Entrepreneurs Searching for Scalable Business Models : The Barriers of the Customer Development Process

This paper identifies and analyzes barriers startups encounter when following the Lean Startup approach, i.e. the Customer Development process during the initial phase of identifying and validating a business model. In an action research setting, we mentored and interviewed eleven startups enrolled in a business development program called “Born Global” running 7-10 months. For the barrier prior experience, entrepreneurs who had previously...