Bryon Kroger (Air Force vet, Kessel Run, Rise8 founder) — 'it might be the most important book I have read as a mission-focused founder'

Bryon Kroger — former Air Force intelligence/targeting officer, founder of Kessel Run, and founder of Rise8 (government software) — sends Eric a reader review tracing how Incorruptible resolved the false dichotomy he'd been quietly resigning himself to. Eric posts it.

“I just finished Incorruptible and it might be the most important book I have read as a mission-focused founder. It's one of those rare moments where I can point to exact paragraphs that will rewire how I spend the next thirty years of my life. I was an intelligence/targeting officer in the Air Force and I watched missions fail and people die because of bad software. After a particularly bad incident, I got myself reassigned to software procurement where they built my terrible software, and launched Kessel Run. So I left and started Rise8 to help future rebels win that fight. Until finishing this book, I genuinely believed there were only two paths. Path one: take investment, accept that gravity eventually wins, and watch whatever I built get hollowed out the moment I'm not in the room. Path two: take no outside capital, stay personally in control, move slower, and accept that the whole thing dies with me. I had quietly chosen path two and I told myself the tradeoff was the price of integrity. This book made me realize I had been staring at a false dichotomy the entire time. It's possible to be 'Incorruptible' and I've already gotten to work on it.” — Bryon Kroger, founder of Rise8 (reader review shared by Eric Ries on LinkedIn)