(2026-05-10) Lenny Ries How To Build A Company That Withstands Any Era

Lenny Rachitsky interviews Eric Ries: how to build a company that withstands any era. Eric Ries is the author of The Lean Startup, a book that reshaped how a generation of founders think about building companies. His new book, Incorruptible, explains how successful companies are destroyed by failing to protect what makes them valuable, and how to change it.

In our in-depth conversation, we discuss:

• Why 80% of venture-backed founders are ousted within three years of going public
• The governance structures that protect companies like Anthropic, Costco, and Novo Nordisk
• The simple legal filing that takes two pages and could save your company
• Financial gravity: why successful companies predictably get corrupted into mediocrity
• Why mission-aligned companies like [Anthropic] reap major benefits from protecting their mission through governance
• Why success won’t protect you—it instead makes you a bigger target

My biggest takeaways from this conversation:

There’s a force that pulls organizations toward mediocrity and corruption—“the force no one controls but everyone obeys.” It’s not greed or aging; it’s “financial gravity”: structural pressure from governance. (shareholder value)

Only 20% of venture-backed founders are still CEO three years post-IPO. Follow standard VC and legal advice, and you have an 80% chance of being pushed out.

The key question isn’t what protections you need—it’s when. At every stage, founders are told “not yet”: lawyers say wait for PMF, Series A VCs say later, growth VCs say it’ll hurt fundraising, bankers at IPO say bundle it later, then the CFO at S-1 says, “Sorry, too late.” It’s never the right time—which means you have to do it early.

Most corporate charters say companies exist to pursue “any lawful activity,” which effectively means maximizing shareholder value.

The simplest protection: become a “public benefit corporation.” This is different from a B Corp. It’s a short legal filing where you define your actual purpose. It doesn’t guarantee good behavior, but it protects you if investors push you to act against your mission. It’s part of the governance “armor” used by companies like Anthropic, with essentially no downside.

Anthropic shows how strong governance allows you to move faster.

Three things founders should do now: (1) become a public benefit corporation, (2) add a director’s oath tied to mission, and (3) implement mission-protective provisions (e.g. founder control, board votes). Optionally, reserve equity for a nonprofit foundation. These are easiest early, before investor constraints kick in.

Principled decisions always lose on ROI spreadsheets in the short run—that’s why structural protection matters more than values statements.