It feels like everyone has read The Lean Startup but hasn't understood the key message. I read it a few years ago, and I still ended up wasting too much of my time building something that no one wanted. Then I started advising other founders, and I see that most of them are still failing exactly how the book describes failing.
It apparently takes multiple exposures to the Lean Startup concept from different angles for people to get the core message. My own attempt to teach Lean Startup from another angle is called Bloated MVP [0]
I like your message of avoiding MVP bloat. It’s an important one for sure.
In your blog examples you showcase both true positives and true negatives (services that succeeded and failed respectively). It would be especially interesting to also show cases of good mvps that failed and bad ones that ultimately succeeded.
Of course “execution is key”, but it would still give some valuable insights into your methodology.
Maybe "build one to throw away" extends more broadly than we tend to suppose.
You always are gonna screw up the first one, and the second one can go Second System, so maybe the third time is the charm. If so, then what you'd want is a lot of first time startups getting a little money, with a very, very low expectation of success.
But if you are quite certain the first ones are likely to fail, you'd need some incentive to give them even a little money. Maybe with some sort of Right of First Refusal on your next couple of enterprises. Though that's easy enough to game by making a BS proposal, or working for someone else for a year and then trying again. Maybe 2 years and two enterprises, whichever is greater.
It apparently takes multiple exposures to the Lean Startup concept from different angles for people to get the core message. My own attempt to teach Lean Startup from another angle is called Bloated MVP [0]
[0] https://bloatedmvp.com