Jael Johnson — 'If you raise the price of this f*cking hotdog, I will kill you'

Jael Johnson — Strategic Partnerships & Content at Highland Academy — attends the 2026-06-22 Commonwealth Club fireside and posts her raw notes-app takeaways, including the canonical Costco hot-dog quote, the 'culture bank' concept, and Eric's framing of OKRs eventually breaking down. 18 likes.

“sat in on a Fireside Chat today with Eric Ries (author of The Lean Startup), interviewed by Scott Cook (cofounder @ Intuit), discussing his new book: Incorruptible! here are some things I typed on my notes app during the chat: (word for word. sorry not sorry.) - the costco hotdog. their $1.50 hot dog has been the same price since 1985. (how??) - "if you raise the price of this f*cking hotdog, i will kill you." (find this shirt) - cheap is a promise and they protect it like one (costco) - harder is easier. the more concrete your values and commitments, the easier every decision becomes after. - Eric talks about "the culture bank". trustworthiness works like a bank account. most companies don't know their balance. (do we know ours?) - OKRs eventually break down. metric starts to replace the mission. - temporary owners running temporary companies holding temporary money. this is what optimizing for exits ACTUALLY costs us.” — Jael Johnson on LinkedIn