Top 11 Lean Startup Co. Conference Takeaways — what are yours?

The first day of the Lean Startup Co. conference has wound down with a great round table discussion of 2-way marketplaces at the Mob Museum in Vegas. There have been so many great takeaway lessons and phrases I thought it would be a good idea to etch them into my memory and share them with you.

If you were at the conference and this top 11 do not do it for you, please add your top takeaways in the comments.

1. In environments of extreme uncertainty accelerate your pace of learning by more frequent loops of build, measure learn. Tighten the loops. Be a scientist, experiment.
2. Impact v Vanity metrics. Understand the behaviors you want from customers then define the measure of those behaviors. Everything else is vanity, might look nice but means little.
3. Obsess about the problem NOT the solution. Focus and return to the problem space. Staying in the solution space will blind you.
4. Forced to be lean by our investors through metered funding was the investor’s biggest asset. Otherwise, all the money would have been spent. Can you say "Dilution".
5. One misaligned person in a leadership position is absolutely devastating to a company.
6. Marketing is not about building buzz, it is about amplifying the buzz that you have.
7. All great stories have the same shape. Tell stories.
8. Pay only for outcomes. Simple.
9. Without alignment of values and vision, failure is likely.
10. Nobody cares about your startup.
11. Startup porn. The press either tells a fantastic story of demise or amazing, romantic success. The real story is typically something different. @leanstartup is being honest about how hard and uncertain entrepreneurs and innovation really are. Only through honesty will we learn and grow.