I admit, I'm disappointed that the Apple announcement was only about The Beatles catalogue on iTunes. But whenever The Beatles invade the news I'm always re-inspired by how transformative their work really was---as recording artists, as cultural torchbearers, and even as businessmen. In addition to multi-track recording, concept albums, and tax-sheltered holding companies, another technique that the fab four used long before it became popular was, none other than, the minimum viable product.
"Love Me Do": The original Minimum Viable Product
Clearly The Beatles' sound evolved tremendously over their 10-year run. The warped time signatures and tonal complexities of "Happiness is a Warm Gun" are a far cry from the simple Skiffle tunes that launched their career. What The Beatles really pulled off, though, is exactly the strategy employed by successful lean startups: they launched with a minimal product that was just enough to get the job done, then slowly expanded it over time. It is likely the greatest "lean startup" success story of all time.
Audience First, Revolution Later
The Beatles didn't set out to revolutionize music; at first they merely penned simple songs that they thought would have a large audience (e.g. to scratch a musical itch that real listeners already had). Countless startups fail because they try to do too much too soon; they try to "transform a space" with loads of features, months of development time, and huge ambitions. Successful tech endeavors, however, tend to begin with simple, focused products, what Eric Reis calls "minimum viable products", or what John Borthwick and Andy Weissman of Betaworks call "lowest common denominator products."
Want to shake up social networking? Build something stupid-simple like Group Me (a 24-hour hackathon effort). Their group text messaging is a simple feature that a lot of people want, and though limited today, it can serve as a springboard for much larger ambitions down the road. Hell, Facebook itself was originally built in 2 weeks with only a single feature: user profiles.
The Beatles were sort of like the Facebook of their day (okay, so that's extremely unfair to the Beatles, but bear with me): they started with a simple, focused product, gained traction, and then leveraged their user base to launch all sorts of unprecedented new "products."
From Mass Appeal to Critical Acclaim
Early successes like "Love Me Do", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", the Ed Sullivan Show performances, and their first few US tours created enough traction (both in terms of profits and listeners) to enable the later, groundbreaking work that would define their legacy. In 1966, or so, with a large and loyal following, happy record executives (VC's, if you will), and significant learning under their belts (from the 1,400 live shows they performed between 1962 and 1966) they found themselves in a perfect position to try to reinvent pop music.
The rest is music history.
Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, the White Album, and Abbey Road are each considered among the most important artistic (and commercial) achievements of the 20th century. But there's no way The Beatles could've started out with these albums. They didn't have the audience to tolerate their experimentation; they didn't have the resources and support needed to actually produce them; and perhaps most significantly, their songwriting skills and musicianship had yet to be honed by a grueling touring schedule and the invaluable data points provided by millions of fans who, every time they liked or disliked a new song, helped Lennon and McCartney to refine their "product" sensibilities for future releases.
So if you want to be the next Facebook or the next Beatles, then start like they started.
Go into a garage and create something simple that people want. The revolution can come later.