We needed $1 million in capital and $1 million for working capital and marketing. That was it. I had a revenue forecast but had talked to exactly zero potential customers.
They knew that, and they were okay with it. In fact, they approved the investment on the spot.
This was Bell Canada’s board. Smart people. But this was a different era of entrepreneurship. We hadn’t gone lean yet. Most startups back then were built like that: plan-first, customer-later. Things have changed—and almost entirely for the better.
Why That Would Never Fly Today
Back then:
- Capital was scarce and slow-moving.
- Market research was expensive.
- Business plans and boardroom pitches were the norm.
- We would practice what seemed like responsible planning and do as we were taught in biz school: Ready. Aim. Fire.
The default strategy was:
Idea → raise money → build the thing → launch.
Today, it’s the opposite. Now its Ready. Fire. Aim!
Entrepreneurs are expected to validate their ideas before building, to start small, to engage with customers early, and to build iteratively. It’s not just cheaper. It’s smarter. In fact, once I started learning about lean startup 15-20 years ago, I felt kinda dumb for not having come up with the concept myself, and for being responsible for so much “bad” entrepreneurship.
Best Practices In Entrepreneurship in 2025
Here are four ideas that have contributed to the way the game has changed.
1. Effectuation – Start With What You’ve Got
Instead of starting with a fixed goal and figuring out how to get there, effectual entrepreneurs start with what they have (skills, knowledge, connections), and let outcomes emerge from action.
Ask: “Given who I am, what I know, what I have and who I know, what can I do?”
This mindset, the brainchild of Darden Prof. Saras Sarasvathy, is practical, adaptive, and resource-conscious.
Example: Sara Blakely started Spanx with $5,000 in savings, no fashion industry experience, and one key insight from her own frustration with pantyhose. She didn’t try to become a fashion mogul. She used what she had—a sales background, an understanding of women’s clothing frustrations, and sheer persistence—to cold-call hosiery mills and pitch buyers at Neiman Marcus herself. The business emerged from what was available to her, not from a grand plan.
This mindset is powerful because it removes the “I need X before I can start” barrier. You don’t need venture capital, industry credentials, or perfect conditions. You need to start with what’s in front of you.
You can get more a more detailed explanation along with resources and case studies here.
2. Bricolage – Build With What’s Lying Around
Think of bricolage as entrepreneurial MacGyver-ing. You improvise using whatever resources are on hand. You don’t wait for perfect conditions. You repurpose, recombine, and reframe. It’s a close cousin of effectuation.
Perfect is expensive. Bricolage is fast, cheap, and often good enough to get started.
Example: Airbnb’s founders couldn’t afford rent for their San Francisco apartment. They bought air mattresses, set up a basic website in a weekend, and rented floor space to conference attendees.
They didn’t wait to build a hospitality empire. they used three air mattresses and a domain name.
The “bed and breakfast” part came from offering Pop-Tarts for breakfast. That scrappy MVP eventually became a $100 billion company.
For many modern founders, this is how the first version of the business comes to life. You use free tools, borrow equipment, trade services, test on friends. You make it work with what you’ve got.
3. Lean Startup – Validate Before You Build
Popularized by Eric Ries, Lean Startup thinking introduced a simple but transformative idea: test before you invest.
The concepts of a Build → Measure → Learn loop, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and “customer discovery” all have their roots in the Lean Startup. Now we get real feedback from real users before making large commitments.
Example: Dropbox didn’t build their entire cloud storage infrastructure before knowing if anyone wanted it. Drew Houston created a 3-minute demo video showing how the product would work and posted it to Hacker News. Overnight, their beta waiting list went from 5,000 to 75,000 people. He validated massive demand with a video before writing most of the code.
You don’t build something massive and hope it works. Lean forces you to make small bets, learn quickly, and adjust as needed.
Each iteration should answer a specific question: Will people pay for this? Do they use this feature? What’s the biggest friction point?
Sadly, it’s still not widely understood. I have watched those close to me make the mistake of building a solution without a problem three times since I started teaching lean startup.
4. Blue Ocean Strategy – Compete by Not Competing
Instead of fighting over scraps in a crowded market (“red oceans”), create entirely new market space (“blue oceans”) by delivering new value in unexpected ways.
Example: Cirque du Soleil faced a declining circus industry—kids preferred video games, animal rights activists protested animal acts, and star performers commanded huge salaries. Instead of competing harder in the traditional circus space, they eliminated the animals, reduced the tent/spectacle costs, added theatrical storylines and artistic choreography, and targeted corporate clients and adults willing to pay premium ticket prices. They started playing an entirely different game than Ringling Brothers.
The key is making the competition irrelevant by changing what game you’re playing. Other examples are Yellow Tail who made wine approachable for non-wine drinkers and Curves who reinvented gyms specifically for women who were intimidated by traditional alternatives.
What Founders Can Learn From This Shift
The good news, rarely will you need $2 million. You need five real customer conversations, a whiteboard, and maybe a weekend.
Entrepreneurship today is faster, cheaper, more experimental—and far more forgiving. The tools are better. The methods are smarter. The costs of failure are lower. And the feedback loops are tighter.
But what hasn’t changed is the mindset. Entrepreneurs still need grit, vision, hustle, and resilience. Those aren’t outdated—they’re timeless.
We were flying blind in 1995, and it worked. But only because there wasn’t a better way.
Today, there is.
Use it.
If you liked this, you might like this related post about how to analyze industry attractiveness.
