INCORRUPTIBLE

The AI Conference 2026 — the 5,500-person San Francisco gathering of AI builders, researchers, and leaders (Sept 29–Oct 1) — announces a fireside chat between Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media founder & CEO) and Eric on founder responsibility and the future of the AI-powered economy.

“Join Tim O'Reilly, Founder & CEO of O'Reilly Media, and Eric Ries, Founder and Author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Incorruptible, for a fireside chat on what it takes to build AI companies that matter.” The AI Conference on X

Day One® / First Cheque hosts Cheryl Mack and Maxine Minter release a full-hour Eric interview walking through what founders and early investors can do at the earliest stage to prevent mission drift — including the Novo Nordisk spiritual-holding-company structure, the Purdue Pharma million-dollar story that destroyed a startup, and Eric's 'Big Cojones' board-meeting moment where he expected to be fired for refusing to abandon his unconventional methods.

“Eric explains why many widely taught governance best practices are actually shareholder-value destroying, and why the earliest stage of a company is the easiest time to build in protections against this drift.” First Cheque (Day One) episode description

Callye Keen — founder of Kform and host of The Startup Defense (a podcast for founders, investors, and operators building for national security) — releases a 33-minute conversation with Eric on mission mortality, financial gravity, and why the Lean Startup toolkit protected companies through the first cliff but left them naive about a second one: the pressures that drag principled companies into corruption after they succeed.

“I used to think your company failing was the worst thing that can happen to you. Oh, no, my friend. It's hardly in the top 10. There are fates much worse than death that have plagued a lot of founders.” Eric Ries on The Startup Defense podcast

Cal Fussman — the interviewer who has spent his career drawing out big-name figures for Esquire — hosts Eric on Big Questions to walk through the Devoted Health customer-service rep story from Incorruptible: a patient kept returning to the ER, the rep asked why instead of just processing the claim, discovered mold in the patient's home, and got the company to help the patient move. Fussman frames it as proof of what happens when a business defines its product as love.

“Eric Ries tells this story in his latest book, Incorruptible, as proof of something AI can't replicate: the instinct to ask the right question and respond to the answer as if the patient were a family member.” Big Questions episode description

David Pereira — Untrapping Product Teams host and product-management writer — releases his Eric conversation and pulls three takeaways: corruption is the honest name for enshittification, a mission statement is worthless without values-in-action, and the 'culture bank' as a running deposit-vs-withdrawal ledger with Ries's rule to never voluntarily make a withdrawal.

“We call it mission drift, bureaucracy, enshittification. Eric says our grandparents had a sharper word for making money by draining value out of a company. As he puts it, "It's so much easier to destroy than it is to create."” David Pereira on LinkedIn

Dianne Penn — Anthropic's first technical PM, now Head of Product for AI Research and Labs — closes her Lenny's Podcast appearance by naming Incorruptible as one of just three recommended books, alongside Crucial Conversations and How to Raise an Adult. Lenny Rachitsky's 200K-subscriber product podcast; Anthropic's own governance is a case study in the book.

“Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great” Dianne Penn on Lenny's Podcast (Recommended Books)

Tom Fox — the longtime compliance-industry commentator behind the Compliance Podcast Network — dedicates his weekly Sunday Book Review to four FT-picked summer reads for compliance leaders, with Incorruptible sitting alongside Henry Snow's Control Science, Xiao Hai's Adrift in the South, and Justin Baer's House of Fidelity.

“What can four summer reads on environment, science, and technology teach compliance leaders about integrity, resilience, risk, and the future of business? In this #SundayBookReview, I consider Control Science by Henry Snow, Incorruptible by Eric Ries, Adrift in the South by Xiao Hai, and House of Fidelity by Justin Baer.” Tom Fox on LinkedIn

Aakash Gupta — product-management writer to 1M+ subscribers — releases an Eric conversation framed around governance as a study of power relationships: the Sam Altman firing as OpenAI's structural design failure, Dario Amodei's three funding rounds defending Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust, and Costco as the 'governance fortress' whose returns crush the S&P 500.

“Eric's read is that if you've ever wondered why Anthropic seems a little more courageous than the other labs, that structure is why. Most first-time founders chicken out when the stakes get high. Dario has a structure built to support his conviction.” Aakash Gupta on LinkedIn

Halle Tecco — Rock Health co-founder and long-standing digital health investor — releases a 40-minute Eric episode framed around why healthcare companies drift from patient mission toward shareholder primacy, with Novo Nordisk's ownership structure as the counter-example.

“Healthcare companies are built to improve patients' lives. So why do so many prioritize shareholders over the people they're meant to serve?” The Heart of Healthcare episode description

Suzie Lewis's business-leaders podcast releases a 41-minute Eric conversation on organisational soulcraft — mission guardians, PBC status, tenured board structures, and the argument that profit is best defined as the result of maximising human flourishing.

“The companies that last aren't the ones that avoid pressure. They're the ones that decided early what they would refuse to trade away.” Suzie Lewis on LinkedIn

Paul Shapiro — Better Meat Co. CEO and Business For Good host — drops a 53-minute Eric episode covering mission-hopeful vs. mission-driven, whether nonprofits are as capture-prone as for-profits, Adopt-a-Pet's Lean-Startup pedigree, Beyond Meat's pivot to protein water, why independent directors have statistically failed to prevent corporate corruption, and what governance can learn from ancient sortition.

“The more successful an organization becomes, the more valuable it becomes as a target. It becomes something worth stealing or in the book corrupting.” Eric Ries on the Business For Good Podcast

Stephan Spencer — SEO and digital-marketing author (Google Power Search, The Art of SEO) with 101K+ X following — hosts Eric for a 47-minute Incorruptible conversation on his Marketing Speak podcast. Covers why Lean Startup still holds up in the AI era, mission guardianship over stated values, the low-information diet, and why the timing of a protective structural decision matters as much as the decision itself.

“I've seen the very best that this industry has to offer, but I've also seen the dark side of it. I've seen people lose control of their companies. I've seen companies go public and then get ruined, forcibly taken over, founders ejected. Companies that we used to see through the lens of such idealism are now monsters and we see as some of the most evil companies in the world.” Eric Ries on Marketing Speak with Stephan Spencer

Harry Max (author of Managing Priorities) opens the Traction Heroes episode 'Agency' by reading from Incorruptible's 'Who is the Bank?' section, calling out Ries's diagnosis of financial gravity and the Whole Foods-to-Amazon arc as the frame for the whole conversation about organizational agency.

“I'm easily going to guess this is going to be my 2026 book of the year.” Harry Max on Traction Heroes

Software Engineering Daily — a leading podcast for engineering leaders — releases Gregor Vand's conversation with Eric on Incorruptible, framed for founders and engineers: how to build resilient organizations and what technical staff can do to resist corruption from the inside.

“Eric Ries is the creator of The Lean Startup. He joins Gregor Vand to discuss why good companies go bad, building resilient organizations, and what founders and engineers can do to resist corruption.” Software Engineering Daily

Bob Bouthillier closes his two-part Incorruptible review with episode 100 — the second half walks through what Ries calls organizational incoherence, the Culture Bank framing of every decision as a trust deposit or withdrawal, and the structural protections (Public Benefit Corporations, mission pledges, tenured voting, co-determination, ESOPs, spiritual holding companies) that hold a mission once the culture alone is not enough.

“#100 Incorruptible by Eric Ries (Part Two)” The InnoGuide Podcast, Episode 100

Michael Krigsman hosts Eric for an hour-long live conversation on whether an AI company can take outside investment and still stay independent of its investors' demands — covering financial gravity, how to lock a mission into a legal structure under real financial pressure, what Anthropic's mission structures reveal in practice and where they fail, and what enterprise buyers should examine in how their AI vendors are funded and governed.

“Growth, outside capital, and the race to monetize all pull AI companies toward easy money. Eric Ries on whether a company can resist that pull and stay true to its mission as it scales.” CXOTalk Episode 923 page

The InnoGuide Podcast releases the first part of its 47-minute book review of Incorruptible — episode 099.

“#099 Incorruptible by Eric Ries (Part One)” The InnoGuide Podcast, Episode 099

Leigh Burgess — founder of Bold Industries Group and host of The Bold Lounge podcast — releases episode 199, a 54-minute interview with Eric on the bold systems that keep companies mission-aligned at scale.

“Episode #199 Eric Ries: Bold Systems that Keep Companies Incorruptible” The Bold Lounge, Episode 199

Kevin Appleby — Top 35 CFO Thought Leader Globally (Consult Clarity) and host of the GrowCFO Show — releases an Eric interview reframing governance as a CFO discipline, with case studies from Saul Price/Costco, Novo Nordisk's foundation structure, and Johnson & Johnson's Credo.

“Through vivid case studies — from Saul Price and the origins of Costco, to Novo Nordisk and its foundation structure, to Johnson & Johnson's Credo — Eric shows how governance choices can either entrench short-term shareholder primacy or build what he calls a "governance fortress" that shields companies from destructive external pressures. He argues that CFOs are uniquely placed to champion this new governance, redefine profit around human flourishing, and ensure the organization can't make money except by achieving its mission. The result is a powerful toolkit for finance leaders who want to keep their companies "incorruptible" long after they hit the public markets.” Kevin Appleby, The GrowCFO Show

The Startup Leap releases a 26-minute Incorruptible book-review podcast focused on Costco's $1.50 hot dog, Cloudflare's commitment to protecting users, mission guardians, golden shares, and the spiritual holding company.

“From Costco's legendary $1.50 hot dog to Cloudflare's commitment to protecting the internet, Eric reveals why culture alone isn't enough — and why the future of capitalism may depend on something far less discussed: structure.” The Startup Leap

Jessi Hempel, Senior Editor at Large at LinkedIn and host of Hello Monday, releases her interview with Eric on Incorruptible. The episode covers shareholder primacy's 1980s origins, 'financial gravity,' AI-driven layoffs, and structural integrity as a defense against extraction.

“We've built an economy now that's created so many ways for people to make money without creating any value at all. In fact, often by destroying value.” Eric Ries on Hello Monday with Jessi Hempel

Daniel Kivatinos — JustPaid CEO and DrChrono co-founder — releases a 49-minute interview with Eric on Incorruptible. Episode walks through financial gravity, Saul Price / FedMart, the Costco governance fortress, Novo Nordisk's industrial foundation structure, perpetual purpose trusts, and why default corporate structures push companies toward extraction.

“In this episode of the JustPaid Podcast, Daniel and Dan sit down with Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup and Incorruptible, to discuss why mission-driven companies often lose their soul as they grow. Eric explains the hidden force he calls financial gravity, why shareholder primacy can push companies toward short-term extraction, and how founders can protect their mission through better governance. The conversation covers Twilio, Costco, FedMart, Novo Nordisk, Anthropic, public benefit corporations, perpetual purpose trusts, and the legal structures founders can use to build companies that endure.” Daniel Kivatinos, JustPaid Podcast

Roy Bahat, head of Bloomberg Beta, releases a three-hour-plus interview with Eric on the inner life of being an author — from blog posts typed on a Palm Treo at Sand Hill Road Starbucks to the journey of writing Incorruptible. Part of Roy's This Is Not Advice series interviewing people about their jobs.

“We learned that the writing comes last. Eric spent years trying out metaphors that fell flat, meetings that went nowhere, and typing out blog posts on a Palm Treo keyboard at a Starbucks on Sand Hill Road. This all happened before a single word of the manuscript existed. A book isn't a longer blog post. And understanding the difference between those two mediums is most of the work.” Roy Bahat, This Is Not Advice

Mark C. Crowley releases episode 180 of Lead From The Heart, an Eric Ries interview on Incorruptible. Crowley's podcast reaches an audience in 156 countries.

“Eric Ries, author of the bestselling The Lean Startup and in his new book, Incorruptible, has spent decades studying how organizations can thrive over the long term while genuinely improving the lives of employees, customers, and communities. In Incorruptible, he argues that the most enduring, high-performing companies are guided by a mission that advances human flourishing and a principled ethos that shapes every decision and action. These organizations resist shortcuts, prioritize employee well-being, and refuse to squeeze customers—proving that ethics and excellence are inseparable.” Mark C. Crowley, Lead From The Heart podcast

Andrea Pacini — presentation coach to leaders at eBay, Spotify, Salesforce, and Amazon — interviews Eric for the Ideas on Stage podcast episode #85, a communication-focused conversation that walks through the Cloudflare encryption decision as a case study in why the most important business decisions look ROI-negative on paper.

“the most important actions, the most important decisions a company will ever make are ROI negative by definition. Because when we do the right thing, we build up our trustworthiness, the costs of doing so are very tangible, but the rewards are intangible. So how can we possibly score? So every time someone shows up with a spreadsheet to stack rank by ROI, they make it impossible to do the right thing.” Eric Ries on Ideas on Stage

Ian Tien — co-founder and CEO of Mattermost, the open-source collaboration platform — hosts Eric for a 40-minute conversation framing Incorruptible for technical executives: why Lean Startup's tactics versus its principles is the distinction that determines whether a company survives the next generation of leadership, walked through the Saul Price / FedMart story as the proof of concept.

“The great Peter Ducker said it should be um employees first, customers second, shareholders last. The great Saul Price, the father of modern retail, he said it should be customers first, employees second, shareholders last. But you're noticing a pattern? Always shareholders last. Not because shareholders aren't important, but because these legends understood that shareholder value is the outcome, the output, the exhaust from the engine.” Eric Ries on Tools for Tech Leaders

Paul Ford and Rich Ziade — the Postlight veterans turned AI-transformation operators behind Aboard — host Eric for a wide-ranging episode about Incorruptible, framing the book as a structural diagnosis of why the things people quietly know are broken about modern companies feel inevitable. Eric uses the conversation to put the word corruption back in play.

“we are swimming in this corruption so much so that we don't even know what to call it. Like I go around, I've been talking to young people, old people, board members, se we all live this thing where brands are being destroyed, where companies become malign, where like we're constantly being betrayed and we've been taught that it's normal.” Eric Ries on The Aboard Podcast

Aarron Walter and Eli Woolery — the design-and-craft podcast that for years has been the home of long-form conversations about creative work as a business asset — host Eric for a 50-minute episode framing Incorruptible for a designer audience: why the company itself is the most important product you'll ever design, and why the ROI-of-doing-the-right-thing meeting is the thing to abolish.

“the late great Klay Christensen said he said right before he died, it is easier to do the right thing 100% of the time than 98% of the time. And a huge amount of modern business is having these total meetings about what is the ROI of doing the right thing. And the nice thing about having a principle that we always do the right thing is we don't have to have the meeting.” Eric Ries on Design Better

Matt Abrahams — Stanford Graduate School of Business lecturer and host of the 125K-subscriber Think Fast, Talk Smart — interviews Eric for the Culture Club episode. Eric introduces the culture-bank framing and the Todd Park rule he uses to explain why trustworthy actions look ROI-negative on paper but compound as the most valuable asset a company can build.

“The rule I learned from Todd Park, the rule is as a leader, only make deposits, never make withdrawals from the culture bank. It sounds like an impossible standard, but actually, it's not that hard. The great great Clay Christensen once said that it is much harder to do the right thing 100% of the time than 98% of the time.” Eric Ries on Think Fast, Talk Smart

Melina Palmer — Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab teacher, CEO of The Brainy Business, and host of the long-running behavioral-economics podcast — runs Eric on episode 580, opening with the universal experience of falling for a brand early and watching it turn into a 'soulless conglomerate who cared more about shareholders than customers.'

“Have you ever found a brand that you absolutely loved? Maybe early on in their creation, one that you were so delighted to be a part of the in crowd for. You knew them when they were small and gritty and cared about you. You felt seen. Maybe they were really sustainable or invested in their customer service or the quality of their products and services. They were amazing and you were so happy for the company as it grew. I mean, after all, you told so many friends and family about it. But then when it did go mainstream, things started to slip. Everything you loved about it slowly faded away. Eventually, you felt like another number and they felt like another soulless conglomerate who cared more about shareholders than customers.” Melina Palmer opening The Brainy Business #580

Bernard Leong runs Eric on Analyse Podcast #61 for a global business + tech audience, framing the conversation around the chapter the Lean Startup missed — why mission-driven companies become more vulnerable, not less, once they succeed.

“We're helping people create this asset, and we're teaching them the wrong idea. We're teaching them that success will protect them. But, that's backwards. Success makes you a target worth capturing.” Eric Ries on Analyse Podcast (Bernard Leong)

Greg LaBlanc — Berkeley Haas / Wharton lecturer and host of unSILOed — runs Eric on episode 656 for an interdisciplinary audience, framing the conversation around startup governance, mission control, and the failures of shareholder primacy.

“Governance sounds really boring, but it's really the art of organizational soul craft.” Eric Ries on unSILOed podcast (episode 656)

Heartful Wonders runs an 80-minute Eric episode, with the host opening on Incorruptible as the first business book she's read that moved her to sobbing — and using that as the door into a personal conversation about following your heart in a tech-business world.

“I read your book Incorruptible on my vacation and on trains and airplanes and it's really truly the first business book that I found myself not just crying but sobbing at times. And it was just like even now as I think about it, it's like it was so moving.” Heartful Wonders host on Eric Ries episode

Eric appears at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California — one of Silicon Valley's most beloved independent bookstores — in conversation with Kim Scott, bestselling author of Radical Candor. The pairing is fitting: Scott's endorsement of the book calls for 'incorruptible governance' as a prerequisite for companies that want to make the world better in a hundred years.

“Success itself becomes a form of financial gravity, bending companies away from their original purpose.” Kepler's Books

Kaihan Krippendorff runs Eric on Outthinkers #168 days after launch, framing it as 'the most important book written in business in the last 2 to 3 years' and walking through the tourists-can-vote metaphor for shareholder primacy plus the 6× longevity multiplier for mission-controlled companies.

“If you say you have a mission statement to build a great product, to care about quality, to take care of your customers, but your legal purpose and your corporate structure says to maximize shareholder value, you're lying. I'm sorry. You're lying to your customers, you're lying to employees, you're lying to yourself.” Eric Ries on Outthinkers podcast (Kaihan Krippendorff)

John R. Miles runs Eric on Passion Struck, opening with the Silicon Valley Bank example as a case study in the gap between a lofty mission statement and a legal purpose to maximize shareholder value.

“Most organizations, frankly, are lying about what they're all about. They have a mission statement that sounds very lofty, but if you read their legal documents, they have a legal purpose that is something different... If you have this divergence between mission and purpose, eventually the hypocrisy becomes too great and the thing collapses. That's what we see over and over again.” Eric Ries on Passion Struck podcast (John R. Miles)

Scott D. Clary runs Eric on Success Story for an audience of 24K+ early viewers, walking through the wake-disguised-as-a-celebration scene, why the founders we admire keep losing control, and Eric's argument that trustworthiness is the most underrated asset in business.

“We can just build the organizations we want to build. We can just stand for what we want to stand for. When you create an organization, you become a parent. We birth organizations. We don't own them.” Eric Ries on Success Story podcast (Scott D. Clary)

Jeremy Au runs Eric on BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech E700, putting Incorruptible's argument in front of Southeast Asia's founder, operator, and investor community — and pulling the myth at the heart of the book up to the title of the episode.

“One of the biggest myths in the world is that ruthless, exploitative, and anti-human business practices are more profitable than the alternative.” BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech E700 episode page