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

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.

Stop building MUPs
MUP = Maximally Undifferentiated Product

Most MVPs Fail Because Founders Build the Wrong Thing

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

Fotando Global

Founder & CEO

ReBroker.ai

Rebroker.ai is SaaS platform with thoughtfully-designed tools that help real estate companies grow their business by easily engaging with their external sales collaborators. Offering people-friendly inbuilt agreements, AI description creator, flexible commission sharing, white label of collaborators properties, QR code visit registrations, turning digital interactions into human connection. Our goal is to make real estate sales partnerships easy and profitable. Launching in 2023 Rebroker.ai aims to generate more than 500 million Euros in sales between its users by 2026.

Co-founder & CTO

eWorks

Developing Rebroker.ai - Real Estate Sales Partnership facilitator app at Esade´s Accelerator program eWorks, a selective program that aims to identify and support high-growth ideas and help entrepreneurial projects develop efficiently. At eWorks we receive inspiration, support and help to accelerate projects in different ways, with the aim to create outstanding businesses that can have a positive impact in our society. eWorks operates inside the Esade Entrepreneurship Insitute: a research institute dedicated to academic excellence in the field of entrepreneurship and related disciplines through research, teaching, new venture creation and outreach activities.Developing Rebroker.ai - Real Estate Sales Partnership facilitator app at Esade´s Accelerator program eWorks, a selective program that aims to identify and support high-growth ideas and help entrepreneurial projects develop efficiently. At eWorks we receive inspiration, support and help to accelerate projects in different ways, with the aim to create outstanding businesses that can have a positive impact in our society. eWorks operates inside the Esade Entrepreneurship Insitute: a research institute dedicated to academic excellence in the field of entrepreneurship and related disciplines through research, teaching, new venture creation and outreach activities.

In-house entrepreneur - Esade eWorks Accelerator Program 

Mailtrap

Senior Product Manager

CloudCall

As a Product manager at Cloudcall i was responsible for Salesforce integration and customer self service portal.

Key responsibilities:

- Aligning key stakeholders
- User research / Customer Feedback
- Competitive analysis
- Contribution to Product Strategy and OKRs
- Quarterly Roadmap planning
- Collecting and monitoring key product metrics
- UI/UX prototyping
- Product backlog management and refinement
- Support Salesforce ISV partnership
- Cooperation with marketing department

Tools: Mixpanel, Segment.io, Prodpad.com, Google Data Studio, Figma

Product Manager

As a Development team lead  at Cloudcall i was responsible for leading and growing the development team

2 Fronted developers, 2 Salesforce developers, 2 QA engineers. 

Collaboration with Product Owners to clarify business needs. Code review. Release management. Architecture planning and refactoring.

Tools: JavaScript, Node.js, React.js, Angular.js, Mongo DB, webpack, ES6, CSS3, HTML5, Jira, AWS.

Scrum process facilitation and improvement. 
CI/CD Implementation.
Driving team KPIs growth.
1-on-1s with team members and manage personal goals.

Development Team Lead

As a Senior Software Engineer at Cloudcall i was responsible for development and delivery Telephony and IM/SMS integration for Salesforce. Jenkins scripts. Environment: JavaScript, Node.js, Angular.js, Mongo DB, webpack, ES6, CSS3, HTML5, Jira, AWS.

Senior Software Engineer

Altoros

As a Senior Software Engineer at Altoros i was responsible for webapps development, coordination of project activities and ensure that all project phases are followed and documented properly. Developed single page applications using Angular 2.0, Ionic, Typescript, HTML5, CSS3, and Bootstrap. Had  daily communication with remote development team.

IT-SNAMI

As a Development team lead i was responsible for hiring, engineering team management. Was responsible for design and development of web sites, web applications and applications for mobile devices. 
Took part in the development of technical specifications, UX/UI prototypes of the interface and requirements for technical architecture. Implementing a client and server application. 

PHP Yii2 Framework / Node JS / Angular JS / MySQL

Development Team Lead / Co-founder

Sitemania.by

As a Co-founder of Sitemania Agency i participated in hiring and engineering team management. I was responsible for  development of lightweight modular CMS for small and medium business.
Took part in the development of technical specifications, UX/UI prototypes of the interface and requirements for technical architecture. Implementing a client and server application.
PHP Yii2 Framework / MySQL

LWO (Light Well Organization)

As a Software Engineer in LWO i was responsible for web client for ATM development (JavaScript), a web client of the online payment acceptance system on the card, a web client of the internal project management system. Integration with external API.

Took part in development of the client application "The system of selling tickets for vehicles through ATMs" to work on ATM (JavaScript MVC + Java Applet). Communication with an external online payment server and transport schedules.

Freelance, self-employed

Websites design and development 

Joomla, Wordpress, Prestashop

Founder @ Fotando Global 🌍 | I help business leaders build AI & software solutions| I assist startup founders in progressing from idea to MVP/MLP 🚀 & beyond | Advisor | LEANSTACK Certified Coach

Most early-stage B2B SaaS founders I talk to struggle with the same challenge - turning an idea into a scalable product without wasting time or money - I know this pain firsthand - having invested more then €30k in an MVP without validation, only to find there wasn’t enough traction.

They dive straight into building without validating their ideas, and before they know it, they’ve burned through budgets, launched features no one uses, or missed the market entirely.

Second-time founders face survival bias. They’ve seen success before, but they rely on outdated strategies that no longer work in today’s fast-moving SaaS and AI-driven landscape.

What’s the cost?

Missed Opportunities - Slow execution lets competitors move faster and steal market share.

Execution Gaps - Without technical expertise, building scalable systems becomes a bottleneck.

Overbuilding - Pouring resources into features too early - without validation - leads to costly pivots.

I’ve spent 15+ years in the tech industry - starting as a web developer, growing into product management, and eventually becoming a founder myself.

I know what it takes to validate ideas, build MVPs, scale and avoid costly mistakes because I’ve been there.

Here’s how I help founders launch smarter and scale faster:

Framework-Driven Execution - Proven methodologies like LEANSTACK to test and validate ideas before heavy investments.

Rapid Prototyping - Delivering MVPs in just 2-week cycles to demo and get feedback quickly (min. €10k budget)

Agile Cross-functional Development team - Building scalable Tech solution (from €50/h)

Strategic Partnerships - Acting as a fractional Tech CPO, bridging technical execution with business strategy so you don’t have to choose between speed and quality.

If you’re working on your first idea - or scaling your second - let’s talk.

Book a free discovery call via my featured section or DM me directly.

Vladimir Ovsyanikov

If I could go back, I wouldn't change a thing.

Not even the toughest mistakes.

Started out as a developer. Shifted to product manager. Took the leap to founder.

Every move ia a complete mindset overhaul - each one packed with its own set of failures.

- As a developer: I believed great products sold themselves.
- As a product manager: I assumed every decision was driven by bulletproof data.
- As a founder: I learned nobody really has it all figured out.

Every wrong turn, every risk, every misstep… it shaped where I am today.

Biggest lesson is the hardest moments are define you. Easy paths teach you little (or nothing).

Looking back, sure, part of me wishes it had been easier. Maybe a shortcut, a clearer map, a faster route.

But true growth is that only comes from struggle.

No books, no mentors, no advices can match what you learn by making real decisions… facing real failures… and finding your own way forward.

So if you're stumbling, second-guessing, making mistakes - good.

That's where the real magic happens.

Uladzimir Ausianikau

CEO @ Fotando Global | 0→1 Startup partner | €2M+ in client revenue

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AI is rewriting the rules. Time-to-market is the edge.

Most founders miss it. (Recap from a convo this week.)

They outsource for months.
On paper it may looks fine. Team in place, tickets moving, code shipped...

Then something breaks in production. Silence.
Developers get shuffled between projects.
No bond with the founder. No urgency on deadlines.
9 to 4.

This is where startups WILL lose.

Fix it by shipping fast and cheap.
Not because v1 matters.
Because shipping exposes the truth:

1. Does the channel work?
2. Is the ICP accurate?
3. Does the offer convert?

If you don't move fast, AI won't wait.
Competitors won't wait.
The market won't wait.

Ship in weeks. Learn in days. Adjust in hours.

I use #Claude as a CEO every day.

This update is amazing.

1. Claude for Chrome → In your browser. Summaries. Form fills. Busywork handled.

Now in beta for all Max users. Add to Chrome.

2. Claude for Excel → Work in-sheet. Pivot tables, charts, file uploads, quick-open add-in.

3. Better file outputs → Higher-quality docs, decks, sheets, and React/HTML prototypes.

4. Long chats (finally) fixed. Claude auto-summarizes earlier messages so you rarely restart.

If you use the browser or spreadsheets and have not tried  #Claude yet - give it a try 👍

Most scale-ups treat innovation like VCs in the '90s.

Pick a "big idea." Pour all resources into it. Hope it works.

Modern VCs don't play that game.

They build portfolios.

Because predicting winners is almost impossible.

Even with perfect research, 67% of product bets fail.

Yet most CTOs still try:

"We're all-in on AI personalization for 6 months."

Six months later: "Market wasn't ready. Now, AI analytics."

Another 6 months. Another bet...

Meanwhile, their competitor?

Tested both ideas in 8 weeks.

Shipped the winner before you finished your research.

THE COSTS:

Sequential Innovation:
→ 12 months to test 2 ideas 
→ $500K fully-loaded costs 
→ 50% chance you start with the wrong bet 
→ Competitor: 6 months ahead

Parallel Innovation:
→ 8 weeks to test 3-4 ideas
→ $150K in validation costs
→ Market tells you what wins
→ You ship by month 3, not month 12

You can't research out of uncertainty.

The only way to reduce risk is to test faster and kill bad ideas sooner.

Companies using portfolio thinking find winners 3-4x faster than those perfecting one idea at a time.

Real story: A scale-up was set to gamble 6 months on a single AI integration.

We showed them another way.

They found a revenue stream in 7 weeks - without betting the company.

AI-native companies.

Not just a buzzword. A fundamental shift.

I keep asking myself:
What if Fotando Global ran with AI as its operating system - not a side project, but the core of how we work?

Here's why i think this matters:
AI now handles 80% of the routine, manual, and boring. What's left? The edge cases, the deep context, the expert calls.

But even that 20%? It doesn't need to be full-time anymore:
- Experts could move from employees to specialized contractors
- Serving 10–20 clients, not just one
- Higher hourly rates, but fewer jobs on payroll

btw - I start testing this shift.
Broke down a growth playbook to be turned it into daily actions, let AI drive the framework for a B2B startup. Dream.

Months of work can be done in days.

So what is a company, really?
Not just people in roles - a system that's easy, efficient, scalable.

It's a little scary ...  but It's a lot exciting.

Here's the real question:
What does it actually take to run a company where AI is at the core?

Would you make the leap? Are you doing it already?

Opened my calendar this morning.

Found 6 meeting invites from people I've never heard of.

Random webinars. 
Sales demos. 
"Quick sync" requests from complete strangers.

Completely insane.

Turns out, Google Calendar's default setting lets anyone with your email add events directly to your calendar?

Anyone.

Here's the 2-minute fix:

→ Open Google Calendar
→ Settings (gear icon) → "Event settings"
→ Find "Add invitations to my calendar"
→ Change from "From everyone" to "Only if the sender is known"

That's it. Now only people in your contacts or organization can book time with you.

Your calendar is your time. Protect it.

Has anyone else been hit with random calendar spam lately?

Your last startup’s success might be the reason your next one fails.

Second-time founders fall into the survival bias trap:

1. They trust past successes too much.
2. They reuse old playbooks without questioning them.
3. They ignore the failures they never saw.

In WWII, researchers studied bullet holes in returning planes, trying to reinforce those areas.

Until they realized… The real problem was the planes that never made it back.

Second-time founders do the same thing.

They base decisions on what worked last time - not what actually works today.

How to break out of survival bias:

1. Expand your data set.

Don’t just study success. Study failure.

What didn’t work for others is just as important as what did.

2. Slow down decision-making.

Your brain wants to connect the dots fast.

Challenge assumptions and gather different perspectives before making a call.

3. Get external input.

Bring in different skill sets - marketing, UX, technical, product.

AI can also help surface insights you might overlook.

The smartest founders structure their decisions.

They document their thought process, list out risks, and stay adaptable.

Because yesterday’s success doesn’t guarantee tomorrow’s results.

Just enrolled in Decision-Making with ChatGPT on Maven - excited to learn live with Cassie Kozyrkov in this cohort-based course. 

Starts in 9 days if anyone in my network is interested in joining!

Open article: Decision-Making with ChatGPT by Cassie Kozyrkov on Maven by maven.com

Decision-Making with ChatGPT by Cassie Kozyrkov on Maven

Speed of learning is the new unfair advantage.

I learned that the hard way.

After helping clients avoid costly AI mistakes, I realized I was doing a version of the same thing - moving fast without stepping back.

So I did something uncomfortable: I enrolled in Stanford GSB's Digital Transformation and AI Playbook.

Not for another certificate.

For a better operating system for my company and for our clients.

Founders fall into this pattern. I did too:
- Execution gets loud.
- Assumptions go unchecked.
- Learning becomes confirmation.

My "two monkeys" showed up. The strong monkey runs fast. The smart monkey needs structured thinking time.

This program forces the pause button. Frameworks. Case work. Hard questions.

If you're honest: when was the last time you learned something that challenged your playbook instead of validating it?

(Link to the program in comments if you're curious)

taplio

The Battle

Ash Maurya

Vladimir Ovsyanikov

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taplio

The Battle

Ash Maurya

Vladimir Ovsyanikov

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Engagements

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