Lean startup, effectuation, creation theory, and the theory-based view represent four different descriptive theories of how new ventures emerge and/or normative theories of how new ventures should be developed. We juxtapose the four approaches and describe their similarities and differences, which provides a foundation for considering complementarities among the approaches and constructing a future research agenda for additional reconciliation and contextualization regarding how successful new ventures are, or should be, developed under varying circumstances.