Top all-time · #1588
Ash Maurya
Personal blog · ashmaurya.comstartupsbusiness
Ash Maurya's personal blog at ashmaurya.com covers startups and business. Since 2009, 44 different Hacker News readers have linked it 101 times, most often “How I Document my Business Model Hypotheses”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (23) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Ash Maurya's blog for lean-startup advice: MVPs, customer development, 'Your Product is NOT The Product', actionable metrics, cold emails and the lean canvas. Mostly cited as a source.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 23 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Helping startup founders turn their big ideas into working business models. Author of Running Lean and Scaling Lean, creator of Lean Canvas.
Most-linked posts?
- How I Document my Business Model Hypotheses6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2010-08-14
- From Minimum Viable Product to Building A Landing Page4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2009-11-03
- Rules to Actionable Metrics3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-07-14
- How to Bootstrap a Lean Startup3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2010-03-24
- How We Build Features3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-07-26
- Your Product is Not "The Product"2 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2011-06-07
- Simple Shapes of Startups2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-09-20
- Achieving and Measuring Product/Market Fit2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-11-10
- Lean Startup is a Rigorous Process2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2010-09-19
- /2012/08/cold-emailing/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-11-07
What Hacker News says?
Well done! I felt it used a lot of the points from this article on how to cold email people: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2012/08/cold-emailing/
Comment linking /2012/08/cold-emailing/
on “The perfect email”Submitted From Minimum Viable Product to Building A Landing Page as a story · 57 points
HN discussionLooks really nice, but I'd like to know more about its unique value proposition (what makes me use it instead of Google Reader, where I have all my stars and shares, and great search). It looks really great and it has some quite comprehensive features. Which actually sends me back to what one of LinkedIn's founder once said[1]: If You're Not Embarrassed By The First Version Of Your Product, You’ve Launched Too Late…
Comment linking /2009/11/from-minimum-viable-product-to-landing-pages/
on “Show HN: We just launched our MVP, a new RSS Reader”Submitted The 10x product launch as a story · 46 points
HN discussionA MVP, under the original definition[1], is a learning tool that helps you to learn the most about your hypothesis, with the least amount of waste.[2] Note that product under the MVP definition may not be a product under the most common use of the word.[3] [1] http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2009/08/minimum-viable-... [2] http://www.w2lessons.com/2010/10/minimum-viable-product-diss... [3] http://www.ashmaurya.c…
Comment linking /2011/06/your-product-is-not-the-product/
on “Show HN: The Honeybadger”Submitted Achieving Flow in a Lean Startup as a story · 46 points
HN discussionI have a love-hate relationship with data. Data is great for helping drive product, messaging, engagement, etc. However, most data ends up as noise. It's noise because it isn't actionable. Ash Maurya wrote this great article on actionable metrics: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2010/07/3-rules-to-actionable-metri... In the end I think it depends on how you want to use the data. Here are a few things that I find useful: -…
Comment linking /2010/07/3-rules-to-actionable-metrics/
on “Ask HN: What's your startup's analytics setup?”Submitted Customer Development Checklist for My Web Startup as a story · 42 points
HN discussionI completely agree with you. In particular about the sacrifice everything misconception. Ash Maurya goes even further into suggesting Keep your day job [1], until you reach product/market fit. Nevertheless, I am always wary of absolutes. Some people can't wait, and not going all in is very harmful for them. Some people have a lot to lose, and cannot afford such approach. As always, context is king. [1] http://www.as…
Comment linking /2010/03/bootstrapping-a-lean-startup/
on “Harsh Realities From 500 Startups Founders”Submitted How I built my minimum viable product as a story · 33 points
HN discussionI totally agree. I have an article about how to try to pack that in a brief email: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2012/08/cold-emailing/ Sometimes, though, you are better off making a call. http://blog.asmartbear.com/cold-calling.html
Comment linking /2012/08/cold-emailing/
on “One Way to Write A Powerful Cold Email”Submitted From Minimum Viable Product to Landing Pages as a story · 31 points
HN discussionSteve Blank has been in the StartUp world for decades, just check his about page: http://steveblank.com/about/ And compare it to the author you're talkin about http://www.ashmaurya.com/about/ that clearly states in his page "In late 2009, I ran into into Steve Blank’s lectures on “Customer Development” from where I followed the trail to Eric Ries’ early ideas of the Lean Startup."
Comment linking /about/
on “Steve Blank hands a new owner's manual to startup founders”Submitted The Fallacy of Customer Development as a story · 28 points
HN discussionAnother great blog on the subject: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/11/from-minimum-viable-product...
Comment linking /2009/11/from-minimum-viable-product-to-landing-pages/
on “Creating Effective Landing Pages”Submitted The 10X Product Launch as a story · 27 points
HN discussionIt's not the customer's job to know what they want. - Steve Jobs Customers are great at articulating problems but whenever they start suggesting solutions, I try and get to the root problems whether it's before Version 1.0 or a feature request after. Before launch I do talk to customers - the first is an interview, second is for feedback. The interview is to learn about problems and how they solve them today (existi…
Comment linking /2011/07/how-we-build-features/
on “Avoid Customer Feedback Before Version 1.0”Submitted The Fallacy of Customer Development as a story · 26 points
HN discussionFor startups you usually don't have enough people to have QA team. Therefore you have to take a more lean approach: Build Quality In. On the other hand, when you are building your MVP, progress is not built features, but validated learning. So QA tasks takes more of an approach of building measuring tools (which have to be done by the people building the MVP). Even on a later stage startup, QA takes a whole new role…
Comment linking /2011/06/your-product-is-not-the-product/
on “QA? We don't need no stinking QA”Submitted Lean Startup is a Rigorous Process as a story · 22 points
HN discussionI'm going to take a guess because I'm obviously not part of your core team so I have no inside knowledge to how or what your doing. As other have posted in classic purple cow speak [1], you build a better product and remember "your product is not THE product"[2]. Part of Ash's lean canvas[3] even has a spot for alternatives which may even include competitors. The focal point is you need to start testing everything s…
Comment linking /2010/08/businessmodelcanvas/
on “Ask HN: Beta users flocking over to competitor”Submitted Bootstrapping a Lean Startup as a story · 18 points
HN discussionHe gives examples in various contexts, rather than advice, but it looks to me like there's a whole series of "Lean Startup" books coming up (e.g. this one: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2012/01/the-new-and-updated-running... ), and some of them will inevitably focus more on practice. I think the point of Ries' book (which I think is reasonable) is to lay out the theoretical basis and start a movement.
Comment linking /2012/01/the-new-and-updated-running-lean-book/
on “Startup skills vs startup ideas”Submitted Ash Maurya: The lean stack as a story · 14 points
HN discussionAsh Maurya's Running Lean did not get as much attention, but it is also a great book[1]. Many of his experiences are also easily found on his amazing blog[2]. [1] http://www.runningleanhq.com/ [2] http://www.ashmaurya.com/
Comment linking /
on “The Lean Startup is a NYTimes Best Seller.”Submitted How to Bootstrap a Lean Startup as a story · 11 points
HN discussionA better link: http://www.ashmaurya.com/2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viab...
Comment linking /2009/10/how-i-built-my-minimum-viable-product/
on “How I built my minimum viable product”Submitted Rules to Actionable Metrics as a story · 11 points
HN discussionIt's not a very big pain point. If I want to share links with friends, I tweet at them or send a DM, or use an IM client. So I would only need this app when sending a link to a friend that's not on Twitter or IM, which is like once a week. Not a big enough need to install a bookmarklet. That said, it does appear pretty well done. I would consider taking the code and pivoting to an adjacent concept - one that you've…
Comment linking /2009/11/achievingproductmarketfit/
on “Show HN: The best thing I made nobody uses”Submitted Three Rules to Actionable Metrics as a story · 9 points
HN discussion
