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

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

#371

Post by eries » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 8:59 PM UTC

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #214

eries wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I had read that blog post because that is one of the chapters in the new book. I actually think that the phrase "mission-driven" for most companies is a total lie. They are at best "mission-hopeful". In fact, I tried to create a new term for the work that is required: the management system, leadership techniques, and structural elements that are required to 100% align the business model with the mission. I cal…

I like the mix of management/leadership/structure. I do think leadership is an important aspect, and leaders who are uncompromising can have a big impact. It's funny we both land on Google as a main example. I had this quote "I’m going to pick on Google a little bit here, but I do love that company. I think there’s a lot it can improve on, but it’s still one of my favorite and least “evil” large tech companies.", and…

I cover that specifically about Google in the book rather than summarizing the whole thing here. I'll just say that if you read the essays of people that worked at Google for a long time (and then left), you will see some pretty remarkable patterns.

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

#372

Post by eries » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:01 PM UTC

mekoka wrote: post #342

I haven't read the book, but I've thought about similar problems. Sharing my attempt at a solution. First, the organization must have an original steering body made up of "true believers" in a shared mission and vision. This body must make preventing the short or long term erosion or dilution of its mission a priority. Meaning that there's awareness that this particular corruption is a possibility from the start. Als…

That sounds very similar to the Alibaba Employee Voting Trust (EVT). That's one of many, many structures that I cover in the book. I would say, in general, one of the reasons that people have a hard time thinking through these structures is that today we treat the leadership/operation side of things as a different discipline/different problem than the governance/structural side of things. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin.

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

#373

Post by eries » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

sidchilling wrote: post #140

eries wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any time you have a technological change, it's kind of confusing to figure out how it can apply to entrepreneurs. On the one hand, it makes it so much easier to create a new MVP, makes it easier to create distribution and to get connected to customers, to do many of the techniques that lean startup demands. On the other hand, that same capability is now in the hands of thousands or even millions of other people, incl…

Isn’t “what” the easy part? I thought the leadership is more about why they are doing what they are doing and why is that important/not important. Something which LLMs are not great at today, but aren’t terrible and can make some good guesses at times.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "what"

I would not think that LLMs would make very good leadership decisions, mostly because they're too malleable and too easy to manipulate. I do think they're very helpful in helping leaders assess their own context and situation and thereby make better decisions.

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

#374

Post by eries » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:02 PM UTC

svilen_dobrev wrote: post #344

eries wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an academic, so no, I have not done any of these studies, but good news, everyone: other people have. The specific structure of Nova Nordisk is not just a foundation. I think the two-entity structure, where a foundation oversees or governs a for-profit company, is uniquely suited to longevity of a mission precisely because it combines the stewardship orientation of the foundation with the performance orientat…

some association... the Japanese studied their temples that withstood hundreds of years and thousands of earthquakes.. and found that there's one common pattern: there are two skeleton structures inside one another, with different loading and strengths, each keeping the other from falling (and they built the Tokyo Skytree this way). Would be interesting to see if other lasting things in other domains, natural or huma…

What a great metaphor. If I had known about it, I probably would have used it in the book.

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

#375

Post by eries » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:03 PM UTC

dmofp wrote: post #348

eries wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see a "book a call" button in the lower-right, at least on chrome/macos. Apologies if it's not working on other platforms. TBH, the team has been so overwhelmed with word-of-mouth leads, they probably have neglected the website-entry pathway. We are working hard to scale up so that they can accommodate more demand and then will probably also have time to get a working website :)

Ahh I see it now (sorry for the false alarm). I do think the site could use some more prominent CTAs. I think i vaaguely noticed that button but thought it was one of those AI chat bubble.

Totally fair. I'll pass it along to the team.

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

#376

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:07 PM UTC

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #270

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #213

The founders and business models of Costco, Patagonia and Novo Nordisk are so radically different from so-called "tech startup" founders^1 that one must consider this in any analysis 1. Who lack a legitimate business model hence have resorted to "data collection from/about computer users, surveillance of computer users even when engaged in non-commercial activity and online advertising services" with generally free,…

The founders don't want to work in the regulated environments that Costco and Novo Nordick operate in The pawns don't want to work in the IT departments of those companies They all want to be in Silicon Valley fantasy land They worship obscene Silicon Valley wealth, they are beholden to venture capital firms and they want to build data centers all over the planet and fill Earth orbit with space garbage The environmen…

*manufacturing

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

#377

Post by 2001zhaozhao » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

lebovic wrote: post #168

I worked at Anthropic, and I wouldn't attribute much to the structure itself – so I'm wary of using it as a positive example here. I do attribute a lot to specific people. Concretely, to much of the intitial team, who they recruited on the research/infra side, and some very close personal relationships within research/infra. That dynamic, paired with their unwillingness to accede to something against their values, is…

> scaling dynamics seem to be evolving like any other org – just at a higher employee count and revenue numbers.

I really wonder if it's possible to avoid these dynamics, even if you try really hard.

If not, it seems to me that goal alignment is the main benefit of a hypothetical lean AI company where the middle management is 1% people and 99% tokens. When most of your decision-making is not being siphoned by politics, your output scales far better with respect to input resources.

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

#378

Post by bensyverson » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

realty_geek wrote: post #145

bensyverson wrote: post #69

Hi Eric, former IDEOer here. I know you spent some time at IDEO observing how we work. In my time there (2014-2024), it felt like most clients misinterpreted "MVP" to mean "the absolute lowest-effort barely-working code that we can rush out to say we shipped something." When they did manage to ship a low-quality MVP, they had no budget for maintenance or iteration. Basically, they shipped a rushed, crappy product, an…

Good question - I hope he gets to answer this. Right now I actually think an MVP should be Maximum Viable Product. Partly because of AI but also because it shifts one's perspective to what Viable means.

"Viable" is the core of the misunderstanding. I think some business leaders took "minimum viable" to mean "bare-minimum." It doesn't. In my mind I think of it as a live prototype shipped to real users, built out just enough to answer a clear learning objective.

I agree that AI makes the MVP easier to build, but it makes things so easy to build, there is a slight risk of overbuilding the wrong things, which can distract from the learning goals.

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

#379

Post by lebovic » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:12 PM UTC

eries wrote: post #358

lebovic wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I lean towards the structure not being the cause of the outcome here (i.e. if you rotated the governance structure of Anthropic and OpenAI, I think the decisions at each would likely stay the same). If they made that decision and it destroyed revenue, I could see an alternate timeline where a standard C-Corp + board with non-founder control may have ousted leadership. But that wasn't the situation for OpenAI or…

I just like to ask one little question: Who chose the structure in the first place? It's kind of a chicken and egg situation.

Sure, but their question was whether different structure/governance would have changed that decision.

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

#380

Post by felooboolooomba » Wed, Jun 10, 2026, 9:14 PM UTC

lebovic wrote: post #168

I worked at Anthropic, and I wouldn't attribute much to the structure itself – so I'm wary of using it as a positive example here. I do attribute a lot to specific people. Concretely, to much of the intitial team, who they recruited on the research/infra side, and some very close personal relationships within research/infra. That dynamic, paired with their unwillingness to accede to something against their values, is…

Totally agree about the people. I've seen a bad hire blow up a 20 person startup. I've seen 5 person company excel since they worked more like 5x5 persons than 5 individuals.