Build a better startup by running lean

Build a better startup by running
lean
Airbnb is now a household name, over the years they've become a
powerhouse in the travel sector.
They've disrupted an industry by providing travellers with an
alternative to staying in hotels, and also provided a new source of
income to individuals with spare rooms and apartments.
Key metrics
When it came to growth, the founders had a very ​lean mindset​ and
focused on that one key metric that could change things.
It happened to be professional photography.
It all started with a hypothesis.
Hosts with professional photography will get more
business.
This is where gut instinct comes into play, they were all pretty
confident that professional photography would help their business.
www.mappfia.com​ | 1

Instead of implementing it straight away, they were smart, they built
a concierge ​minimum viable product​.
A concierge minimum viable product is essentially the smallest
thing you can build, with the least amount of effort, but still delivers
the value you said it would.
A concierge approach is where you manually run
things behind the scenes for the first batch of
customers, this lets you validate whether the need
is real, before writing a single line of code.
Initial tests showed that listings with professional photographs got
two to three times more bookings than the market average.
In the early days, Airbnb had 20 photographers out and about
taking pictures for their hosts.
Once Airbnb proved their original hypothesis, they took it a step
further, they started to watermark their photos to add a sense of
authenticity.
Customer service then started to offer professional photography as
a service when hosts or potential hosts called.
www.mappfia.com​ | 2

Each step of the way, Airbnb kept measuring the results and
adjusting as necessary.
By 2012, Airbnb was doing close to 5000 photo shoots per month.
Key points
Airbnb had the notion that better photos would lead to more rentals.
They tested the idea with a concierge minimum viable product,
putting in the least amount of effort as possible, but still getting valid
results.
When the experiment yielded positive results, only then did they
build the required components to roll it out to all their customers.
Conclusion
Sometimes growth can come from parts of your business that you'd
least expect.
When you think you've got a decent idea, you should figure out how
to test it quickly, with the least amount of cash.
You should define what a successful test will look like before you
start, and what you're going to do if you're right.
www.mappfia.com​ | 3