Jun 18, 2026 · 9 min · 8 segments
We just finished the 16th annual Lean LaunchPad class at Stanford. In those 16 years, the class has gone from a radical idea – that the Lean method could provide a more productive framework for new…
In those 16 years, the class has gone from a radical idea that the lean method could provide a more productive framework for new startups to something that everyone agrees is a way to build new startups.
The class has gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions.
During the 2026 spring quarter, the eight teams spoke to 978 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators.
Most students spent 15 to 20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class.
This class was designed to break out of the how to write a business plan as the capstone of entrepreneurial education.
A business plan assumed that all startups needed to do was write a plan, raise money and then execute the plan.
We overturned that orthodoxy when we pointed out that while existing organizations execute business models, startups search for them, and that a startup was a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.
In those 16 years, the class has gone from a radical idea that the lean method could provide a more productive framework for new startups to something that everyone agrees is a way to build new startups.
The class has gotten so popular that in 2021 we started teaching it in both the winter and spring sessions.
During the 2026 spring quarter, the eight teams spoke to 978 potential customers, beneficiaries and regulators.
Most students spent 15 to 20 hours a week on the class, about double that of a normal class.
This class was designed to break out of the how to write a business plan as the capstone of entrepreneurial education.
A business plan assumed that all startups needed to do was write a plan, raise money and then execute the plan.
We overturned that orthodoxy when we pointed out that while existing organizations execute business models, startups search for them, and that a startup was a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.
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