What Lean Startup Co. does

Lean Startup Co., LLC is a privately held, founder-owned consulting and training firm established in 2011 by Eric Ries to systematically embed the Lean Startup methodology inside large organizations. The firm advises Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies on innovation program design, validated learning, and product development discipline. Its client roster spans British Telecom, IKEA, Sony, Cisco, FedEx, Whirlpool, LegalZoom, Parker Health Group, the US Department of Defense, US Department of Health and Human Services, and the UK Ministry of Defense, with the firm reporting 300+ cumulative engagements and a 45% repeat business rate. Eric Ries remains active as the intellectual author of the underlying methodology and a published author of The Lean Startup, The Startup Way, and the 2025 release Incorruptible.

The firm's intellectual property is centered on the Lean Startup framework's core components — Build-Measure-Learn, validated learning, and innovation accounting — augmented by more recent AI-adjacent constructs, including an AI-Augmented Innovation Framework and the Responsible AI Lean Loop (RAILL). Delivery formats range from customized training workshops and one- or two-day accelerators to a 10-week Pilot Program and Corporate Innovation Accelerator, a 6-month Full Implementation, an Innovation Audit diagnostic, and an AI Discovery Workshop that integrates with Azure OpenAI, GitHub Copilot, Amplitude, and Microsoft Fabric (Enterprise edition) or Outset, Inside, Lovable, and Build Better (SMB edition). A self-paced online course comprising 6 modules and approximately 2h38m of recorded content is taught directly by Eric Ries and supports individual, team, and gift enrollment.

Revenue is generated primarily through professional services priced on a quote basis against team size, duration, and format (onsite versus remote), with a self-paced online course, team enrollments, and speaking engagements acting as complementary revenue streams. Go-to-market is sales-led, beginning with discovery and strategy calls, and is reinforced by a content engine spanning articles, the Lean Signals newsletter, webinars, books, and a planned YouTube series. The firm is headquartered in Covina, California (LLC jurisdiction), with distributed delivery practitioners across the United States (San Francisco, Northern Virginia, New York City), Europe (Athens, Paris, Berlin), and Egypt, and operates as a small team of approximately 15 or more with no disclosed institutional funding.

Name

Lean Startup Co.

Legal name

Lean Startup Co., LLC

Website

https://leanstartup.co

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Lean Startup Co. is a privately held consulting firm that trains enterprise and government teams in the Lean Startup methodology created by founder Eric Ries. Services span workshops, 10-week pilots, 6-month implementations, and emerging AI-innovation offerings for global Fortune 500 and agency clients.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Innovation Management Consulting

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Incumbent Worker Training & Upskilling (EDAAAOAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

Entrepreneurship Foundations & Startup Basics (EDAMAHAA), Lean Six Sigma for Services & Transactional Processes (EDABAKAC)

Keywords

• Innovation consulting
• Corporate training
• Lean methodology
• Product development consulting
• Enterprise innovation

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices7 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Professional Services - Training & Workshops: Customized hands-on workshops for teams aligned with familiarity levels and gaps. Duration ranges from hours to weeks, delivered onsite or remotely.
2. Corporate Innovation Accelerator: 10-week program training and coaching teams to apply Lean Startup to innovation projects with corporate experience
3. Full Implementation Program: 6-month engagement deploying Lean Startup across organization with consistent framework for growth and pipeline of innovative products
4. Online Course - Individual Enrollment: Self-paced course with 6 modules, 30 topics, 2h38m of recorded content. 15-20 minutes per day over 6 weeks or complete in 10 hours. Certificate upon completion.
5. Online Course - Group Enrollment: Enterprise team enrollment for the Lean Startup Online Course with Eric Ries
6. Speaking Engagements: Expert speakers booked for conferences and corporate gatherings. Customized talks with Q&A for innovation leaders and product development teams.
7. AI Readiness Assessment: 2-3 week assessment identifying strategic, organizational, and validation gaps for AI initiatives
8. AI Discovery Workshop: 1-2 day high-velocity sprint workshop for validating AI use cases. Enterprise and SMB editions available.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Lean Startup Co. sells fee-based professional services that install the Lean Startup methodology inside large organizations and startups. Its core offerings are customized training workshops, a 10-week Pilot Program, a 6-month Full Implementation, a 10-week Corporate Innovation Accelerator, AI-related Lean Thinking + AI services, speaking engagements, and a self-paced online course with founder Eric Ries. Buyers contract these as discrete engagements rather than licensing software.

Product overview

Lean Startup Co. is a consulting and training company offering a portfolio of services centered on the Lean Startup methodology pioneered by Eric Ries. The core offerings include Training (customized workshops and courses), the Pilot Program (10-week implementation), Full Implementation (6-month enterprise rollout), and the Corporate Innovation Accelerator (10-week innovation project program). The company has expanded to include AI-focused services under 'Lean Thinking + AI' featuring AI Readiness Assessment, AI Discovery Workshop, and Innovation Training + Coaching. Additional offerings include Speaking engagements, The Lean Startup Online Course (self-paced with Eric Ries), Innovation Audits, and Lean Accelerator Workshops. The company also publishes books including The Lean Startup, The Startup Way, and Incorruptible. These services work together as a progression from workshops and pilots through to full organizational implementation, with online courses and books serving as foundational learning resources.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Training Customized workshops and courses aligned with team familiarity with the Lean Startup methodology, including hands-on workshops and online courses for foundational knowledge, and fluency with tools like assumption mapping and experiment design.
• Pilot Program A 10-week program enabling product development teams to apply Lean Startup methodology and make pivot-persevere-kill decisions based on market evidence. Includes chartering, training, learning sprint, decision event, and reflection phases.
• Full Implementation A 6-month program to scale Lean Startup across the organization with a consistent framework for driving growth and building a pipeline of innovative products. Includes analyze, framework design, validate, and deploy steps.
• Corporate Innovation Accelerator A 10-week program applying Lean Startup to innovation projects with experienced coaches who guide teams to avoid pitfalls and make pivot-persevere-kill decisions based on market evidence. Over 80 corporate teams have used this program.
• Speaking Engagements Booking of expert Lean Startup Co. speakers for conferences and corporate gatherings, with customized presentations and Q&A on topics including Lean Startup fundamentals, building MVPs, and Build-Measure-Learn loops.
• Lean Thinking + AI Innovation training that blends Lean Startup principles with AI-driven discovery, including an AI Readiness Assessment (2-3 weeks), an AI Discovery Workshop (1-2 days), Innovation Training + Coaching, and Innovation Readiness & Accelerator Workshops.
• The Lean Startup Online Course with Eric Ries Self-paced online course taught by Eric Ries covering Lean Startup fundamentals across 6 modules (30 topics, 2h38m content). Format: 15-20 minutes per day for 6 weeks, or 10 hours total. Includes a Certificate of Completion; available via individual, group, or gift enrollment.
• Innovation Audits Diagnostic service for funded startups and mid-to-large enterprises seeking better innovation capacity and team alignment. Includes stakeholder interviews, document/process review, and a custom roadmap.
• Lean Accelerator Workshops One- or two-day workshop sessions that help teams validate high-priority ideas and move them into market faster with greater confidence through in-person training and remote coaching.
• The Lean Startup (book) New York Times bestseller by Eric Ries providing a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups through continuous testing, adaptation, and validated learning.
• The Startup Way (book) Book by Eric Ries revealing how startup principles can be used by organizations ranging from established stalwarts to early-stage upstarts to drive innovation and growth.

Quantifiable outcome

• 45% repeat business rate
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor.

• Rapidworks (London)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorkshop partnership in London delivering Lean Startup training programs to European clients
• Sense and Respond Learning (Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerLean AI workshop collaboration delivering combined Lean Startup and AI innovation training programs
• Validated Impact (PdDaaS)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-founded Validated Impact platform in partnership with Lean Startup Co. Framework combining Lean Startup methodology with Vitellaria PdDaaS for impact and development finance in Africa and EMDEs

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Doblin (Deloitte): Doblin is Deloitte's innovation and design practice, delivering enterprise innovation strategy, capability building, and accelerator-style engagements — competing for the same enterprise innovation mandates from a much larger platform.
• Frog (Capgemini Invent): Frog is a global design and innovation consultancy that delivers enterprise training, design sprints, and transformation programs for large organizations — comparable buyer base and training/workshop format, though broader and design-led rather than Lean Startup-methodology-led.
• IDEO: IDEO is a long-established design and innovation consultancy offering workshops, corporate training, and design-led transformation services — broader portfolio than Lean Startup Co. but serving the same enterprise buyers seeking structured innovation capability.

Direct peers

• Innosight: Founded by Clayton Christensen, Innosight provides strategy consulting, innovation workshops, and transformation services focused on disruptive innovation — overlapping with Lean Startup Co.'s enterprise innovation methodology work.
• Board of Innovation: Board of Innovation is a boutique corporate innovation consultancy that runs corporate accelerator-style programs, workshops, and innovation training for global enterprises — directly comparable to Lean Startup Co.'s Corporate Innovation Accelerator and Full Implementation offerings.
• Jump Associates: Jump Associates is an innovation strategy consultancy that runs corporate workshops, capability-building, and growth strategy engagements with large enterprises — comparable buyer profile and engagement structure to Lean Startup Co.'s.
• Strategyzer: Strategyzer offers consulting, workshops, and online courses around the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Design — a methodology-centered practice that mirrors Lean Startup Co.'s combination of a named framework, enterprise training, and certification-style courses.
• Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG): SVPG, founded by Marty Cagan, sells product management training, workshops, and the SVPG Partner program to enterprise product teams — closely comparable to Lean Startup Co.'s focus on empowering product and innovation leaders in large organizations.
• NOBL: NOBL provides corporate innovation and culture-change training, including workshops and accelerators focused on enterprise innovation teams — a smaller direct peer operating in the same methodology-led training niche.

Emerging players

• Mind the Product: Mind the Product runs product management and innovation training events, workshops, and a global community — overlapping with Lean Startup Co.'s product leader training focus but centered on events and content rather than enterprise implementations.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/10049333
• Xx.com/leanstartup
• Facebookfacebook.com/LeanStartupCompany

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lean Startup Co.