The Lean Startup Bundle | Hacker News Reader

The Lean Startup Bundle

appsumo.com

78 pointsarfrank30 comments

I bought this, but now I want refund. The books are excerpts, which I didn't realise. Why is Inbound Marketing listed as $20 for 30 pages PDF? I can get the full new hardcover from Amazon for $16.47. Also, half the webpages to download the items will not load. This is costing me more money in time than it's worth. I cannot use my trials without giving my credit card details and risk paying for the high priced plans when they expire. I think this is a great idea, but poorly executed.

I'm at lunch but will take care of you asap.

Thanks for the refund Noah. This deal didn't work for me, because there were a few too many surprises after I purchased (I should have read the descriptions more thoroughly) and too many broken sites (you were too popular). The entering the credit card details of the free trials was the final straw, and I realised I was spending far too long with this. I'd still consider it in the future, but with a little more consideration. I look forward to seeing what comes next for AppSumo.

For the record: the Leanpub ebooks included in the Appsumo bundle are not excerpts.

Startup Lessons Learned is 798 pages, and covers August 2008 - now. The Venture Hacks Bible is 1406 pages, and covers March 2007 - now. Best of Andrew Chen's Blog is 984 pages, and covers 2006 - now. (It was 1700+ pages unedited, but it's curated.) Sean Ellis's book Startup Marketing: Unlocking Startup Growth is 168 pages, but that's all the content there is.

So even if you ignore the pages that are bogus (TOC, index, etc), you've got about 2500+ pages just for the Leanpub books. These PDF books sell for $29.99, $19, $19 and $19 regular price. The ideas in them are worth a huge multiple of $42, imho.

The really good thing is that all the content in all these books is available for free on the authors' blogs. Part of the inspiration for Leanpub is Paul Graham's Hackers and Painters, which followed a similar model, but was published by a traditional publisher. We're doing the blog-essay-into-book thing for self-published authors.

Hackers and Painters is worth the money (either as a PDF or as a print book), since you think more deeply about the content when it's in book format than you do when it is on a blog and you're distracted by Hacker News and ooh there's a new Twitter CEO and look a shiny toy and kittens. That's the Leanpub value proposition, and why these books are worth buying. (It encourages you to fully read the archives of these 4 blogs, all the way back.)

Now, Leanpub is actually a system for writing and publishing in-progress books, not for just selling exports of blogs. Authors can sell books before they are finished, and when new versions are released the readers can be automatically emailed.

We launched our new version last night at 3 AM which included the first versions of features designed to support better communication between authors and readers, etc. However, the Appsumo bundle promptly crushed us.

(We're spinning up bigger servers today and temporarily disabling some features for Leanpub authors to cope with the Appsumo email blast that will go out tomorrow. Leanpub is more than the not-fully-baked-and-slow site that you see today.)

Later this year we're rolling out features including a good way to do online/offline editing for nontechnical users, etc. The architecture already supports this now. This will also include EPUB and MOBI generation, etc.

So, anyway, the timing could have been better for us, but the books here are good and are worth reading. If you have any issues, please email me (peter@leanpub.com) or phone me (604.916.8017) and we will ensure you get your downloads etc.

Thanks, Peter Armstrong Leanpub Cofounder

Thanks for the reply Peter. I appreciate it. Leanpub was obviously under considerable traffic stress, as I was not able to get to the books on your site. Hopefully you'll be fully up and running soon, and I can take a look.

Phil if you have any questions please let me know...

I think this is a great idea and I thank the organizers for putting this together. That said, the savings can be a bit misleading. The value for an entire book is listed when only 2 or 3 chapters of the book is included with the bundle. I don't think the organizers are trying to deceive anyone, but just something to be aware.

it would be helpful if they added a section called something like "Book Samples" separate from "Books" or "Applications"

Good call. We are a startup so everything is a work in progress. Appreciate the feedback.

The Leanpub books are full books; see my comment below.

Make sure to look at the full prices for all the apps. Many of those (Chargify and Uservoice, for example) will require integration into your application. When that 3 month trial price runs out, don't get hit with sticker shock when the full-price plan kicks in. It's very tough to just walk away when you've already integrated a service.

Good point. That's kind of why we started AppSumo. Providing a buffet of peoples favorite apps to try longer than 14 days and discover other cool sites they may not have heard of.

A fair amount convert to paying users after trying the services which is why we can provide the initial deal at a good price.

Noah Kagan approached me the other day about including HM into part of a 'startup' bundle. I have no idea at that time the bundle would look this big (and this cheap).

I think this would be really helpful to startups or those who are looking to start one and operate on a tight budget (which is what most startups are).

Glad you could be a part of it. This deal is definitely the best one we've ever done! Keep up the great monthly:)

Anyone (or Noah) know if we need to activate these deals within a certain time period - do they expire??

There are 4 PDFs from Leanpub in the bundle: 2 are free (Startup Lessons Learned, The Venture Hacks Bible) and 2 are steeply discounted to $4.95 from $19 (Andrew Chen, Sean Ellis). All four of these PDFs can be downloaded from Leanpub via coupon code, and the coupon codes last for a month.

Please note that our servers are straining right now to handle the load. (I think Appsumo refers to the fact that your server is about to be squashed! :) We're spinning up bigger instances later today, but don't worry, all purchases will work. If you have any issues please email me at peter@leanpub.com. (I'm the cofounder of Leanpub.)

Also note that the link to the Startup Lessons Learned PDF in the download may be incorrect. This is being fixed ASAP, but if you have an issue with the code you got just email me (peter@leanpub.com) your coupon code and I'll send you a working coupon code in return...

Hey, I helped put this one. And by put this one meaning I took orders from Eric like a waiter. Glad to see people like it.

There are a few time limits which are listed in the finer details section. If you have any issues or want them extended just email me, noah at appsumo

Wow, this is a great bundle. I was planning on using some of these services in the next month, so the timing for me is perfect. Thanks for putting this bundle together Noah, Eric, and all the companies offering their services in the bundle.

Are you telling me I can finally have a Lean Startup AND save $1031 by encumbering myself with all these things I probably don't need by spending $42?!

Sign me up! (Hum. So I'm a bit of a "savings" cynic.)

Not saying this isn't a good deal, but when I've bought books in bulk, I'm not as compelled to get the most out of each one. It's like getting a zip file of 250 games for your Nintendo emulator.

This was worth the $42 just to add $200 to my Twilio balance. No way to look at that as less than a gain since I use their API. All the other pieces of the bundle are just great bonuses.

Awesome bundle Noah, as usual! Could you specify in which format the books come from?

Good question. All books come in pdf format. Eric's new hardcover gets mailed for Free to your door. Worldwide.

Something to look into: attempting to pay via paypal will incorrectly try to charge "$63 USD" instead of $42. Thanks for putting this bundle together.

Whoa, really? I haven't seen that bug yet. Email me and I'll try to see what's going on. noah@appsumo

I have the same issue and actually can not pay at all.

honestly that is a pretty sick bundle. the fact you also get kissmetrics lifetime free account after as well makes it worth it.

glad it has chargify in it too, especially after we were talking about that here a few days ago.

is the Entrepreneurs guide to Customer Development ebook the complete version?

Yes, it's the full version. We tried to be super clear about what you get with each...

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