Lean Startup, to Lean Company, to Rich Exit

The turning $1,000 into $1.54 billion story…

In 1982, MIT professor Kenan Sahin took $1,000 from his savings and used it to undertake the most extraordinary entrepreneurial journey, culminating with a $1.54 billion rich exit just 17 years later. This is the story of Kenan’s turning his academic theories into axiomatic principles for building a Lean Startup into a Lean Company followed by a Rich Exit.

Among those principles are...


- Suffusing the organization with a 'teach and learn, learn and teach' mindset
- Recruiting and retaining the nation’s finest talent by hiring based on aptitude > attitude > willingness > experience (in order of importance)
- Finding a way to reject outside funding and retain full ownership

And every step and misstep along Kean’s road to success is brought into the present day—for Kenan remains the professor at heart and is deeply committed to helping fellow entrepreneurs forge models for outsized excellence in their own way forward.