How to Build a Business Without Money | Eric Ries’ Playbook for First-Time Founders

Eric Ries (0:00)

When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is. Your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much. But life, that's a very limited life.

Thinkschool (0:13)

If you come from a middle class family and you have the burning desire to build a business, this episode is for you. Because since childhood, we all have been fed the same three lines. We need money for business, we need contacts for business, and business is a huge risk. And every family has that one uncle who started something and it went bankrupt. And now, he is the family's permanent case study to see, see son, that's why it is said that business is risky. But do you realize, nobody in your family ever asked, why did that uncle fail? And if you go deeper, you will realize that he did not fail because he wasn't smart. He failed because he took his entire savings, took a huge loan and built a business on guesswork. But my question is, what if you can figure out your gold mine business idea even before you invest your savings? Well, to teach you this magical concept, he flew all the way to New York to get you Eric Ries.

Eric Ries (1:00)

Eric Ries, the legendary entrepreneur and best selling author who taught Silicon Valley how to build better startups.

Thinkschool (1:08)

This book is used as a case study in the biggest B schools in the world. It has been taught in Google and Toyota and the CEO of General Electric said, I make all our managers read the Lean Startup. So if you're a middle-class child who has the burning desire to build a business, take a pen and a notebook because this episode is going to be life-changing. And by the way, I've also attached a detailed workbook in the description that you can check out after watching this episode to apply all the principles that Eric has taught in this podcast.

Do you think a 21 year old with less than $1000 can lay the foundations for a large company with very little resources?

Eric Ries (1:43)

People think raising money will make them strong. That's not always true.

Thinkschool (1:46)

So help me understand whether my product truly has product market fit or not.

Eric Ries (1:50)

I think this is a very profound framework. It's like having x-ray vision. So, there's a thing in business called the ***.

Thinkschool (2:01)

People, before we move on with the episode, I just want to take 60 seconds to thank our sponsor Odoo, because without them, this episode would not have been possible. While Eric Ries talks about building great products, most founders are actually struggling to manage the chaos that comes with product development. And if you're a founder, you know exactly what this feels like. You're tracking deadlines, coordinating with your team, assigning tasks and constantly trying to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. And at some point, the weight of managing all of this starts slowing you down. This is exactly where Odoo can help you out. Odoo's project application gives you one clean centralized place to manage everything your team is working on. You can create projects, set up custom stages, add tasks, assign the right person, set priorities, add deadlines and even break down complex tasks into smaller sub-tasks so nothing gets missed. And you can view your work in whatever way makes the most sense to you. The Kanban view keeps your pipeline organized like a visual board. The Gantt view gives you a full timeline of tasks and their dependencies. And the List view shows you everything in one simple powerful screen. Collaboration also becomes far more efficient because every task has a built-in chatter where your team can send emails, add notes, tag colleagues, schedule meetings, attach files, all without leaving the platform. And the best part is you can get started with Odu for free today. And as your business scales, you can access the full suite for just 580 rupees per user per month. So if you want to manage your projects the smart way and actually focus on building a product, click the link in the description and get started with Odu today. And now on with the episode.

Eric, what is the right way to find a gap in the market? Let's say I'm 21 years old in India and I have less than 1000 dollars to build a company.

Do you think a 21 year old with less than 1000 dollars can lay the foundations for a large company with very little resources?

Eric Ries (3:42)