Well, what does "lean startup" mean in this AI age? what changes? what stays the same?
You can just watch Lenny's Podcast and you'll see how those principles are alive and well :)
I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
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Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#42Thoughts on the modern trend of "AI tokens used" as a metric for performance, growth and efficiency by both startups and multi-national giants alike?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#43Any examples of corrupted companies that you’d like to share? I’m especially curious about your thoughts on Meta and Google, the biggest startups of their time and how they evolved.
I write about both companies (briefly) in the book. I've noticed in the comments I get from readers that people still feel very tenderly towards Google, remembering that incredible sense of idealism they instilled in so many of us when they went public. So I had to be very careful what I wrote about Google; I actually mostly left the critique to ex-Google employees, by quoting a dataset of people who had been at Goog…
I think you’re spot on. Facebook employees have accepted its fate. It has become a company of mercenaries. I’m surprised they folded more quickly than Google.
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#44[dead]
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#45Thanks for doing this - I'm an author, and my working theory is that every author is a one-person startup, so I try to think about lean startup principles when I think about the business of being an author.
How do you think Lean Startup principles could be applied to ordinary families looking to navigate the existing economic stresses we're experiencing?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#46Is LTSE working the way you hoped?
it's funny, people constantly criticize LTSE because it hasn't made "enough" progress (you can see one such example already on HN below). But since nobody has ever done anything remotely like this before, I am not sure how we are supposed to judge how much progress it "should" have made by now.
and since everyone widely agrees that what we are attempting is "impossible" I am pretty impressed that we've managed to make any progress at all :)
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#47For those that want to go deeper with _Incorruptible_, I've spent the past few months doing hundreds of interviews and events discussing its various themes and topics. I'm having Claude Code summarize this progress along the way at https://howisincorruptiblegoing.com/ You can also see the various accolades, reviews, and awards that it's accumulated so far.
As an author, I'm navigating SO many angry people who are enraged at the idea of using AI tools in writing. How are you managing that?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#48Book recommendations?
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#49I would love to know more example of good and bad companies
The book is loaded with examples, I promise.
Let me clarify one thing, though, which is that when we call a company "good" or "bad" we can't mean something like absolutely good or evil. No human enterprise can ever be truly perfect.
So, rather, we have to identify what an organization is trying to do and whether the means it has chosen are actually appropriate to that goal. Then we can judge if the goal is aligned with human flourishing (good) or not (bad), and whether the org is consistent in pursuit of that goal (good) or not (bad), and whether it has the strength to continue (good) or not (bad).
Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA
#50I've long been suspicious of the conflicts of interest induced by exit-orientated investment models. I'm curious if you think cooperative businesses leveraging non-voting preferred shares, community shares and other coop investment instruments are more resilient against this type of corruption. I'm wonder how you see the tradeoffs these models have against traditional LLC/VC models and how you would mitigate them.
I hate the word "exit" altogether. It's only the investors who are leaving Middle Earth; the rest of us are still try to make this thing work. I address your question in much more detail in the book, using examples as varied as Mondragon in Spain, John Lewis Partnership in the UK, and Vanguard and credit unions here in the US. We actually have pretty good evidence that these other structures are more resilient and mo…
Thank you, I'm happy to hear you address these models and will definitely be reading your book!
I think we need a "middle path" culture that finds a good balance between these pressures and values.