Social Agent (previously “weibo agent”) likes to say it was born in a Lean Startup Machine weekend in Shanghai, China in June 2012. The startup wanted to spend a weekend working on validating its business model, and knew lean startup methodology was key to its success.

Many entrepreneurs in China are doing Chinese social media related startups, because social media rocks, and in China is amazing! But Social Agent wanted to ensure its success by learning and practicing Lean Startup methodologies.

Over the course of 1 weekend, the startup gained confidence it would be able to find the right product / market fit – and also met Chinaccelerator where it later entered into the incubator.

Thank you Lean startup machine!

About Lean Startup Machine

Its what I and some others call a “pre-startupweekend”, some even suggest first going to a lean startup machine, validate your business model / concept, and then taking the idea to a Startup Weekend or a hackathon to build it. Learn more on http://leanstartupmachine.com/about/

Lean Startup Machine is NOT a hackathon. It’s an intensive three-day workshop which teaches entrepreneurs and innovators how to build disruptive products.

How It Works – The workshop kicks off with a series of product pitches that help attendees organize into teams. Everyone works on a NEW idea. Each team then develops its problem hypothesis, solution hypothesis and a series of assumptions which are core to the success of the business.

Next, each team creates an MVP, or “Minimum Viable Product.” The goal of the MVP test is to “Get Out Of the Building,” speak with real customers and to collect cash or non-cash currency which serves as validation.

The process promotes a problem-centric approach to business ideation. By continuously validating and invalidating assumptions, teams are forced to pivot their solution (and even problem) toward a true customer pain; rather than creating a solution and after-the-fact seeking customers with a problem.