Sir Richard Harpin (Founder, Homeserve; £4.1bn exit) — pulls six lessons from Incorruptible, including Costco's $1.50 hot dog defense

Sir Richard Harpin — founder of Homeserve (built a £4.1bn business), host of The Business Leader Podcast and How To Make A Billion newsletter — publishes his own six-lesson breakdown from the Ries interview (57 likes). Frames the book around 'the two questions Eric asks every audience' (every hand up for loved brands sold; every hand down for whether they got better) and quotes Jim Sinegal on the hot dog: 'If you raise the effing hot dog, I will kill you. Figure it out.'

“On tour, he asks every audience two questions. First, who has a brand they loved that got bought, floated or backed by private equity? Every hand goes up. Then, who has one that got better afterwards? Every hand goes down. Eric's point is that it doesn't have to happen. Great companies go bad because of how they're built, which means founders can build them differently. I sat down with Eric for the Business Leader podcast and he shared with me six lessons that business leaders can take away: 1. Success makes you a target. Eric calls it "financial gravity": the pull towards cost cutting and extraction that gets stronger as your business becomes more valuable. Gravity doesn't bring down every bridge, he says. You just have to engineer for it.” — Sir Richard Harpin on LinkedIn, summarizing Eric Ries on The Business Leader Podcast