle that prioritizes your riskiest assumptions

✓ The actual 90-day plan LEANSpark designed for me 

✓ Real results: 142 paying customers in 14 days using this framework

Practice trumps theory. 

I'm documenting the entire LEANSpark launch in real-time - the decisions, the pivots, the lessons learned.

Watch the full series:
👉 https://lnkd.in/gDcqKPwz

Episode 1: How LEANSpark started (the origin story)
Episode 2: Business Model Stress Testing (finding blind spots)
Episode 3: 90-Day Cycle Planning (drops Friday)

If you're building a startup and tired of guessing which experiment to run next, this is for you.

Open article: LEANSpark - Over the Shoulder Series by leanfoundry.com

I sold 209 customers on LEANSpark before building the product.

Here's how.

---

September: No product. Zero customers. Three massive unknowns.

October: 209 founders enrolled. $40+K revenue. Product is still being built.

What happened between those two points?

Episode 4 of the Over-the-Shoulder series just dropped, where I walk through the complete playbook [LINK IN COMMENTS]

innoCentrum Sistematik İnovasyon Yönetimi Ltd. Şti.

Training and Consultancy: Delivering expert guidance in R&D and Innovation Management, New Product Design, Project Management, and Strategic Planning to prominent companies such as  ASELSAN, Beyçelik, Denizbank, Havelsan, Hayat Kimya, Kale P&W, Kastamonu Entegre, Opet Fuchs, Tat, TOFAŞ, TUSAŞ and Türksat.

Product Development Oversight: Leading a team of skilled engineers and experts in the design and development of our flagship product, innoCentrum Enterprise — a comprehensive and secure innovation and idea management software that facilitates systematic idea collection and management for organizations. 

Strategic Leadership: Steering the company's strategic planning and overall management to ensure alignment with our vision and market demands.

Marketing and Business Development: Driving marketing efforts to promote our products and services, expanding our client base, and enhancing market presence.

Project Management Consultancy: Provided project management and software development consultancy for the iTaksi project from November 2016 to December 2018.

CEO and Co-Founder

fonbulucu.com

I evaluate and approve innovative startup projects by assessing feasibility, compliance with crowdfunding regulations, and ensuring alignment with Fonbulucu's mission. I collaborate with other board members to make strategic decisions, support high-potential ventures, and uphold the platform's standards for transparency and legal compliance.

Investment Board Member

TÜBİTAK BİLGEM

Support strategic transformation efforts:
* Establishing Project Management Offices (PMOs)
* Developing processes for project, program and product management
* Enhancing project management skills of project managers, project technical leaders and functional managers
* Designing and establishing a strong matrix organization to improve collaboration, communication, resource usage and overall project performance.
* Improving the use of project management tools (SAP, MS Project, Jira)
* Developing a custom software tool for proje tracking and reporting 
* Strengthening budget accounting practices and implementing strategies for efficient yearly budgeting
* Improving innovation and R&D management

Senior Consultant

PMI TR

Project name: Outspeed Start-Up
Objective: Strengthen the Foundational Structure, Organisation and Management of Early Start-ups through Utilisation of Project Management Best-Practices

Key Expert - Startup

Hacettepe University

Offered Software Project Management course (Graduate Level)

Adjunct Faculty Member

Bilkent University

Adjunct Faculty

TED University / TED Universitesi

TOBB ETU

Offered Project Management and Work Analysis and Design courses to engineering students.

Adjunct Assistant Professor

BAE Systems

Management of aircraft modernization programs and business development in Turkey and Middle East in the areas of aircraft modernization and avionics system development.

Program Management and Business Development

* Taught various courses in Industrial Engineering Department.
* Performed research in new system and product design, innovation, project management, strategic planning
* Worked as Asst. Director of Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences (2009 – 2012)
* Offered many short courses on subjects like System Design, Project Management, R&D and Innovation Management at TOBB ETÜ SEM since 2008

Asst. Prof.

Dr. Bülent Gümüş has over 20 years of private sector and 7 years of academic experience. He has worked in defense, information technology and education sectors in the USA, Turkey and Qatar. 

Dr. Gümüş has been conducting research and offering training and consultancy in the areas of New System/Product Design, Innovation and R&D Management, Engineering and Technology Management, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, Process Improvement, Software Development, and Strategic Management.

Dr. Gümüş has knowledge and experience in different engineering disciplines, sectors and cultures and this provides him the ability of utilizing different perspectives in finding innovative solutions and leading teams and companies to success.

Dr. Gümüş is currently the CEO and Co-founder of innoCentrum Systematic Innovation Management and serving as a member of the Investment Board of Fonbulucu.

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Ash Maurya

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