Rice, Eric

In 2001, Eric Rees graduated from Yale University with a bachelor's degree in computer technology ^[2] .

As a student, Rhys published the book “The Dark Art of Java Programming ” ^[3] .

While studying at the university, Rice became the founder of Catalyst Recruiting, an online forum for university students, which made it possible to establish contacts with potential employers ^{[4] [5]} .

At the same time, he was a member of the advisory boards of two business incubators and a venture fund in New Haven , Connecticut. ^[6]

To take care of the affairs of his new company, Rhys took academic leave , but due to a lack of business experience and a bursting dotcom bubble , Catalyst Recruiting soon ceased to exist ^[5] .

Rhys later noted that it was luck, as the company closed until his academic leave was over " ^[5] and he was able to return to school. ^[2] .

There, Inc.

After graduating in 2001, Rice moved to Silicon Valley and began working as a programmer at There, Inc. ^[5] . Until 2003, he developed the 3D Virtual World There.com project ^[5] . The project failed ^[5] , and in 2004, Rhys founded IMVU Inc. ^[7] .

IMVU Inc.

In 2004, Eric Rees, along with Will Harvey, one of the founders of There.com, founded IMVU, a 3D social network in which users can chat and play games using personalized avatars ^[8] .

While working at IMVU, Eric Rees met Steve Blanca , a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley and one of IMVU's investors ^[3] . Blank invested in a company on the condition that its managers attend his entrepreneurship course at the University of California ^[3] . The knowledge gained helped Rhys develop IMVU products ^[3] .

As the chief technical officer of IMVU, Rhys wrote and controlled all the product codes ^[7] . He also tested alternative versions of the product with user engagement through Google AdWords and measuring the number of downloads ^[3] .

Since large companies such as Microsoft , Yahoo! and AOL were already present in the instant messaging market, the goal of IMVU was to integrate the mass exchange of high-income messaging per client of traditional video games ^[7] .

Based on previous experience, Rice and Harvey did not attract large investments at the initial stage, but released a minimally viable product, intending to improve it through constant interaction with users ^[9] .

Six months later, the product entered the market and IMVU began to gain users ^[7] .

In 2006, the company received a $ 1 million investment from venture capital investors Seraph Group, and then another $ 18 million ^[10] . A significant role in the rapid growth in the popularity of IMVU was played by the management style of Eric Rhys. ^[6] .

In 2008, a new CEO joined the company, and Rhys resigned as technical director, remaining an observer on the Board ^{[2] [11] [12]} . In 2011, IMVU had 40 million users and $ 40 million in revenue ^[9] .

Philosophy

After leaving IMVU, Eric Rees began working as a consultant at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which was involved in venture capital financing. Six months later, he founded his own consulting startup ^[3] .

Since Rhys had experience and success, and the failure of a high-tech startup, he began to develop a methodology designed to help startups survive and based on certain management principles ^[11] .

The origins of the lean startup philosophy lie in the Japanese concept of lean manufacturing , which implies the search and selection of activities that create value, and getting rid of useless activities ^[13] .

Rice claims that thrifty does not mean cheap, it means less wasteful ^{[5] [11]} .

Ultimately, the goal of applying lean startup methods is to create effective companies by increasing sensitivity to customer needs and constantly reducing inefficient spending of time and resources ^[7] .

Startup Tutorials Blog

In 2008, Eric Rees began to be invited to the advisory boards of various companies in order to adopt the experience of a lean startup ^[14] .

In addition, on the advice of mentors, Rhys began to blog "Lean startup" ^{[6] [15]} . Shortly after publication, the method became popular in Silicon Valley ^[16] . Rhys was invited to speak at the Web 2.0 Summit and teach at Harvard Business School ^[3] .

Today, Eric Rees devotes all his time to the Lean Startup project: speaks at conferences, maintains a blog that totaled 75,000 subscribers in 2011, advises companies ^{[2] [3] [16] [17] [18]} .

Book

In 2011, the book “Business from scratch. Lean Startup method for quick testing of ideas and choosing a business model ” ^{[19] [20] [21]} .

In October 2011, she finished second on the New York Times bestseller list and was named by CNBC “mandatory for any entrepreneur.” ^[17]

Implement Method

Lean startup philosophy is used by such high-tech companies as Intuit, DropBox, Wealthfront, Votizen, Aardvark and Grockit ^{[8] [11] [22]} .

Lean startup principles are also taught at Harvard Business School and implemented in municipalities through the Code for America program ^[3] .

Eric Rhys's blog, tips and books regularly resonate with media such as Reuters, CNBC, MSNBC , The Wall Street Journal , TechCrunch , The New York Times , Inc. Magazine , Forbes and Wired Magazine ^{[8] [11] [13] [14] [17] [20] [23] [24] [25]}

• Eric Rice Business from scratch. The Lean Startup Method for Quickly Testing Ideas and Choosing a Business Model = The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. - M .: Alpina Publisher , 2014 .-- 256 p. - ISBN 978-5-9614-4628-9 .

• The Lean Startup Official Website
• Startup Lessons Learned blog
• Startup Lessons Learned YouTube page
• "Top 5 myths about the lean startup" by Eric Ries
• "Startups: Winter is Coming" by Eric Ries