In this Ferris Wheel episode of The Design Your Thinking Podcast, I talk to Laurence McCahill and deconstruct his Product Mindset by asking questions that get deep into the way he thinks.

Who is Laurence McCahill?

A recovering digital agency founder, Laurence co-founded The Happy Startup School as a backlash against the prevailing startup culture of high growth and fast exits. In less than 3 years this has grown into a 100,000 strong grass roots movement, having built their reputation on a series of game-changing events and programs.

In this particular episode, you will learn

The first part of this conversation with Laurence – https://designyourthinking.com/dyt-012-happy-startup-canvas-happiness-business-part-1-laurence-mccahill/

1. Have you trained or coached others to do what you are doing as an entrepreneur? How successful have they been in being able to replicate the results?
   • Frankenstein Factories
2. What are the biggest mistakes you see product startups make? What do you see as a waste of time in what they do today?
   • What are the biggest mistakes you see bigger product companies make?
     • No one does Lean Startup and do the hard stuff first
     • Jeremiah Gardner – The Lean Brand
       • Most valuable money you spend on a startup is 2-3 bucks on a cup of coffee with a customer
       • Great entrepreneurs don’t try to be proven right, but try to be proven wrong
     • Bad news gets worse the longer you leave it – Rob Fitzpatrick
     • Everyone’s got a plan until they get punched in the face – Mike Tyson
   • What are your key principles for a happy startup?
     • Start with the Why and the Purpose
     • If you had 5 ideas, which one would you do if Money was never the purpose?
3. What are your favorite books & resources on making products and running product startups? If people had to teach themselves to start a business using Happiness as the Business Model, what do you suggest they do?
4. If you had to coach me for 4 weeks to get build and launch a product business, and you had a million dollars in the line, what would the coaching look like? What would it look like in 8 weeks?

Useful Links

• Laurence McCahill on Twitter @welovelean
• Introduction to The Design Your Thinking Podcast – designyourthinking.com/episode000
• Ash Maurya on “Lean Product Mindset and Running Lean” – designyourthinking.com/episode007
• The Happy Startup Canvas – www.thehappystartupschool.com/blog/2015/9/29/introducing-the-happy-startup-canvas
• The Happy Startup School – www.thehappystartupschool.com
• Books
  • Winning Without Losing book by Martin Bjergegaard
  • Rework book by David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp (previously known as 37Signals)
  • Remote book by David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp (previously known as 37Signals)
  • The Seven-Day Weekend book by Ricardo Semler
  • Running Lean by Ash Maurya
  • Value Proposition Design by Alex Osterwalder
  • Inspired by Marty Cagan
  • Do Purpose by David Hieatt
  • Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh