Entrepreneurs always pitch their idea as 'the X of Y,' so this is going to be 'the Microsoft of food.' And yet disruptive innovations usually don't have that character. Most of the time, if something seems like a good idea, it probably isn't.

The biggest start-up successes - from Henry Ford to Bill Gates to Mark Zuckerberg - were pioneered by people from solidly middle-class backgrounds. These founders were not wealthy when they began. They were hungry for success, but knew they had a solid support system to fall back on if they failed.

This is one of the most important lessons of the scientific method: if you cannot fail, you cannot learn.

The only person who can put you out of business, in the early days, is yourself.

Every startup has a chance to change the world, by bringing not just a new product, but an entirely new institution into existence.

Progress in manufacturing is measured by the production of high quality goods. The unit of progress for Lean Startups is validated learning-a rigorous method for demonstrating progress when one is embedded in the soil of extreme uncertainty.

Lean thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer; anything else is waste.