In this episode of the Main Function Garry sits down with Eric Ries, author of "The Lean Startup", about his new book, "Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad And How Great Companies Stay Great".
Ries breaks down why shareholder primacy often leads to company and product degradation, how founders can lose control of the companies they build, and what legal structures and governance models can protect a company’s core mission from outside threats.
Pre-order the book here: https://shorturl.at/rXnn1
Apply to Y Combinator: https://www.ycombinator.com/apply
Work at a startup: https://www.ycombinator.com/jobs
Chapters:
00:00 — Intro
00:47 — The Professor’s Wake-Up Call
03:43 — A Wake, Not a Party
05:12 — Shareholder Primacy Explained
08:20 — The Jeff Lawson / Twilio Story
10:27 — When You Fire the Founder
12:01 — The Legend of Sol Price
15:38 — Costco’s Secret Origin
18:33 — Mission-Controlled Companies
19:40 — Finding the Right Board
22:26 — Just Become a PBC
23:40 — Who Invented Shareholder Primacy?
27:08 — It’s Not Even a Law
30:28 — The Builder’s Intuition
34:47 — Novo Nordisk & the $600B Bet
39:47 — Industrial Foundations Outperform
42:08 — The Problem With VC Fund Structure
43:05 — Dual Class Isn’t Enough
44:54 — Building Something That Outlives You
45:03 — Anthropic’s Governance Story + Outro
