The Lean Startup movement fundamentally changed entrepreneurial education and the way new ventures evolve. While Steve Blank and other founders of the movement embraced academic ideas, the movement grew among practitioners largely disconnected from academic entrepreneurship research. The purposes of this special issue are (1) to better connect Lean Startup practice to academic entrepreneurship research and (2) to advance theory regarding Lean Startup practices and their outcomes. After a brief and personal story of Lean Startup’s beginnings by its founder, Steve Blank, the first set of papers in this special issue juxtapose Lean Startup with alternative approaches to new venture creation developed by scholars outside the influence of the Lean Startup movement. The second set of papers describe how Lean Startup might be contextualized for different unique situations. The third set dives into different Lean Startup practices to help researchers and practitioners think more deeply about decisions and trade-offs made during implementation of Lean Startup.