Reviews
Book reviews — short, long, professional, and civilian. 187 total
- Oct 14, 2026 Nils Stotz
Nils Stotz (Bocconi lecturer) takes the book's emergent-intelligence idea to AI — 'We are adding intelligence to organizations faster than we are redesigning how that intelligence coordinates'
“I recently read Eric Ries's new book, Incorruptible. One idea I found particularly interesting was his description of organizations as a form of “emergent intelligence”: the whole can develop capabilities that do not exist in any individual member.”
- Oct 11, 2026 Alejandro
'Working at Google from 2007-09 to 2026-10 gave me a first-row seat to see it gradually become corrupted'
“I had been thinking about this topic for a long time. Working at Google from 2007-09 to 2026-10 gave me a first-row seat to see it gradually become corrupted —for example, start taking more and more questionable decisions based on short-term gains. The ideas…”
- Oct 10, 2026 Karl Holzer
Karl Holzer (Director of People & Operations, Sclable) reads financial gravity through Luhmann — 'Eine Mission, die nur in der Kultur lebt, bleibt aber im Reden'
“Eine Mission, die nur in der Kultur lebt, bleibt aber im Reden. Satzung, Stimmrechte, etc. holen sie ins Entscheiden. Dort kann sie dann auch gegen ein Budget antreten.”
- Oct 10, 2026 Ramy Saboungui
Ramy Saboungui — 'The one book I've been recommending day after day is Incorruptible'
“The one book I've been recommending day after day is Incorruptible by Eric Ries Eric once outlined a lean canvas to take your newborn idea, test and validate, get it to walk, and maybe even run. That book helped me quite a bit. What that book did not…”
- Oct 10, 2026 The Secret CFO
The Secret CFO — 'Great exercise in thinking about good governance from first principles. Best business book I've read in quite some time'
“This is very good. Great exercise in thinking about good governance from first principles. Best business book I’ve read in quite some time.”
- Oct 9, 2026 Pierre McCann
Pierre McCann (Scrum Master, PMP) on finishing the audiobook — 'I feel like your book reveals a pathway for me to take that north star and scale it up'
“I've got a career north star that I have had for years, and it was the product of a lot of soul-searching: I want to work with technology teams made of smart, kind people who tackle wicked problems and, in solving them, create significant novel value in the…”
- Oct 9, 2026 Sivaraman Lakshmipathy
Everlaw's office book club read the book, then heard Eric at The AI Conference — 'I went in expecting to think more about models. I came out thinking much more about systems'
“A little surreal to read Eric Ries’ Incorruptible at our office book club, then hear him talk about those ideas in the context of a rapidly evolving AI world weeks later.”
- Oct 8, 2026 Francisco Pérez Latre
Francisco Pérez Latre (Professor, Universidad de Navarra) cites the book on incoherence at work — 'As that belief erodes, cynicism takes root'
“at an incoherent company, employees stop believing that what they joined to do is possible. As that belief erodes, cynicism takes root”
- Oct 8, 2026 Tessa Wernink
Tessa Wernink (co-founder, Fairphone) opens the Steward Ownership Festival Amsterdam on the book's argument — 'We need to build structural integrity into our businesses'
“In the words of Eric Ries the author of Incorruptible, if we want profit to serve the purpose of our businesses, it does not suffice to just build businesses that create something worth protecting. We need to build structural integrity into our businesses.…”
- Oct 8, 2026 Zach Resnick
Zach Resnick (CEO, Ascend) publishes his company's mission and four ten-year commitments — 'the catalyst for working on this for me was reading Eric Ries's Incorruptible'
“And for founders who want to get reinvigorated about why they started their company and ensure that what it makes special stays or grows over time, the catalyst for working on this for me was reading Eric Ries's Incorruptible. Can't recommend the book more…”
- Oct 6, 2026 Fora Fereydouni
Fora Fereydouni (Founder & CEO, Cognitai) on the principle her company can't let growth erode — 'Growth is never a good enough reason to become careless with that trust'
“That’s one reason Eric Ries’s Incorruptible stayed with me. It made me think about how easily a company can move away from the principles it began with. For me, and Cognitai, one of those principles is safety. In mental health, people bring some of the most…”
- Oct 6, 2026 Lindsey Grossman
Lindsey Grossman (ex-Stripe, Netflix, Intuit, Block, Wise) — 'a wakeup call for any founder who takes the advice of lawyers when setting up incorporation docs'
“I’ve now just finished reading Eric Ries’s new book “Incorruptible”. I highly recommend it for founders and execs building a business and innovating in industries that need truly durable advantages. It is a wakeup call for any founder who takes the advice of…”
- Oct 5, 2026 Thomas Inskip
Thomas Inskip (Founder, Alfred) prices every service at cost so the company can't profit from inattention — 'Eric Ries is a genius. i simply could not put his latest book, Incorruptible, down'
“Eric Ries is a genius. i simply could not put his latest book, *Incorruptible*, down. Here's the crux of it... Most businesses don't set out to overcharge the people they serve. So why do so many end up doing it? Ries brilliantly calls it "financial…”
- Oct 2, 2026 Charlotte Levitt
Change.org announces a $100M investment — Charlotte Levitt (ex-B Lab, NYU Stern): 'without the structure to resist financial gravity, many well-meaning founders end up succumbing'
“As a nonprofit-owned public benefit corporation, Change.org has a structure that supports its intention to invest in products that support democracy for the long term. Of course leadership matters. But as Eric Ries so vividly illustrates in his new book…”
- Oct 2, 2026 Gabriela Lendo
Gabriela Lendo (creative director, brand & culture) rethinks her own discipline — 'if you want a brand to succeed, you need to learn about law and governance'
“I’ve been slowly chipping away at Eric Ries’ 'Incorruptible'. It's taking me time because the book's premise is something I have seen happen with my own eyes. And it’s painful. It doesn’t matter how great your company is or how smart you think you are. If…”
- Oct 2, 2026 Grace M. Heiderscheidt
Grace M. Heiderscheidt (product leader) after a decade in Bay Area startups — 'This book has made me want to build again'
“Can we talk about this book? After over a decade in Bay Area startups, I accepted that a good company and a good product were fleeting moments of joy in a long career drudge. This book has made me want to build again. If you want to do work that STAYS…”
- Oct 2, 2026 Tim Fulton
Tim Fulton (Small Business Matters · Vistage Chair Emeritus) — 'Don't wait until your business is successful to figure out how you want it to behave'
“Don’t wait until your business is successful to figure out how you want it to behave. That’s one of the key messages from "Incorruptible" by Eric Ries. This thought-provoking book examines the relationship between purpose, profitability, culture, and…”
- Oct 1, 2026 Brian Behm
Brian Behm (Founder, Wild Construct; Rooster Teeth emeritus) built the governance in from day one — 'Definite inspiration from Eric Ries Incorruptible'
“You know, and this is very dry because it gets into corporate governance, but we organized Wild Construct from the beginning to force the board to base their success metrics on more than just revenue. Definite inspiration from Eric Ries Incorruptible.”
- Oct 1, 2026 Dan Barker
Dan Barker (Founder, Klasma) finds the Leeroy Jenkins joke in chapter 9 — 'The +2 Pauldrons of Invincibility'
“I laughed out loud when Eric Ries referenced Leeroy Jenkins in his new book, Incorruptible. There's a section in chapter 9 titled "The +2 Pauldrons of Invincibility" warning about the risks of over-relying on indestructible pauldrons. Hilarious and well…”
- Oct 1, 2026 Jonathan Pearce
Jonathan Pearce (CEO, Unbounded Insights) thought the corporate-constellations chapter was 'a little woo-woo' — then used it to describe the AI capex bloc: 'I was wrong'
“One of my most recent reads was Eric Ries Incorruptible. I loved it overall. But near the end, when he started discussing “corporate constellations,” I checked out a bit. It felt a little woo-woo. I was wrong. The AI COST companies have effectively formed…”
- Sep 30, 2026 Anne-Marie Maman
Anne-Marie Maman is building a GCEC workshop around the book — 'How Founding Documents Can Ground Your Ethics', stemming from 'my love of the fantastic new book Incorruptible'
“I'll be running a workshop on Saturday, "How Founding Documents Can Ground Your Ethics", stemming from my love of the fantastic new book #Incorruptible, by Eric Ries. Would love to have you join me in a discussion about how to make sure your mission stays…”
- Sep 30, 2026 Grant Canary
Grant Canary (CEO & Founder, Mast Reforestation) spots a line from the book on a stranger's email signature — 'highly recommend if you're looking for an antidote to enshittification'
“The quote is from Eric Ries in his new book Incorruptible (highly recommend if you're looking for an antidote to enshittification). He also happens to be Anthropic's governance advisor. Quote also applies to the United States' democracy and many other things.”
- Sep 30, 2026 Paige Kaye
Paige Kaye (Founder & CEO, PaigeKares) enters a $100K founder competition as a solopreneur — 'I can eat glass a little longer until I identify the right investors/partners'
“All of my PK fam knows that I will NEVER compromise our mission, trust, safety, or #kare for anything💚 (Eric Ries’s book “Incorruptible” is a big inspiration of mine and reminds me that I can eat glass a little longer until I identify the right…”
- Sep 30, 2026 Samuel Wines
Samuel Wines (Director, CoLabs Australia) is designing a steward-owned venture studio around the book — 'a mission guardian trust with real veto power'
“In this conversation, we dig into how you design a company that can't be pushed off course. The centrepiece: a four-entity structure built on steward ownership principles – holding company, operating company with employee profit share, a mission guardian…”
- Sep 29, 2026 Art Moore
Art Moore (President, Clear Systems) — 'he has taken on the mantle of Deming and Drucker to expose the flawed logic of shareholder primacy'
“Eric Ries’ INCORRUPTIBLE is without a doubt one of the top books of this century, and that may be understating it. At a time when our world desperately needs it, he has taken on the mantle of Deming and Drucker to expose the flawed logic of shareholder…”
- Sep 29, 2026 Kris Braun
Kris Braun (startup CTO, ex-Google PM) — 'Incorruptible, paradoxically, gave me hope' — and is now gathering a mission-locked founder community in Toronto–Waterloo
“As a founder, I came to similar conclusions and had written off many forms of business and investment simply because I thought they were inherently corrupting. Incorruptible, paradoxically, gave me hope. Through stories of mission-locked ventures that have…”
- Sep 29, 2026 Sami Mäkeläinen
Sami Mäkeläinen (Children of the Magenta) rates it 5 out of 5 — 'the most practical book about the structural rot in modern capitalism I've read – and more importantly, how it can be fought'
“However, what followed was the most practical book about the structural rot in modern capitalism I’ve read – and more importantly, how it can be fought. To my surprise, it turns out it can be fought.”
- Sep 29, 2026 Swapna Peri
Storizen Magazine review — 'a clear and necessary read for founders, executives, board members, and investors who want to build resilient organisations'
“What makes “Incorruptible” stand out is its insightful balance between big-picture systems thinking and practical strategy. While some readers might find ideas like the Spiritual Holding Company challenging to implement in traditional corporate environments…”
- Sep 28, 2026 Dan Barker
Dan Barker (Founder, Klasma) — 'The books you read and the mentors you learn from help you build the muscles you’ll need to do the right thing before doing the right thing gets hard'
“Then last week, I found myself thinking about the book as I guided our real estate development team on the importance of keeping customer outcomes #1, even when balancing the interests of early investors. This morning, I thought about it again during a…”
- Sep 28, 2026 Zachary Perkins
Zachary Perkins (Senior Platform Engineer) — 'I just finished Incorruptible by Eric Ries, and I'm walking away with something I didn't expect: hope'
“Ries doesn't shy away from the grim reality—greed, enshittification, and the commodification of human attention dominate our digital landscape. But here's the thesis that stuck with me: the same market forces that created these problems can dismantle them.…”
- Sep 26, 2026 Kudzanayi Mhlanga, CAE AMIMI
Kudzanayi Mhlanga (Senior Vehicle Engineer · CAE AMIMI) completes Extern Externship — scores Nokia 9/20 against Incorruptible framework; proposes Quarterly Competitive Reality Review
“I've completed the Corporate Strategy Externship mentored by Eric Ries, run by Extern. The work: evaluate a real company using Ries's Incorruptible framework across four lenses. Mission Drive. Financial Gravity. Governance. Mission Transmission. My company:…”
- Sep 26, 2026 Rahlyn Gossen
Rahlyn Gossen (Founder, Revise · 15+ years in clinical trials) — Veeva's PBC conversion via Peter Gassner × Eric Ries: 'success is likely because of, not in spite of, adherence to values'
“Veeva's success is likely because of, not in spite of, adherence to values that are about more than money. And that lesson is what makes Gassner an ideal interview for Ries, who is promoting his new book Incorruptible”
- Sep 25, 2026 Mikail Yilmaz
Fabien Pinckaers, founder & CEO of Odoo, recommended Incorruptible to a visitor at Odoo Experience 2026 in Brussels
“Op Odoo Experience 2026 in Brussel ontmoette ik Fabien Pinckaers, oprichter en CEO van Odoo. Ik vertelde hem over Repair IT Now. Hij raadde me twee boeken aan: → Never Split the Difference – Chris Voss → Incorruptible – Eric Ries”
- Sep 25, 2026 Ivan de Souza
Ivan de Souza (CEO, Novara Advisory · Board Member) — Brazilian NeoFeed coverage of Incorruptible: 'quanto mais valiosa é a galinha dos ovos de ouro, maior pode ser a tentação de sacrificá-la'
“Ao ler uma matéria recente do NeoFeed, me chamou atenção uma reflexão sobre um tema que considero cada vez mais relevante para quem lidera empresas: por que organizações que construíram grandes histórias acabam, em algum momento, se afastando dos princípios…”
- Sep 25, 2026 Robert Slifka
Robert Slifka (Founding Engineer, Escape Velocity) — 'enshittification and extraction feel inevitable — but the best practices that make this decline inevitable are recent human inventions'
“We're living in a moment where enshittification and extraction feel like the inevitable destination of any for-profit venture. For founders, 'raising money' is seen as the end of a long-term mission focus and the beginning of short-term shareholder primacy.…”
- Sep 24, 2026 Andrew Davies
Andrew Davies (Ex-CEO, B Lab AU/NZ) — 'Read Incorruptible. It's part history, part toolkit, and Part III on how a business can change the systems around it is where I'd start'
“Some of that is from Eric Ries new book, Incorruptible. It's full of stories of businesses built around a clear purpose, that went on to create value over decades. Cadbury. John Lewis. Vanguard. Costco. What stayed with me is how old most of this wisdom is.…”
- Sep 24, 2026 Anuradha Chugh
Anuradha Chugh (Ex-Ben & Jerry's · Ex-Pukka Herbs · Bio-Leadership Fellow) — applies Incorruptible's 'Virtuous Performance Cycle' concept to permaculture
“What creates a virtuous performance cycle? At Ben & Jerry's, I saw this in action with fun. At Pukka Herbs, it was plant potency. Neither was an add-on. Both shaped the product, culture, choices and economics of the business. I’ve been thinking about this…”
- Sep 24, 2026 Willem Nolens
Willem Nolens (Founder, in24 · ex-CEO SolarNow) — Incorruptible's independent mission council idea shaping in24's governance: foundation board with a golden share
“Eric Ries's brilliant book 'Incorruptible' gave me a concrete way to organise that counterweight: an independent mission council, with the mandate and authority to intervene when a company drifts from its mission and values.”
- Sep 23, 2026 Anubhav Srivastava
Anubhav Srivastava (Founder, Uptales · Expert Economy OS) — 'The best companies, and the best people, are built on structure AND ethics'
“This is exactly why Eric Ries's work hit me so hard. I read Incorruptible. I sat through an excellent cohort ran by him. And the core lesson stayed with me: The best companies, and the best people, are built on structure AND ethics. Not one or the other.”
- Sep 23, 2026 Frida Halltorp
Frida Halltorp (Founder, Onuai) — 'It's always too early until it's too late.' Second Incorruptible Early Stage Founders Cohort recap
“It’s always too early until it’s too late. I just finished the first Incorruptible Early Stage Founders Cohort, built around Eric Ries’ new book, Incorruptible. Six pretty intense weeks with a diverse group of early-stage founders trying to answer a…”
- Sep 23, 2026 Sir Richard Harpin
Sir Richard Harpin (Founder, Homeserve; £4.1bn exit) — pulls six lessons from Incorruptible, including Costco's $1.50 hot dog defense
“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…”
- Sep 23, 2026 Selman Mujovic
Selman Mujovic (CEO, Purafide) — reading Incorruptible on the NYC subway at 1am during Climate Week
“The Empire State is lit blue for water as NYC starts Climate Week. A late night at the lab, surprisingly common, calls for a taxi home. Always putting my money (time) where my mouth is, I take the subway home with Eric Ries's Incorruptible in hand. As I try…”
- Sep 22, 2026 Federica Torgneur
Federica Torgneur (Founder & CEO, Reveevo · ex-McKinsey · INSEAD MBA) — 'Someone had put into writing everything I had been thinking about building mission-driven businesses'
“Last week I wrapped up an inspirational six weeks of the Incorruptible Early Stage Founders Cohort. In the past months, I have been deep into researching legal and governance frameworks for founders building mission-driven businesses. Thanks to a webinar…”
- Sep 21, 2026 Andrew Smith, ICE-AC
Andrew Smith, ICE-AC — 'What if the profit we optimized for was not just money, but human flourishing?'
“What if the "profit" we optimized for was not just money, but "human flourishing?" For customers, shareholders, employees, communities, and society-at-large? I just finished Eric Ries book, Incorruptible. In it, he describes how common business practices…”
- Sep 21, 2026 Nacho Bassino
'Mission drift is not a character problem but a structural one: financial gravity bends every company eventually'
“Best business book I have read in a while. The argument is that mission drift is not a character problem but a structural one: financial gravity bends every company eventually, so if you care about staying who you are, you design it into ownership and…”
- Sep 20, 2026 Kelly Chewning
Kelly Chewning (ESOP & Employee-Owned Company Executive Coach) — pulls Eric's 'brilliant line' on organizational structures amplifying (or degrading) group intelligence
“Just finished Eric Ries's Incorruptible and he had a brilliant line: "Good organizational structures can amplify a group's intelligence far beyond any one person in it, and bad structures can actually make a smart group of people worse than they'd be on their…”
- Sep 19, 2026 Richard Kilgarriff
Richard Kilgarriff (Founder, Bookomi · Host, Books for Breakfast at Soho House) — Incorruptible on his three-book ASAP list for the AI moment
“AI platform leaders operate at high speed in a business ecosystem designed to reward (and rightly defend) shareholder primacy, even at the expense of what Eric Ries describes as human flourishing. The biggest threat to human prosperity then, is likely to be…”
- Sep 18, 2026 Christina Wodtke
Christina Wodtke (Stanford lecturer · author, 'Radical Focus') — 'suddenly I understood the answer to "if it can destroy humanity, why do AI labs keep working toward it?"'
“I just finished the chapter on financial gravity in Eric Ries terrific book, and suddenly I understood the answer to "if it can destroy humanity, why do AI labs keep working toward it?" It's been a while since a book helped me understand the world I live in…”
- Sep 18, 2026 Daniel Dobrygowski
Daniel Dobrygowski (Author, techgov.info · Adjunct Professor, Columbia) — 'Ries effectively broke down where corporate governance in the US has failed'
“I just finished Eric Ries latest book: Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad … and How Great Companies Stay Great. If you are interested in good governance and/or what makes an organization with a mission sustainable over the long term, check it out.…”
- Sep 18, 2026 Eric Brafford
Eric Brafford (Decision Signals Method · Advisor to executive teams) — 'once you see what he sees, you won't be able to unsee it'
“I read Eric's new book, and I've been smitten with it since. He outlines the concept of "financial gravity" — the force pulling our capitalist economy toward the short-term, self-centered, profit-only core that ultimately destroys great companies. He argues…”
- Sep 18, 2026 Preethi Nair
Preethi Nair (Keynote Speaker · Bestselling Novelist · Storytelling Expert) — 'This event was a masterclass in storytelling'
“This event was a masterclass in storytelling because... Eric Ries stuck to one theme, and every story he told brought us back to it. And this is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they tell stories in business. They have lots of stories. But…”
- Sep 18, 2026 Sourav Kundu
Sourav Kundu (Group PM, BrowserStack) — Incorruptible on why founders lose culture control: 'set it during the time of incorporation itself'
“Founders want to set the company culture but often they are not able to control it after a point when they lose control to shareholders / board unless they structurally set the company's direction differently. Recently came to know from a podcast by Eric Ries…”
- Sep 17, 2026 Jaap van Ede, PhD
Jaap van Ede, PhD (Editor-in-Chief, Procesverbeteren.nl / Business-Improvement.eu) — in-depth Incorruptible review: 'a kind of multi-layered firewall'
“Eric Ries calls the "shareholders first" phenomenon #FinancialGravity. His new book #Incorruptable about this, is full of business horror. But it doesn't have to be that way, and this makes the book hopeful! Eric Ries is best known for his book The Lean…”
- Sep 17, 2026 Jeremy Turner II
Jeremy Turner II (Morehouse College · Morgan Stanley HBCU Scholar) — starts 4-week Extern Corporate Strategy Externship on the Incorruptible framework
“Excited to start my four-week Corporate Strategy Externship with Extern, guided by Eric Ries. Over the next month, I'll be analyzing real companies using the Incorruptible framework, with a focus on financial pressures, corporate governance, and long-term…”
- Sep 17, 2026 Liz McBeth
Liz McBeth (CEO, Armour Valve Ltd) — extends Incorruptible's citizens-vs-tourists frame: 'why we've come to assume they should have the loudest voice'
“Another idea from Eric Ries' Incorruptible that has really stuck with me is the distinction between citizens and tourists. We would never allow tourists to vote in our elections. That right, and responsibility, belongs to citizens because they have a lasting…”
- Sep 17, 2026 Michael Sliwinski
Michael Sliwinski (Founder, Nozbe) — 'This brilliant book by Eric Ries… one of the best books of this year to me personally'
“I’m in the middle of this brilliant book by Eric Ries and I love it. I’ve tried to make Nozbe incorruptible by now I know my “founder mode” approach is not enough. It’s amazing to discover how to align your business, profits and incentives to make sure your…”
- Sep 17, 2026 Natasha Freidus
Natasha Freidus (Serial Founder, NeedsList; Inc. Top 100 Female Founders) — 'I need a book group to discuss!'
“I'm about halfway through Eric Ries's new book, "Incorruptible" and I need a book group to discuss! Want to join me to talk through ... - Redefining profit to be the surplus of human flourishing that an organization creates. - What governance measures can be…”
- Sep 15, 2026 Tara Ceranic Salinas, PhD
Tara Ceranic Salinas, PhD (Professor of Business Ethics · Lead Editor, Journal of Business Ethics Education) — 'Hands down the best business book I've ever read'
“Hands down the best business book I’ve ever read: #Incorruptible by Eric Ries. I finished listening to the audiobook and immediately bought the hardcover just so I could re-read, mark it up, and make sure I didn't miss anything. I can't recommend it enough!…”
- Sep 14, 2026 Marcel van den Bosch
Marcel van den Bosch (CFO & CEO · Steward Ownership) puts Incorruptible on his summer list next to Toekomstbedrijven
“After The Lean Startup, Eric Ries turns his attention to mission-led companies — and the forces that can gradually pull them away from their purpose. The big question: how do we build companies that can remain true to their purpose over generations?”
- Sep 13, 2026 Christian Soschner
Christian Soschner (24K+ audience of investors & execs) pulls Eric's Sears line: 'It was taken over by a parasite'
“Ask why Sears died and almost everyone answers Amazon. Eric Ries, who wrote The Lean Startup, tells it differently. Disruption was the final illness, and the disease had arrived years earlier. "It was taken over by a parasite. Somebody took over Sears and…”
- Sep 10, 2026 Dana Mincer, DO
Dana Mincer, DO (physician-led health plan founder) — Incorruptible 'gave me language for what I've believed for years: the metric is not the thing'
“I've been reading Incorruptible by Eric Ries, and it gave me language for what I've believed for years: the metric is not the thing. Fifteen-minute visits measure activity. They don't measure whether a mother felt heard.”
- Sep 8, 2026 Katie
'6 years at Meta has hardened me as a cynic, and this thawed me a few degrees'
“I found this a very hopeful book, and a much-needed balm for the despair I’ve (we’ve all?) been feeling about the corruption of society by way of unrestrained capitalism. There ARE people thinking about ethics in corporate America. There ARE (or so the author…”
- Sep 5, 2026 Adrián Moreno Peña
Adrián Moreno Peña (VP Technology, Worksome) — Incorruptible as the guide to stop a company you built with Lean Startup from rotting into what you never wanted
“I find poetic that the same person that taught so many people how to validate an idea and turn it into a business (with The Lean Startup) brings now the guide on how to not let that company rot and evolve into what you never wanted it to be.”
- Sep 5, 2026 Gabriele Orrico
Gabriele Orrico — 'A mission can survive its founder and still fail the people it exists to serve'
“A mission can survive its founder and still fail the people it exists to serve. … Who gets to challenge the interpretation without being accused of disloyalty? Because whoever controls what the mission means has considerable power over whom it serves.”
- Sep 3, 2026 Esther Clark
Esther Clark (Forbes contributor, Drucker Challenge winner) — 'You're not stuck in traffic. You are traffic'
“Just finished reading 'Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great' by Eric Ries, recommended to me by Steve Blank. … One line that stayed with me: 'You're not stuck in traffic. You are traffic.'”
- Sep 3, 2026 Liz Barber FCA GAICD
Liz Barber FCA GAICD (ASX100 Risk & Transformation Executive) — 'Everything worth protecting will eventually need protection'
“Governance is a creative act, not a compliance checkbox; the strategic work of deciding, in advance, what your company will never trade away. Build something worth protecting, then build the structure that protects it, 'everything worth protecting will…”
- Sep 2, 2026 Sylvie Reinhard
'Purpose without power is just poetry' — Sylvie Reinhard on why she stopped handing governance over to the lawyers
“Purpose without power is just poetry”
- Sep 2, 2026 Vlada Bortnik
Vlada Bortnik (Marco Polo CEO) — 'I'm giving up the ability to stab my customers in the back'
“When Eric Ries was writing Incorruptible, he asked purpose-driven leaders what they thought they were giving up. One CEO answered: 'I'm giving up the ability to stab my customers in the back.'”
- Sep 1, 2026 Prof. Dr. Nils Högsdal
Prof. Nils Högsdal (HdM Stuttgart, ex-Vice President for Innovation) — Incorruptible reframed through the German Mittelstand and its Hidden Champions
“Wie baut man Unternehmen, die nicht nur schnell wachsen, sondern langfristig der Vision der Gründenden verpflichtet sind?”
- Aug 31, 2026 Dr. Bettina Palazzo
Dr. Bettina Palazzo (business ethics expert, 2024 ICA Compliance Influencer) — 'Nothing new under the sun': Sol Price's 1975 employee promises rediscovered
“All of those ideas about more ethical companies have been with us for at least 100 years. And most of those companies were highly successful - until they somehow got kidnapped by mainstream capitalism and perished.”
- Aug 31, 2026 Jamie Bowen
'It is a book that fills you with hope and that greed is not good'
“It is a fascinating book with some really good examples of organisation that have stayed true to their mission, Eric also provides a playbook of how to do it and establish a new governance structure. It is a book that fills you with hope and that greed is not…”
- Aug 31, 2026 Jeff Berman
'For the past nearly 60 years, we have fetishized shareholder returns at the cost of other stakeholders'
“For the past nearly 60 years, we have fetishized shareholder returns at the cost of other stakeholders. It turns out, elevating the interests of team members, customers, suppliers, and broader society, isn't just better for the world. In the long run, it's…”
- Aug 31, 2026 Jonathan T. Marks, CPA, CFE, MBA, NACD Board Fellow
Jonathan T. Marks (BDO partner, NACD Board Fellow) — 'Companies rarely go bad because someone evil showed up. They go bad because the structure quietly started rewarding the wrong things'
“Companies rarely go bad because someone evil showed up. They go bad because the structure quietly started rewarding the wrong things. Eric Ries calls that force financial gravity in his new book Incorruptible, and he is right about more of it than I expected.”
- Aug 31, 2026 Tony White
Tony White (Franchise Expansion Specialist, 25 years / 800+ stores) — 'Franchise systems don't usually go bad because something went wrong. They go bad because things went right'
“Franchise systems don't usually go bad because something went wrong. They go bad because things went right. Success creates a pull toward extraction, and it arrives one reasonable decision at a time.”
- Aug 29, 2026 Alberto Onetti
Alberto Onetti (Mind the Bridge) — Polaroid's post-1982 collapse as the textbook 'unusual failure' from Incorruptible
“Unusual failures don't come about as the result of ordinary reasons companies go under, competition, creative destruction, or replacement by a superior form of value creation. They're caused by something altogether different. Just as surely as physical…”
- Aug 26, 2026 Jason Fagone
Jason Fagone (author, The Woman Who Smashed Codes) — 'Eric writes with passion and precision about the wrecking ball of big-money investing'
“Eric writes with passion and precision about the wrecking ball of big-money investing, how Wall Street and private equity turn companies with integrity into rubble. He tells a number of infuriating stories that resonated with me. I remember my father going…”
- Aug 25, 2026 Dave Kellogg
Dave Kellogg (Kellblog, EIR at Balderton Capital) — 'If the mission matters, protect it through governance, incentives, metrics, and ownership structures. Do it early.'
“It's a good book with several important ideas. The strongest is that good intentions and mission statements are insufficient. If the mission matters, protect it through governance, incentives, metrics, and ownership structures. Do it early. By the time you…”
- Aug 25, 2026 Paige Kaye
'I'm trying to build a company that's Incorruptible as Eric Ries would say and that means protecting my mission at all costs' — a founder off-boards a client who begged to stay
“I'm trying to build a company that's Incorruptible as Eric Ries would say and that means protecting my mission at all costs.”
- Aug 23, 2026 Berry Schrijen, CFA
Berry Schrijen, CFA (Group CFO) — 'Just finished reading Eric Ries's newest book Incorruptible. Highly recommended!'
“Just finished reading Eric Ries's newest #book #Incorruptible. Highly recommended! That said, one important nuance deserves more attention. Ries builds his framework on the assumption that every company has (or could have) a #Mission worth protecting; and to…”
- Aug 23, 2026 Serban Dinu
Serban Dinu (Founder, ROMO, Romania) — 'design ROMO astfel încât succesul să nu ajungă să distrugă fix lucrurile pentru care merită construit'
“Cum construiești o companie care să NU ajungă să-și piardă sau vândă sufletul atunci când începe să aibă succes? Nu e suficient să fi un fondator bine intenționat sau să ai niște valori scrise pe pereții din office. Dacă modelul economic, incentive-urile și…”
- Aug 22, 2026 Sudha Shankar
Sudha Shankar (Troo founder, India) — 'Losses are expensive tuition. Most founders pay the fee and skip the class.'
“Losses are expensive tuition. Most founders pay the fee and skip the class. The audit was us refusing to skip the class. The The Mom Test Book, Eric Ries's The Lean Startup, and Click by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky kept me honest :)”
- Aug 20, 2026 Jesse Hormachea
Jesse Hormachea (Fractional COO, Valdivya) — publishes 'Building an Incorruptible Company' essay
“Maximizing human flourishing in an organization is a direct path to success I recently finished Eric Ries' latest book Incorruptible. You may know him as the author of The Lean Startup. His latest drives straight at the heart of concepts I've always held…”
- Aug 19, 2026 Gloria Adaka
Gloria Adaka (B2B Positioning Consultant) — 'most startups don't die from bad ideas. They die from good ideas that never earned the right to scale'
“Three weeks ago, I couldn't have told you what "financial gravity" meant. Today, I can tell you why most startups don't die from bad ideas. They die from good ideas that never earned the right to scale. That's one of the biggest lessons I'm taking away…”
- Aug 19, 2026 Isabell Springer, PhD, LMFT
Isabell Springer, PhD (Founder/CEO, SHiFT) — 'Are incorruptible leaders born, or can we develop them?'
“I've been reading Eric Ries Incorruptible, and I keep coming back to a question underneath the ideas in the book. Are incorruptible leaders born, or can we develop them? Nature versus nurture. Corruptible versus incorruptible. We can build governance…”
- Aug 18, 2026 Ifeoma Asiagwu
Ifeoma Asiagwu — Extern's 4-week Corporate Strategy Externship with Eric Ries is live and uses the Incorruptible framework
“I'm excited to share that I've started a 4-week Corporate Strategy Externship with Eric Ries and Extern. We'll be working through the Incorruptible framework to understand how companies stay healthy over the long term, including how to: Analyse companies…”
- Aug 18, 2026 Tyler Carey
Tyler Carey (Trellis) — pulls Incorruptible's GitLab example into a live compensation-transparency argument
“Eric Ries highlights GitLab in the book Incorruptible, and I immediately thought back to the trifecta of traits, specifically, transparency. They have their entire employee handbook available to the public, even their compensation philosophy.”
- Aug 17, 2026 André Caldeira
André Caldeira (CEO Grupo PROPOSITO, IBGC board-training instructor, Brazil) — pulls the Sol Price chapter into a governance essay
“Estou lendo "Incorruptible – Why Good Companies Go Bad…And How Great Companies Stay Great", um belíssimo livro escrito por Eric Ries, autor do famoso "The Lean Startup". Uma das primeiras histórias contadas no livro me inspirou para o texto de hoje: a…”
- Aug 17, 2026 Захарченко Віктор
'Бізнес не програв ринку. Його випатрали зсередини ті, хто був упевнений, що знає краще' — Ukrainian reviewer on the Sol Price / FedMart story
“Влітку 1975 року Сол Прайс прийшов на роботу й не зміг відчинити двері власної компанії. Замки змінили за ніч. За двадцять років до того він винайшов формат, який згодом поховає половину американського ритейлу, – магазин-склад із членством, де ціни тримаються…”
- Aug 16, 2026 James Mason
James Mason (GTM RevOps leader) — Incorruptible's macro guardrails vs. Greg Head's pragmatic playbook
“Eric Ries (in Incorruptible) focuses on the macro side, emphasizing the necessity of mission driven guardrails, structural governance, and protecting institutional integrity against short term profit pressures. Greg Head focuses on the pragmatic side…”
- Aug 14, 2026 Derrick Boddie
Derrick Boddie — 'A verified human generated product is gonna be like a super premium item.'
“Eric Ries said something on Digital Disruption with Greg Nelson that stuck with me: "A verified human generated product is gonna be like a super premium item." Think about that for a second. We're entering a world where the default assumption is that AI made…”
- Aug 14, 2026 Enrique Burgos
Enrique Burgos — Ries's 'física organizacional' aplicada a la traición corporativa (Spanish)
“Me acordé de esa imagen escuchando a Eric Ries, el de The Lean Startup, explicar en el podcast de Harvard Business Review por qué las buenas empresas acaban traicionando sus principios. Casi nunca hay malas personas detrás, dice, sino lo que él llama 'física…”
- Aug 14, 2026 Mohammad Mesgarpour
Mohammad Mesgarpour — 'most organisations don't fail because they run out of talent, ideas, or technology. They drift.'
“I've just finished the first half of Eric Ries' latest book, 'Incorruptible', and it's one of the most thought-provoking business books I've read recently. The central idea is uncomfortable: most organisations don't fail because they run out of talent, ideas…”
- Aug 13, 2026 Mike Walsh
Mike Walsh (Straight Path IT Solutions) — 'the more people in the payout line, the harder it is to maintain the ideal'
“Just got done listening to Incorruptible by Eric Ries … at Straight Path IT Solutions - We're a very small privately held business and put values first in all we do. It's a lot harder the bigger you are, though. And from what I observe the more people in the…”
- Aug 12, 2026 Pjotr Sillekens
Pjotr Sillekens (biotech founder) — 'They drift because caring was never the mechanism. Intentions decay. Structures persist.'
“I'm reading Incorruptible by Eric Ries. His argument is uncomfortable in a useful way: companies don't drift because people stop caring. They drift because caring was never the mechanism. Intentions decay. Structures persist. So the fair question a customer…”
- Aug 11, 2026 Colleen Hendry
Colleen Hendry (Boailoop founder) — 'easily my favorite book I've read in quite some time'
“Incorruptible by Eric Ries is easily my favorite book I've read in quite some time. The stories alone are incredible, but what really stayed with me were the questions it raised about leadership, incentives, how companies lose their way, and how we make…”
- Aug 11, 2026 Jay Friedman
Jay Friedman (adtech/martech industry veteran) — applying Incorruptible's trust thesis to martech M&A: 'is there a Costco or USAA of martech/adtech?'
“Reading Incorruptible by Eric Ries and watching our martech/adtech market recently (M&A, earnings) and there's an overlap. Vendors do so much work to acquire/retain business, but I'm wondering - is how brands/agencies *feel* when working with a vendor - where…”
- Aug 10, 2026 Amanda Miller
Amanda Miller (product leader) — Incorruptible calls back to her call-center 'guardian angels' work
“I'm only half way through and there are so many moments of this book that made me sit up straight and, with my inside voice, scream, "Yesss! Power to the people!!" It reminded me of an early product effort where I productized the experience of a 400-person…”
- Aug 10, 2026 John
'Incorruptible is a design book, specifically the institutional design of organizations that have business components but an underlying mission to benefit the public'
“"Incorruptible" is an amazing book. Full of good general advice, compelling case studies, and careful implementation detail, "Incorruptible" is getting the full five stars.”
- Aug 10, 2026 Josh Bell
'I want to answer the question of how do you start a business that directly funds higher quality education in low income neighborhoods?'
“I’m inspired. After finishing this book I want to actively seek to bring these lessons, not only into my own life, but spread them to others as much as possible.”
- Aug 10, 2026 Kuba Filipowski
Kuba Filipowski (Netguru co-founder) — in the AI era, 'the artifact is not the point' (Eric Ries)
“When people say 'I want to build an MVP,' they now think: 'Claude Code will build it for me.' Eric Ries says: the artifact is not the point. The author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great…”
- Aug 8, 2026 Jordan Stephens
Jordan Stephens (Cohearity co-founder) — Salad and Go's collapse as 'a cautionary tale right out of that book'
“I can't help but think about why I started my own company Cohearity with Jim Driscoll and what we need to do to not lose sight of or control over that 'why.' I just finished Incorruptible by Eric Ries, and the rise and fall of Salad and Go feels like a…”
- Aug 5, 2026 James DeVaney
'Purpose without power is just poetry'
“Ries asks how organizations stay true to their mission? His answer is that purpose alone isn't enough. As he memorably puts it, "Purpose without power is just poetry."”
- Aug 4, 2026 Jenny Kassan
Jenny Kassan (Senior Attorney, Jason Wiener PBC) — 'The book advocates for structuring a company in a way that legally protects it from the inevitable pressures of what Ries calls financial gravity'
“The book advocates for structuring a company in a way that legally protects it from the inevitable pressures of what Ries calls "financial gravity" – the deeply engrained instinct to concede power to those who control financial capital. Ries says financial…”
- Aug 4, 2026 Luca Leonardini
Luca Leonardini — Incorruptible's 'financial gravity' as the force pulling long-term value creation into short-term optimization
“Most companies don't set out to lose their way, but they do. And they do it by simply keep following what the market rewards. Eric Ries in his new book 'Incorruptible' calls this force financial gravity: the relentless pressure that turns long-term value…”
- Aug 4, 2026 William Milisic
'A masterclass in corporate governance and long-term value creation'
“While you may know Ries for the "Lean Startup" methodology, what he delivers in "Incorruptible" is a masterclass in corporate governance and long-term value creation. He dismantles the tired dogma of short-term profit maximization and presents a compelling…”
- Aug 3, 2026 Daniel
'Ethos creates something worth protecting. Integrity gives it structural protection.'
“His formula is simple: ethos plus integrity equals incorruptible. Ethos creates something worth protecting. Integrity gives it structural protection.”
- Aug 3, 2026 David Bauman
'Investors can purchase enough shares and then rob a corporation of its soul'
“Ries relates these stories along with multiple personal stories of founders who ask him for help against extractive private equity funds or larger corporations. He clearly describes the problem that companies have: investors can purchase enough shares and…”
- Aug 3, 2026 Jim Ritchie-Dunham
Jim Ritchie-Dunham (Institute for Strategic Clarity) — sitting with the honest challenge in Incorruptible
“An executive in Eric Ries' new book Incorruptible asked, in essence, 'If purpose-based companies really worked better in the long run than quarterly-profit-based companies, the market would have sorted this out by now.' That question stays with me. Not…”
- Jul 31, 2026 Mandi
'This book demystifies & invalidates so many untrue constructs & normalised business practices that lead to corruption within organisations'
“This book demystifies & invalidates so many untrue constructs & normalised business practices that lead to corruption within organisations and what you can do to prevent corruption, not just short-term but long-term. Backed with real-world examples of people…”
- Jul 30, 2026 Justin George
Justin George (Aurora flooring company owner) — 'Turns out the pressure is the same at any size'
“I wasn't sure how relevant Incorruptible would be to me. Eric Ries is writing for founders with boards and investors. I run a small flooring company in Aurora. Turns out the pressure is the same at any size.”
- Jul 30, 2026 Kaley Cross Warner
Kaley Cross Warner (sustainability practitioner) — mission-drift in the sustainability profession, named as 'corruption'
“Within the last 5 years, I've witnessed acquisitions, changes in leadership, and the geopolitical climate rid companies of their missions. And in the last year, I've had conversations with many sustainability professionals talking about concerns of mission…”
- Jul 29, 2026 James Boyle
James Boyle (SR Inc., Dignity First Leadership author) — Incorruptible as the board-level system corporate-sustainability directors have been missing
“Eric Ries's new book, "Incorruptible . . . how Great Companies Stay Great" offers exactly that: a fully developed process and system of recommendations for building greater than financial purpose permanently into a company's charter, ownership, and board.”
- Jul 27, 2026 Melanie Steinbach
Melanie Steinbach (ex-CHRO McDonald's / Kraft / IBM) — 'it's because the system around them made caring expensive'
“Throughout my career, one pattern shows up more than any other. People want to do good work. They want to contribute. They want their effort to matter. When that instinct gets buried, it's rarely because someone stopped caring. It's because the system around…”
- Jul 26, 2026 Chris Justice
Chris Justice (Engenious Design) — 'If your organization's metrics don't fight each other, they aren't that good'
“If your organization's metrics don't fight each other, they aren't that good. Because that means they are too simple to accurately reflect reality. This is one takeaway as I read Eric Ries book 'Incorruptible'. He cites the example of an airline that had…”
- Jul 23, 2026 Lyn Brown, ICD.D, MBA
Lyn Brown, ICD.D — how financial gravity weakens 'truth-telling systems inside an organization'
“In his book Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great (Penguin Business, 2026), Eric Ries makes the strong case that as companies scale, 'financial gravity' — investor and budget pressures — quietly pull even principled…”
- Jul 22, 2026 Ron Scheese
'One of the most thought-provoking books I've read on building organizations designed to endure'
“I just finished Eric Ries' latest book "Incorruptible," one of the most thought-provoking books I've read on building organizations designed to endure.”
- Jul 20, 2026 Harvey Schachter
The Globe and Mail (Harvey Schachter) — 'Without proper safeguards, entrepreneurs can lose control of the dream'
“But when the rubber hits the road – or, more accurately, the company meets the financial world of venture capitalists, investment bankers and shareholders – it falls apart.”
- Jul 18, 2026 James Cracknell
'This one is a corker and probably the finest of its ilk for many years'
“Having read many business books, this one is a corker and probably the finest of its ilk for many years.”
- Jul 17, 2026 Daniel Franklin Gomez
Daniel Franklin Gomez — 'Incorruptible by Eric Ries - 9/10… ethos plus integrity equals incorruptible'
“Ries goes deeper than culture or stated values. He uses "ethos" to describe the organisation's underlying commitments, the character that shapes its strategy, decisions and behaviour. His formula is simple: ethos plus integrity equals incorruptible. Ethos…”
- Jul 16, 2026 Liz Rockett
Liz Rockett (Mission Lock Collective, ex-KP Ventures) — 'this applies extra to us' in healthcare
“He talks about purpose in a way that isn't all fluff, but as a key way to protect against the extractive instincts of investor owners. And he describes the effect that all this has on those of us trying to build something better — "under this constant…”
- Jul 15, 2026 Sarah Brinton
Sarah Brinton (BambooHR) — 'mildly obsessed with Incorruptible… nihilistic entropy attendant to capitalism'
“I am mildly obsessed with Incorruptible by Eric Ries. The book makes explicit a kind of nihilistic entropy attendant to capitalism (which I agree is the best of the imperfect economic systems) that I've sensed but not been able to name.”
- Jul 14, 2026 Eric
'Why do so many companies enshittify? Why do they betray the principles that are foundational to their success?'
“Really interesting premise that resonated strongly: why do so many companies enshittify? Why do they betray the principles that are foundational to their success?”
- Jul 14, 2026 Joel Silverberg
'The most inspiring business book I've read'
“The most inspiring business book I’ve read, it makes a coherent argument for market capitalism serving a larger purpose. Particularly interesting given it’s really a book about corporate governance— a domain typically reserved for lawyers and highly unusual…”
- Jul 11, 2026 Nils
'The most interesting analytic is what Ries calls false proxies, where metrics like average call-hold-time end up making the underlying service worse'
“The most interesting analytic is what Ries calls “false proxies,” where metrics like average call-hold-time end up making the underlying service worse rather than better; the claim that technology itself is neutral and that danger lies in who controls it; and…”
- Jul 8, 2026 Julian Dunn
'A meaty book with lots of practical advice and a compelling business case'
“Altogether this is a meaty book with lots of practical advice and lays out a compelling business case that companies who go down the path of becoming incorruptible last longer, deliver better returns to the market, and have happier customers and employees.”
- Jul 1, 2026 Rob Moore
'My favourite book I've read in years'
“My favourite book I’ve read in years. Cuts straight to the dysfunction that has overtaken capitalism in recent times, and offers a compelling vision for a future built by businesses that exist to serve rather than extract. Yet, Eric Ries manages to totally…”
- Jun 29, 2026 Randall
'Wow. Takes something true and obvious and gives it a name and a face'
“Wow. Takes something true and obvious and gives it a name and a face Corruption is the default. Every organization is pushing against corruption, and the ones that are most successful actually build from the outset to prevent it. This book was insanely…”
- Jun 29, 2026 Wouter Scheepens
Wouter Scheepens (Dutch sustainability/governance leader) — 'Toch is het boek van Ries een aanrader' [Ries's book is a must-read]
“Toch is het boek van Ries een aanrader. Hij komt uit de wereld van #start-ups en #scale-ups en plaatst steward ownership in die context en wat daar speelt.”
- Jun 26, 2026 Dave Chase
Dave Chase — 'An Open Punch List for Incorruptible Organizations'
“Mission-anchored companies are roughly six times more likely to survive than conventional ones, because their purpose is built into the architecture, where it holds even after the founders, the boards, and the money have all changed hands.”
- Jun 26, 2026 Jason Allen Ashlock
Worth magazine (Jason Allen Ashlock) — 'a minimum viable product for a better capitalism'
“Financial gravity is enforced not only by bad actors but by good ones acting rationally under bad structures.”
- Jun 25, 2026 Henny Portman
Henny Portman — 'A valuable framework for thinking about how great organizations stay great'
“Incorruptable is an ambitious and thought-provoking book that challenges many assumptions about corporate governance, ownership, and organizational design. Ries combines insights from entrepreneurship, governance, systems thinking, and organizational culture…”
- Jun 22, 2026 Daniil Lanovyi
'Another decade-defining book by Eric Ries?'
“Another decade-defining book by Eric Ries? It's an absolute must-read for entrepreneurs, actual or wannabes. Most employees should also read this book to make up their minds about the types of organisations they want to work for. It would be amazing to have…”
- Jun 16, 2026 Naotake Murayama
'If you're building a company with a mission geared towards human flourishing, this is the book to read.'
“If you're building a company with a mission geared towards human flourishing, this is the book to read. Eric Ries' follow-up to "The Lean Startup" is no sequel; it goes above and beyond making startups successful, and provides us with inspiring models of…”
- Jun 15, 2026 Naotake Murayama
'Reading it has revitalized the itch I had — an aspiration to build something remarkable'
“Eric Ries' follow-up to "The Lean Startup" is no sequel; it goes above and beyond making startups successful, and provides us with inspiring models of companies that defy the constant and seemingly inevitable "Financial Gravity" — the pull of shareholder…”
- Jun 14, 2026 Abigail Munro
'A beacon for anyone seeking to lead with principle and purpose'
“Incorruptible stands out as one of the most impactful business books I've read. It serves as a beacon for anyone seeking to lead with principle and purpose, offering a welcome alternative to the shareholder-first mindset that has become so prevalent in modern…”
- Jun 13, 2026 Peter Trizuliak
'I'd now recommend updating it to: read The Lean Startup and Incorruptible'
“The typical advice for startup founders was: "read The Lean Startup" I'd now recommend updating it to "read The Lean Startup and Incorruptible". 6 stars from me and added to re-read shelf as well. I do really hope that this book spreads not only through tech…”
- Jun 10, 2026 David Bauman
'Where these forces come from and how founders can build a fortress around their mission'
“I've been teaching college business ethics for 15 years, and individual choice takes center stage. But other forces are involved that challenge ethical managers and employees. Eric Ries' new book "Incorruptible" explains where these forces come from and how…”
- Jun 9, 2026 Dave Chase
Dave Chase (Health Rosetta CEO, Relocalizing Health author) — 'organizational corruption isn't a character problem. It's a design problem.'
“organizational corruption isn't a character problem. It's a design problem.”
- Jun 7, 2026 Jeff Berman
'In the long run, it's better for shareholders too. An absolute must read.'
“For the past nearly 60 years, we have fetishized shareholder returns at the cost of other stakeholders. It turns out, elevating the interests of team members, customers, suppliers, and broader society, isn't just better for the world. In the long run, it's…”
- Jun 6, 2026 Dr. Petri I. Salonen
Dr. Petri Salonen LinkedIn Newsletter review — 'Fifteen years after The Lean Startup taught us how to build, this book asks how to make sure what we build stays worth having built'
“Success is the most dangerous thing that can happen to your company. That's the uncomfortable argument Eric Ries, yes, the creator of The Lean Startup makes in his new book Incorruptible. We have many examples from the past of good companies that went bad for…”
- Jun 5, 2026 Esben
'Eric's new book makes you feel like capitalism can work for the people again, separating from the madness of the markets'
“Eric's new book makes you feel like capitalism can work for the people again, separating from the madness of the markets. I am very bullish on this mission.”
- Jun 4, 2026 Brendan Marsh
Brendan Marsh (ex-Spotify) — diagrams Spotify's pre- vs post-IPO mission statement through the lens of 'financial gravity'
“Eric Ries' new book 'Incorruptible' has got me reflecting on my time working at Spotify, as the company prepared to list on the stock exchange. Notably, how the culture subtly shifted and the changes that followed as the company succumbed to what Eric calls…”
- Jun 4, 2026 Bridget Harris
'I was looking for a book like this over my 7 years in investment, and was amazed by the lack of strong literature on this topic'
“This is a must-read for anyone involved in building durable businesses, or trying to do something good within our capitalist system. I finished the book feeling really hopeful - Eric Ries gives a super clear account of why companies can fail to deliver on…”
- Jun 4, 2026 Bryon Kroger
Bryon Kroger (Air Force vet, Kessel Run, Rise8 founder) — 'it might be the most important book I have read as a mission-focused founder'
“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…”
- Jun 4, 2026 Federica
'I read a number of books and articles, but none hit the mark like Incorruptible'
“This is one of the best books I have read recently, and I can't recommend it enough. I am an early founder, and I spent the last months trying to figure out how to build a company that is mission-protected. I read a number of books and articles, but none hit…”
- Jun 4, 2026 Leah Solivan
Leah Solivan (TaskRabbit founder) — 'They are not exceptions. They are clues.'
“After reading Eric Ries's upcoming book, Incorruptible, and speaking with him recently on Breaking Precedent, I think I finally do. Throughout Incorruptible, he highlights companies that consistently ignore conventional governance wisdom and yet continue to…”
- Jun 4, 2026 Sudha Shankar
'Mission corruption isn't a moral failure. It's an engineering failure.'
“Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup to help founders build something worth protecting. With Incorruptible, he's written the book he should have written next, because it turns out that knowing how to build is only half the battle. The harder question is how you…”
- Jun 1, 2026 Ryan Martens
Ryan Martens (Rally Software founder) — 'I would argue this book is more important than Lean Startup, Good to Great, or Built to Last, at this moment in time'
“A decade ago, I stood on a TEDx stage talking about the 'wacky world' of profit versus non-profit. I argued that the wall between 'doing good' and 'making money' was artificial. I was right about the why, but I didn't have the how. Later, I saw the…”
- May 31, 2026 Dilip Goswami
Dilip Goswami (Dharma and Management) — Incorruptible as a blueprint for a dharmic company
“Eric illustrates through a remarkable range of stories, both from history and from the modern day, that a founder's values can not be the only load-bearing structure for the long-term character of a company. This structure has to be designed with the same…”
- May 30, 2026 Federica
'Eric Ries was able to put into word many concepts I thought about but didn't really know how to articulate.'
“This is one of the best books I have read recently, and I can't recommend it enough. I am an early founder, and I spent the last months trying to figure out how to build a company that is mission-protected. I read a number of books and articles, but none hit…”
- May 28, 2026 Dougal Shaw
Dougal Shaw (BBC News / Business Leader) — 'Corruption breaks the logic of capitalism'
“This 'corruption breaks the logic of capitalism,' Ries argues, in a striking sentence… The PBC is the critical antidote to the fiduciary duty trap, he believes. The approaches that save companies are not only proven, but also learnable.”
- May 28, 2026 Ryan
Ryan (author of The B Corp Handbook) on Goodreads — 'one of the most important books for the B Corp movement I have ever read'
“I am the author of "The B Corp Handbook." Incorruptible is one of the most important books for the B Corp movement I have ever read.”
- May 27, 2026 Ryan
'One of the most important books for the B Corp movement I have ever read'
“I am the author of "The B Corp Handbook." Incorruptible is one of the most important books for the B Corp movement I have ever read. Eric’s main point in the book is that good companies do not usually lose their way because people stop caring. They drift…”
- May 27, 2026 Sudha Shankar
'Mission corruption isn't a moral failure. It's an engineering failure.'
“The central argument is both simple and devastating: mission corruption isn't a moral failure. It's an engineering failure. "Financial gravity" - the doctrine of shareholder primacy is a force so deeply embedded in corporate law, investor expectations, and…”
- May 26, 2026 Bridget Harris
'I was looking for a book like this over the course of my 7 years in investment. Incorruptible fills a real gap.'
“This is a must-read for anyone involved in building durable businesses, or trying to do something good within our capitalist system. I finished the book feeling really hopeful - Eric Ries gives a super clear account of why companies can fail to deliver on…”
- May 26, 2026 Fast Company
Fast Company publishes Incorruptible excerpt: 'Our fears about AI are really fears about capitalism'
“Our fears about AI mirror something older and more dangerous: institutions that evolve beyond human control.”
- May 26, 2026 Fortune
Fortune publishes Incorruptible excerpt: 'I wrote the playbook that built Big Tech. I misjudged what would happen next'
“It was happening again. The Professor's voice had an intensity—and fear—that was impossible to ignore.”
- May 26, 2026 Mark Graban
Lean Blog (Mark Graban) — 'The cultural work we do needs structural protection. Without it, every gain is one CFO away from being unwound.'
“The cultural work we do needs structural protection. Without it, every gain is one CFO away from being unwound.”
- May 26, 2026 Dorie Clark
Dorie Clark (bestselling author, Duke Fuqua) on Incorruptible — 'A worthy sequel to The Lean Startup'
“His argument about the structural causes is powerful, because it means there are factors that can lure even 'good' companies and leaders to bad outcomes — but if we make the right changes, we can help prevent many problems upstream. A smart book from a deep…”
- May 26, 2026 Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Lisa Brennan-Jobs (writer, 'Small Fry' author) on Incorruptible — 'A much needed idealism-restorative for our times'
“This book is a much needed idealism-restorative for our times — and it's well-written and absolutely compelling at every turn.”
- May 26, 2026 Sonali Kothari
Sonali Kothari (Kiva veteran, employee-ownership advocate) on Incorruptible — 'The next question after Lean Startup'
“Incorruptible takes on the next question: why good companies drift, and what structural choices around ownership, governance, and incentives matter. He treats those as design problems, not compliance ones.”
- May 26, 2026 Scott
Slightly Smarter newsletter on Incorruptible: 'the design work that decides whether a mission survives its own success'
“Ries reframes corporate governance not as bureaucracy or a compliance chore, but as a creative and strategic act. Done right, it's the design work that decides whether a mission survives its own success.”
- May 24, 2026 Steve Brock
Goodreads reviewer Steve Brock picks Incorruptible as 'Stevo's Business Book of the Week'
“I have selected this book as Stevo's Business Book of the Week for the week of 5/24, as it stands heads above other recently published books on this topic.”
- May 21, 2026 PURPOSE®
PURPOSE Economy: 'The gravitational field has become so strong that we've forgotten that other organizational forms are possible'
“A few years ago, Eric Ries wrote "the Lean Startup" and taught a generation of founders how to build a business. Now he wrote "Incorruptible", asking the harder question: how do you protect what you've built? We had a fireside chat with Eric about his new…”
- May 19, 2026 James Birchler
James Birchler (NICER, IMVU alum): 'NICER became the proof of concept' for the Incorruptible manuscript
“Eric Ries has a new book out May 26 called Incorruptible. It's about why good companies go bad, and how to design ones that don't. I've been building NICER on those ideas for years, working through them with Eric the whole way. He asked me to test whether his…”
- May 16, 2026 Curtis Mason
Curtis Mason on Goodreads: 'Best book that I have read this year!'
“I have recommended this book to all 3 teams regardless. There are fantastic principles of governance to be found here. Best book that I have read this year!”
- May 12, 2026 Aidan McCullen
Aidan McCullen connects Covey's clam chowder to Sol Price: 'a prophecy about capitalism itself'
“Covey borrowed that image from Aesop, today we see it was a prophecy about capitalism itself. Another great book that shaped how many of us see the world is Eric Ries's The Lean Startup. It changed how a generation of founders thought about building. But…”
- May 12, 2026 Cindy
Goodreads reviewer connects Incorruptible to Cory Doctorow's 'Enshittification'
“Most importantly, Ries illustrates that it is possible (and, of course, preferable) for people to build thriving companies (like Costco and its predecessors) that contribute in a positive way to their communities, support their partner-suppliers, respect…”
- May 11, 2026 Lesa Mitchell
Lesa Mitchell: 'You really need to read this book FIRST. Then Venture Deals.'
“Just finished Eric Ries new book *Incorruptible*. The world needs this book now more than ever. Having witnessed countless CEO's of large, med and small companies hit some of the walls he describes in the book; I was both smiling and crying my way through the…”
- May 5, 2026 Fernando Paiz
Fernando Paiz: 'Eric provides a playbook for founders to ensure that what is important to them always remains a strength'
“I just finished reading Incorruptible by Eric Ries. Once again, Eric cuts right to the heart of issues that weigh on company founders, sharing anecdotes and insightfully breaking down concepts like only he can. Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs from…”
- May 4, 2026 Michele Zanini
Michele Zanini: 'We can all play a role in building organizations that advance human flourishing. Get yourself a copy asap!'
“Most founders believe a strong "culture" is what keeps a company on track: hire well, promote the believers, tell the origin stories often enough that they stick. Eric Ries' terrific new book, Incorruptible, shows this is wishful thinking. Good intentions…”
- May 1, 2026 Demetri Papadimitropoulos
Demetri Papadimitropoulos: 'Values do not endure because people say them fervently. They endure when power has been designed to remember them.'
“Values do not endure because people say them fervently. They endure when power has been designed to remember them after fervor fades.”
- May 1, 2026 Priyanka Shinde
At Startup Grind, Eric Ries: 'change the world for the better'
“-> Eric Ries shared something he left out of The Lean Startup: "change the world for the better." A decade later, he's coming out with his new book - "Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great." Can't wait!”
- Apr 30, 2026 Clinton Keith
Clinton Keith: 'as (or more) impactful than The Lean Startup'
“Heard Eric Ries talk about his latest book "Incorruptible" last night and came away thinking the book will be as (or more) impactful than "The Lean Startup". Thanks to Heather Otter for a great job hosting it!”
- Apr 30, 2026 Kelsey Parks
Kelsey Parks at SCAPE Durango: 'Making money without giving value is corruption'
“A few lines that hit hard: "Making money without giving value *is* corruption." "The second you say your business stands for anything at all — lofty or humble — if you believe in anything other than making money for shareholders, you are already a…”
- Apr 26, 2026 Tatiana Sandino
HBS Professor Tatiana Sandino: 'I can't recommend the chat and the book highly enough'
“Eric Ries will host a free fireside chat on Wednesday on his excellent upcoming book, 💥 Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great. 💥 He recently joined our Systems for Scaling Ventures class at Harvard Business School…”
- Apr 21, 2026
Boardy AI: 'The Lean Startup taught how to build fast. Incorruptible asks the questions everyone forgot.'
“Success doesn't protect you. Success is what makes you vulnerable. What Ries is really arguing is far more radical. He's saying that the corruption of successful companies isn't a moral failure or a management failure — it's a design failure. And design…”
- Apr 21, 2026 Dan Heath
Dan Heath: 'the best and most important business book of the year'
“It's the rare business book that inspires me to evangelize. This is one of them. Incorruptible by Eric Ries is the best and most important business book of the year. Incorruptible is almost like a book of business physics, revealing the silent forces that…”
- Apr 20, 2026 Boardy Boardman
Boardy (Substack) — 'The corruption of successful companies isn't a moral failure or a management failure — it's a design failure'
“Success doesn't protect you. Success is what makes you vulnerable. The corruption of successful companies isn't a moral failure or a management failure — it's a design failure.”
- Apr 14, 2026
Blogternator Review: Incorruptible by Eric Ries
“Incorruptible is a hard hitting, genuine and iconoclastic handbook hoping to usher in a tectonic shift in organisational culture, management, and operations.”
- Apr 14, 2026 Venky
Venky on Goodreads: 'a hard hitting, genuine and iconoclastic handbook'
“Incorruptible is a hard hitting, genuine and iconoclastic handbook hoping to usher in a tectonic shift in organisational culture, management, and operations. While not a singularly new concept, it is a curated distillation of unconventional yet productive…”
- Apr 13, 2026 Steve Jones, CFA
Steve Jones: 'a must-read for anyone building or financing new businesses'
“I volunteered to be a proof-listener and greatly enjoyed it. I think it will quickly become recognized as a must-read for anyone who is involved in building or financing new businesses. Most importantly, he provides clear and actionable steps that anyone can…”
- Apr 10, 2026 Todd Greer
Todd Greer: 'the most radical idea in business isn't disruption. It's integrity.'
“This is not a book about bad actors. It's a book about hidden forces that cause even great organizations to drift from their values, and how to design businesses that can withstand that pressure. Ries reframes corporate governance — a term that usually makes…”
- Apr 6, 2026 Kieran
Kieran on Goodreads: 'Wish I'd had this before starting my company'
“Wish I'd had this before starting my company. Super practical view into how to keep mission-aligned companies working in service of their mission over the long run. Great read.”
- Apr 1, 2026 Brandon T. Fong
Brandon Fong: 'I told Eric Ries I felt like puking after reading his book'
“I told Eric Ries that I felt like puking after reading his new book, Incorruptible. In the Matrix, right after Neo takes the red pill from Morpheus, Neo is shown the truth for the first time. Neo's reaction is pure overload and he starts barfing all over the…”
- Mar 25, 2026 Ari Shapiro
Former NPR Host Ari Shapiro Reviews Incorruptible
“I got an advance copy, and reading it made me so hopeful and excited that I've been telling everyone I know about it. This is not just a book for MBAs or people who work in business. It's for anyone who has wondered, 'Is capitalism fixable?' Eric shows why…”
- Feb 11, 2026
Mat Sherman: 'Build An Incorruptible Company'
“I put it out there, then got on my bike and rode for about 15 minutes to Sip Coffee in Old Town Scottsdale. Right before I got there, I received a simple email that said three words: 'I'll do it.' The email was from Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup…”