Why Ukrainian Startups Threw Away Lean Scaling — And Never Looked Back
Ukrainian founders didn’t abandon Lean Scaling because of war.
They abandoned it because of misaligned incentives, wrong beneficiaries, and irrelevant power structures.
Lean Scaling — just like The Lean Startup — was never created for people, companies, let alone countries in crisis.
It was built for U.S. corporates, consultants, and VC-driven ecosystems where the primary goal is value-based portfolio return, not survival of customers.
Ukrainian startups and scaleups and survival innovators in general discovered very quickly:
1. Lean Scaling serves corporate consultants — not soldiers.
The framework was designed to make large organisations feel innovative, not to produce working tech under existential pressure.
2. Scaling rituals serve KPI dashboards — not civilian protection.
Stand-ups, stage gates, maturity models, and corporate scaling checklists do not help when drones, comms systems, or energy solutions are needed tonight to save lives now.
3. Framework theatre serves accelerators — not independence.
Lean Scaling benefits accelerators, trainers, and certification programs — not the people who need working tech on the battlefield or in cities under attack.
4. These methods benefit the U.S. startup machine — not Ukraine.
The entire Lean Startup + Lean Scaling stack was created by The PayPal Mafia and The Lean Startup Mafia to support Silicon Valley investors and Big Tech not sovereign nations defending themselves.
5. Ukrainians don’t scale for performance — they scale for survival.
And that changes everything.
What Ukrainians Do Instead: Survival Scaling
Ukrainian founders flipped the logic:
- Build what works today
- Deliver value tonight
- Put it in the hands of soldiers immediately
- Improve it through frontline feedback, not workshops
- Measure success in lives saved, not vanity metrics
- Scale only when survival demands it, not because a consultant said so
- Maintain independence from U.S. ideological startup doctrine
Lean Scaling is slow because it is designed for peacetime corporate innovation theatre and to make money for VCs and people in The Lean Startup Church.
Survival Scaling is values-based and fast because it is designed for people, companies and countries that must stay alive. And that want to help others to stay alive.
Ukrainians didn’t just reject Lean Scaling.
They outgrew it — and built something that actually works.
Conclusion
Lean Scaling was never meant for them. Ukrainian founders, companies and servant leadership design, build, produce and scale for Ukraine first, not for the interests of the Lean Startup Mafia, The PayPal Mafia, or Silicon Valley ideology in general.
They moved on — and never looked back.
📩 Want to learn how to apply Survival Startup Thinking & Survival Scaling?
Contact us at The Virtual Business School to stay independent, sovereign, and future-proof. Helping people to survive with low-priced, free and scalable solutions in time.
Warm regards,
Tony de Bree
