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Startups For the Rest of Us

Episode 834 | Eric Ries Revisits The Lean Startup and Discusses How to Become Incorruptible

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Entrepreneurship, Management, Business, Marketing

4.9819 Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 40 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is AI actually making your build-measure-learn cycle faster, or just making your work more average?  In this episode, Rob Walling talks with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup, to revisit what's held up in Lean Startup thinking 15 years on, why AI speeds up building but can't replace human learning, and what drove Eric to write his new book, Incorruptible. Eric also shares the story of how the Long-Term Stock Exchange nearly died before it ever launched, and why Costco is the rare example of a company that figured out how to stay incorruptible.  Topics we cover: (3:48) – Lean Startup: 15 years later (8:33) – How countercultural MVPs and pivots were (11:02) – How AI changes build-measure-learn (13:36) – Learning is still a human job (15:43) – AI makes everyone's work more average (17:39) – The Long-Term Stock Exchange story (21:03) – How LTSE was nearly destroyed (25:00) – A better definition of profit (31:45) – Companies already living this way (32:33) – The legend of Sol Price and Costco (37:36) – Incorruptible: ethos plus integrity Links from the show: TinySeed SaaS Institute The SaaS Playbook Incorruptible by Eric Ries  The Lean Startup by Eric Ries Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE)  Eric Ries | LinkedIn Eric Ries (@ericries) | X If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you'd like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We'd love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back to Startup to the rest of us.

0:02.0

I am your host, Rob Walling, and in this episode, I talk with Eric Reese, the founder of the Lean Startup.

0:08.1

We revisit some concepts from his seminal work, and we also discuss his new book about how to become incorruptible.

0:18.7

Before we dive in to our conversation, SASS Institute is my premium

0:24.1

coaching program for founders doing a million or more in ARR. We provide a private members-only

0:31.1

community designed for candid conversations and trusted connections, invite-only founder

0:36.4

events built to spark breakthroughs and accelerate growth.

0:39.9

We surround you with a curated circle of peers.

0:42.7

These are other ambitious founders at a similar stage to you, and they're tackling the same challenges.

0:47.9

As well as one-on-one coaching with experienced SaaS operators and subject matter experts,

0:53.1

as well as direct access to mentors across growth,

0:57.1

sales, product, finance, and more. You can find out the full story at sass institute.com.

1:02.9

This is a premium paid coaching program, again, only for founders doing seven or eight figures

1:08.1

in ARR, and only for SaaS founders at sass institute.com.

1:13.4

And with that, let's dive into my conversation with Eric Reese.

1:25.9

Eric Reese, welcome to the show.

1:28.0

Thank you so much.

1:28.9

It's good to see.

1:29.4

Always good to hang out.

1:30.4

Yeah, it's been a long time, man, since we saw each other.

1:34.0

And this is the first time on the show, surprisingly enough.

1:36.4

I think I want to have you back on before your next book.

...

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