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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

#91

Post by eries »

Jaauthor wrote: post #45

Thanks 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: your point about being an author, that has always been my approach, too. For this new book, I took in a metric ton of customer feedback (I had over 600 test readers generate more than 10,000 comments) and it really helped the final product. The challenge, of course, is always how to take in external feedback without losing your vision

I've been a bit reluctant to over-generalize from my own theories, and so am not sure I would want to speculate about how to apply them in a family context.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#93

Post by brentjanderson »

eries wrote: post #40
ixxie wrote: post #20

I'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…

> So many of us have been taught that it is the fate of the small to be destroyed by the big, since they are more ruthless and more powerful. But the evidence doesn't really support this just-so story.

This is the comment I came here to read. Thank you, I already have a copy of the book and intend to dig in more on these themes specifically.

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#95

Post by munificent »

aamar wrote: post #82
eries wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> So I had to be very careful what I wrote about Google Can you say more about this? Do you think those tender feelings towards Google track some strain of values which Google still carries? Or does this statement reflect some fear of retaliation or conflict that would drown out the rest of your message? Genuinely interested in how you think about this, especially in the context of this new book’s topic. Thank you fo…

> Do you think those tender feelings towards Google track some strain of values which Google still carries?

I suspect that it's largely just that brand reputation tends to be very sticky in the minds of people.

It's the same reason that Pyrex, Harley-Davidson, and Dyson are still high reputation brands even though the product they make today is tragically worse than what gave them their initial reputation.

(I tend to think of private equity as often existing as an arbitrage system to take advantage of the fact that they can buy a loved brand, slash the quality and increase the profit, and continue to sell at its original price based on that brand stickiness for a while until people eventually wise up.)

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#96

Post by hendler »

A company's values become even more important with AI accelerating and expanding the mission of traditional Delaware Corporations.

Do you have advice on how to use AI to help teams stay true to their values?

Having not read your book yet, in my mind there's the obvious legal support AI can provide to help navigate complex situations, but maybe there's some other groundwork in the value creation and implementation itself?

Re: I'm Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup" and new book "Incorruptible" – AMA

#100

Post by willguest »

Coming from the blockchain space, but wanting to build something with bright patterns, while also using DLT and crypto, has been painful, to say the least.

I would like to know how best to stand out from the toxic, finance-driven world that is defi and crypto generally, without getting rolled in with all the clowns. Of course, I know that clear messaging and verifiable, evidence-driven claims are good, but I am thinking about the more abstract, strategic side to things, which I still feel under-prepared for.

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