"Don't add process until you feel the pain of not having it."

Excellent phrasing of what I've been preaching in our startup all along. We apply this to every angle of our business and I find this is very, very good advice for startups.

And it's not just for software development, either! Need an order processing system? No you don't — you can handle things manually at first, thus learning what you really need. Need a CMS? No you don't — the bugtracker you use for your software can probably help you enough in the beginning. Examples abound.

Follow this philosophy and you'll build a lean company. What's even better is that once you actually do add process (or buy external solutions, or hire additional people, etc), you'll know what you're doing, because you will have learned the real requirements.

That was the true spirit of Agile. Which unfortunately was lost in the Chasm: http://agilefocus.com/2011/02/21/agiles-second-chasm-and-how...

Lean Startup seem to be more immune to it, as the very need of the process is filtered through the process (do you really need it? test it!)