Why Ukrainian Startup Founders Never Used The Lean Startup Method — And Why They Never Will

Why Ukrainian Startup Founders Never Used The Lean Startup Method — And Why They Never Will

In Silicon Valley, founders are told to “experiment,” “validate,” and “learn.”
In Ukraine, startup founders don’t have that luxury, nor have Ukrainian soldiers or civilians.

Ukrainian startup founders, wartime entrepreneurs or any other wartime innovators never used The Lean Startup method because it was never designed for their reality. Not for war. Not for survival. And certainly not for saving Ukraine and lives today.

Lean Startup is slow.
Ukraine must move fast.

Lean Startup is theory-driven.
Ukraine is battlefield-driven.

Lean Startup optimizes investor portfolios.
Ukraine optimizes national survival.

Ukrainian founders of startups work alongside soldiers, drone operators, medics, engineers and civilians in shelters and workshops. Their cycle is simple:

If it works → it goes to the front tonight.
If it doesn’t → people die.

There is no time for Build–Measure–Learn.
There is only Build–Deploy–Protect.

This is why Ukrainian startups founders never used the Lean Startup method — and why they never will. Their mission is not “validated learning” or “making money”.
It is saving Ukraine and Ukrainians now.

👉 Want to break free from theory-driven innovation models like The Lean Startup that don’t help you nor your customers survive? Contact The Virtual Business School and discover how Survival Startup Thinking and Wartime Startup Thinking helps you build and scale startups and scaleups faster, deploy faster, and protect what matters — today.

Warm regards,
Tony de Bree