Acknowledgments

This book is the culmination of a journey that began eight years ago as I started to contemplate a transition from my long‐time career in the tech industry to dedicating the second half of my career to the pursuit of social good. There are innumerable people who have inspired me, taught me, supported me, invested in me, and encouraged me along the way.

First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to Eric Ries for his visionary book, The Lean Startup, which was the direct inspiration for Lean Impact. His ability to capture these important principles in accessible, compelling terms has established a new model for twenty‐first‐century entrepreneurship. I am humbled by the opportunity to bring these concepts to mission‐driven organizations of all shapes and sizes. As I was contemplating my next steps after USAID, Eric’s enthusiasm and unwavering support gave me the impetus to walk away from some exciting job opportunities to pursue this project. He has been incredibly generous in extending his brand, agent, networks, conferences, platform, infrastructure, and professional services for this new purpose. I had the pleasure of working with Eric at a startup 15 years ago, and am delighted that our paths have intersected again through this new endeavor.

I also want to extend my thanks to the Lean Startup Company, for welcoming me as part of the team and embracing Lean Impact throughout their work. Special thanks to Heather McGough, who has been a wonderful champion, along with Hugh Molotsi, Andy Archer, CJ Legare, Julianne Wotasik, and Amber Hinds. And special thanks to Adam Berk, who has been my partner in designing and piloting workshops that combine his background in Lean Startup with new concepts from Lean Impact. In the social sector, we have a tendency to create too many siloed institutions, brands, and initiatives with minor variations that are inefficient, confusing, and can even work at cross‐purposes. I’ve been delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate and build together towards this common vision.

I am also deeply indebted to Steve Blank, upon whose shoulders the Lean Startup approach stands. Many of the theories contained within Lean Impact can be traced back to his original insights and theories. I was also incredibly fortunate to build on the curriculum of his groundbreaking Lean LaunchPad class, as part of the teaching team (along with Amy Herr, Steve Weinstein, and Pete Dailey) for Hacking for Impact at the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 2017.

The Lean Impact book also stands on the shoulders of Leanne Pittsford and Leah Neaderthal, who along with Christie George pioneered the Lean Impact movement and community in 2012. Their early recognition of this need led to conferences, minisummits, a blog series, and an online guide. Lean Impact was acquired by the Lean Startup Company in 2016.

I am so grateful to Christy Fletcher and Fletcher and Company for taking a chance on me, based on barely a paragraph describing the concept for this book, and representing me throughout the publishing process. I especially want to thank Sylvie Greenberg, who has so patiently and wisely coached me, as a first‐time author, on everything from writing my book proposal to finding the right publisher to navigating all the vagaries of the often perplexing book industry.

At John Wiley & Sons, Brian Neill has been absolutely instrumental in taking my ideas and making them into the book you see today. He has been incredibly responsive to all my naive questions and helped me navigate all the big and small things needed to publish a book today. I also want to thank my editor at Wiley, Vicki Adang, for her invaluable guidance, feedback, and encouragement that helped shape the manuscript. Outside Wiley, I want to thank Adrienne Schultz for her assistance in line editing the manuscript on short notice and making it far more readable as a result.

I owe a debt of gratitude to Marcus Gosling, who designed the trademark ink swooshes for The Lean Startup and The Startup Way, and contributed the beautiful cover art for Lean Impact. I also want to thank the folks at Anagraph, including Rachel Gepner, Indhi Rojas, and Alma Alvila, for creating the figures you see throughout the book.

Of course, many people have been at the vanguard of bringing lean and related innovation approaches to the social sector for some time. Among the best, with whom I have had the privilege to learn from and collaborate with, are Tom Kalil, Kevin Starr, Sonal Shah, Jocelyn Wyatt, Buddy Harlan, Caroline Whistler, Sasha Dichter, Christy Chin, Dennis Whittle, Thane Kleiner, and Cathy Clark. So many of their brilliant ideas and insights are woven throughout this book.

At the heart of this book are the inspiring stories of social entrepreneurs, nonprofits, companies, foundations, investors, and their advisors who have blazed the path for the rest of us to follow. I am awestruck by the over 200 organizations and over 300 individuals who so generously volunteered their time, experiences, and lessons learned in interviews for this book. They are unfortunately too numerous to list here, but I want to extend my truly heartfelt thanks to each and every one of them. Choosing which stories to include was a painful task, and know that those who do not show up directly on these pages were still essential in shaping the ideas and framing for this book. I especially want to thank everyone at Harambee Youth Accelerator and BRAC for hosting me for extended visits.

I have learned that writing a book involves its own write–measure–learn feedback cycle. I am so grateful for all the people who generously volunteered their time to struggle through early versions of the manuscript and provide honest feedback that has dramatically informed and improved the book, from conceptual framing to typos. A huge thank‐you to Chris Kirschkoff, Anna Chilchuk, Graham Gottlieb, Anne Healy, Steve Weinstein, Sarah Revi Sterling, Caroline Whistler, Alicia Philips‐Mandaville, David DeFerrenti, Kristin Lord, Cindy Huang, Lona Stoll, Cathy Clark, Sheila Herrling, Sonal Shah, Cynthia Martin, Stephanie Krmpotic, Andrea Kress, Fang Yuan, Elliot Susel, Marilyn Gorman, Adam Berk, Eric Ries, and Heather McGough. Despite running a half‐billion dollar nonprofit as his day job, Patrick Fine takes the prize for the most detailed and comprehensive editorial feedback. I was lucky to have his unparalleled eye for bringing clarity to concepts.

Thank you to George Ingram at the Brookings Institution for being my champion and hosting two expert roundtables to discuss key elements of the book. I also want to thank all the esteemed participants who read advance chapters, offered their expertise, and engaged in lively discussions that made all the hard work seem worthwhile.

In addition to feedback on the book itself, a number of hands‐on workshops played a significant role in shaping the content and framing. Thanks to TEDGlobal, Skoll World Forum, CCIC, Independent Sector, DFID, the Rockefeller Foundation, and InterAction for the opportunity to pilot test workshops of varying formats.

On a personal level, finding a path to connect my career in Silicon Valley to my desire to contribute in some meaningful way to ending global poverty was not at all straightforward. I can’t thank Anne‐Marie Slaughter, Melanne Verveer, and Neal Keny‐Guyer enough for making an early bet on me, seeing the potential, and giving me amazing opportunities to learn and contribute. I would not be here without their unflinching sponsorship and support.

I am particularly grateful for having had the chance to serve in my dream job at USAID. Special thanks to Jennifer Anastasoff for recognizing the opportunity, Jim Watson for making it happen, Raj Shah for his audacious vision for the Lab, Gayle Smith for being a champion and advocate, Michele Sumilas for removing obstacles and keeping me on the right path, and the entire, awe‐inspiring team at the Lab who are working tirelessly to transform global development. I will forever be grateful to Lona Stoll, who taught me how government works, told me when I screwed up, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of everything Lab, USAID, management, and innovation. While she was ostensibly my deputy, things always turned out better when I did what she told me rather than the other way around.

A final heartfelt thank you to my mom and my good friends who have unwaveringly supported and encouraged me throughout my life and the writing of this book. An extra shout‐out to Barb Voss and Jan Zivic, who shared some invaluable tips and tools that made the process far more manageable than it might have been otherwise.