ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the lean startup and effectuation methods for startups are useful within the context of the arts. It focuses on the startup phase of career development in the creative and cultural industries. The question of whether an artist's career can be considered to be a startup has been partly addressed by Hughes, Evans, Morrow and Keith. Metaphorically speaking, any single artist's career becomes a stepping stone for the manager in their attempts to develop their own career. In relation to the LSM, from the artist manager's long-term perspective, each artist's career can be viewed as minimal viable product, and they can build their own career through the build-measure-learn feedback loop that the process of signing new clients enables. The notion of a portfolio career is relevant to artists during the startup phase, and also to artist managers during this phase of their client's career as well as in their own career as a manager.
