The Eric Ries Show (Eric Ries)
Explore every episode of The Eric Ries Show
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul 2024 | Inside Kickstarter: Co-Founder Yancey Strickler on Building the Crowdfunding Giant | 01:38:48 | |
Yancey Strickler is the co-founder and former CEO of Kickstarter, and the founder of Metalabel, a platform for releasing collective work. He’s also the author of This Could Be Our Future: A Manifesto for a More Generous World. I’m thrilled to share our recent conversation in this episode. Yancey started out as a music journalist before applying his talents to helping the world share its creative pursuits. For him, creativity and humanity are implicitly connected, and so he’s been a forerunner in thinking about how to build companies that bring good things into the world and are also successful without devolving into extractive behaviors. Not that any of this is simple. As Yancey says, “Everything is harder than you think. To do anything well is so hard. [But] if you put in the work, you don't need to fear it.” We talked about the founding and growth of Kickstarter, which has been profitable since it’s 14th month, the power of humility, past mistakes and future hopes, why he started Metalabel, and more including: • The innumerable inventions that make up our world • Crisis hopping in Kickstarter’s early days • The challenges of funding speculative projects • Being one of the first Public Benefit Corps • Creativity and self-knowledge • Company building as an art • Collective creativity • The Bento Method — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Yancey Strickler: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yancey-strickler-486b4557/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ystrickler/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:36) Welcome to the Eric Ries Show (04:44) The invention of the high five. (07:22) Our world is the product of innumerable inventions (08:22) The story of Kickstarter (13:48) The difference between a fad and a trend (15:50) The early days, and difficulties, at Kickstarter (17:24) How Kickstarter introduced standards (18:58) The a-ha moment: “Kickstarter is not a store” (20:42) The need for company sacrifice (22:06) The tension between risk and failure (24:16) Kickstarter’s early days and how Yancey became CEO (27:12) Mistakes, burnout, and stepping down. (30:05) Yancey without Kickstarter (31:45) Disentangling from the old and starting anew (35:21) Public Benefit Corps and why Kickstarter was among the first ones (39:19) The challenges of running a good company that makes a profit (42:07) Crowdfunding and creativity (46:31) The future of creative work (47:12) MetaLabel (48:48) The curator role (50:26) Moving from solo to cooperative work (52:04) The Leaders Guide on Kickstarter (54:30) Doing work for yourself, in a community of peers (57:29) Self-knowledge as an entrepreneurial asset (59:35) Organization building as an artistic discipline (1:04:30) Humility, fearlessness, and hard work (1:06:25) The Royal Society (1:10:04) Rejecting the extractive model (1:14:50) Succession planning and deprioritizing financial maximization (1:19:52) A new version of the hockey stick graph (1:21:20) The Bento Method: women vs. men (1:26:48) The Golden Ratio (1:30:18) The Dark Forest (1:33:27) How the internet has redefined individuality (1:36:49) Online institutions of the 21st century — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 21 Nov 2024 | Longevity Over Hypergrowth: A New Vision for Startups with Sahil Lavingia (Gumroad) | 01:39:24 | |
The story of the digital content-sharing platform Gumroad challenges every aspect of the received wisdom about building successful companies. After it almost went under, founder and CEO Sahil Lavingia decided to pare down to the essentials rather than walk away. Then he took his characteristic counter-intuitiveness further and left Silicon Valley for Provo, Utah. Through it all, he never lost sight of what he was trying to do and his joy in building products. Gumroad is now thriving, with $175 million in volume last year, all thanks to Lavingia’s willingness to take a different path to success. Among the many things he’s learned along the way are the value of getting a fresh perspective and the virtue of patience – even when it’s unexciting. Commitment is often overlooked in heady times, but as he told me, “A lot of people are so concerned about catching the next train because it's the last one. They think it's over. But there are many more trains – just make sure you're at the train station. That's the important thing.” He had a lot to say about this, as well as Gumroad’s unique equity and dividend model, which it’s now sharing with other companies. Other topics we touched on include:
— Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Sahil Lavingia: • Sahil’s site: https://sahillavingia.com/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sahillavingia • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/shl.bsky.social • X: https://x.com/shl • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shlpaints/?hl=en Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (03:15) Singapore and America as the ultimate high-growth startups (04:50) How Sahil first encountered entrepreneurship as a teen graphic designer (07:15) The new meaning of “knowledge work” (11:10) Sahil’s impressions of American possibility after growing up in Singapore and returning (16:33) Sahil’s history of deviating from the expected path (19:27) Gumroad’s path from a failed funding round in 2015 to profitability in 2023 (24:17) How Sahil broke into the startup ecosystem and his first iPhone app (27:41) Sahil’s advice for people looking to break into the new rising tide of AI (30:38) On not putting all your eggs in one product basket (32:59) How and why he left Pinterest (34:48) Surfing and treading water as business cycles (41:36) Overnight successes that are really a long time in the making (45:59) How Sahil started Gumroad (49:19) Reconciling getting fired with successfully raising money for a new company (54:26) The failure to build a billion-dollar company (1:03:42) How to prioritize survival (1:06:33) The pivotal decision to leave San Francisco for Provo, Utah (1:08:11) The current state of Gumroad (1:11:22) How Gumroad is structured to solve some of the classic business problems: equity, ownership, dividends (1:13:53) Incentivizing for the long-term (1:22:12) How Gumroad is helping other companies copy their model (1:25:16) Lightning round You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 09 Jul 2024 | How to Scale Trust Into a Billion Dollar Business | Ritu Narayan (Zum) | 01:17:05 | |
For this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sat down with Ritu Narayan, founder and CEO of Zum, which has had incredible success in the field of student transportation. The company began as a private service to tackle a problem Ritu was facing herself: how to function as a working parent dealing with erratic pickup and drop-off schedules. Before long, it became clear that there was a far larger opportunity to change pretty much everything about how all kids get to and from school. Pivoting to working with school districts and a fleet of electric buses, the company set out to “modernize student transportation to make it safe, sustainable, and accessible for all.” To say it’s been a success is an understatement. Zum now serves thousands of schools in multiple states, and in February 2024, it hit unicorn status with a valuation of over a billion dollars. As Ritu says in our conversation, “the service is for everybody.” We also talked about everything from carbon-neutral buses to cracking the procurement system of public school districts, the invaluable asset of parental peace of mind, scaling care, and more, including: • How Ritu came to entrepreneurship • Scaling trust • How coming from the outside allowed the company to transform the industry • Shifting from a B2C company to a B2B company • Zum’s values: customer obsession, doing things the right way, thinking big and executing meticulously, and building better communities. • How a clear mission makes alignment easier • Zum’s “Five Step People Program” to reinforce culture and behaviors — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Ritu Narayan: • X: https://x.com/ritun • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ritunarayan/ • Zum: https://www.ridezum.com/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:31) Welcome to the Eric Ries Show (01:09) Meet our guest Ritu Narayan (04:32) Ritu describes how Zum has reinvented the school transportation field (06:50) The Zum origin story (08:01) Zum’s pivot from private service to school district partner (11:17) Scrambling to meet the demand and understand the RFP process (13:17) Zum’s amazing growth from one contract to unicorn (19:48) How Ritu got started as an entrepreneur (21:09) Being a woman engineer in her family, college and the workforce. (22:06) How being a working parent showed her the multi-generational problem she wanted to solve (27:59) Establishing trust and placing it at the center of the company (33:28) Being a child-centric company (35:13) The deep care that transportation directors showed towards their students (40:00) The Zum pivot (41:43) Reconciling long-term vision with a flexible strategy (44:28) Expanding from private to public schools as the result of raising a round (47:20) Shifting from B2C to B2B (51:54) How gaining clarity of mission brings the right people into alignment (55:01) Zum’s four pillar values and the narrative they uphold (57:05) The five steps to restructuring the company after the pivot (58:58) The value of Zum from the parent perspective (1:02:05) Zum’s climate impact (1:06:19) Reconciling the vision of sustainable transportation and equality with profit (1:09:34) The advantages of tackling a huge problem instead of a narrow one (1:13:08) Working with mission-aligned investors (1:15:02) Ritu’s advice for founders who want to build purpose-driven companies that are also for-profit — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 20 Feb 2025 | MBA thinking killed my startup, lessons on losing 98% of users, and being fired as a co-founder | Gagan Biyani (Udemy and Maven) | 01:32:56 | |
In today’s episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Gagan Biyani, Co-Founder and CEO of Maven, a platform that’s redefining online education with cohort-based courses. Before Maven, Gagan co-founded Udemy, now one of the largest online education marketplaces, and Sprig, a meal delivery startup. Gagan started his entrepreneurial journey at just 21, and along the way, he’s experienced both big wins and tough lessons. We get into what worked, what didn’t, and how those experiences shaped his approach to building companies today. In our conversation today, we talk about the following: • How a free truffle at Sprig revealed the pitfalls of MBA-style thinking • Why Gagan has shifted his thinking to be less metric-obsessed • The underestimated value of intuition in decision-making • Maintaining company culture at scale—onboarding new hires while preserving core values • What drives value in any marketplace • Lessons from Gagan’s exit from Udemy—and how he rebuilt his friendship with his co-founder • How to use AI to increase productivity and where it falls short • An explanation of Gagan’s concept of ‘atomic unit’ • AI’s potential to transform education • And more! — Brought to you by: • Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Save $1,000 today. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. • Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Gagan Biyani: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gaganbiyani/ • X: https://x.com/gaganbiyani • Website: https://www.gaganbiyani.com/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:06) MBA thinking and how taking away the free truffle impacted Sprig (13:35) Different types of trust in different industries (19:19) How to preserve trust while balancing business costs (26:21) How Maven’s internal processes, once ideal, needed to evolve with growth (30:40) Why investing time in new hires is key to embedding company culture (32:10) Gagan’s entrepreneurship journey (35:00) The value of intuition (37:40) Early insights at Udemy that led to the shift toward video-recorded courses (46:52) Thoughts on failure (49:40) How to build a successful marketplace (54:42) Gagan’s exit from Udemy (1:03:01) Why Gagan founded Maven and an explanation of cohort-based education (1:07:05) The difference between Maven and Udemy and how Maven is doing now (1:13:12) Why AI is overhyped—but still very useful (1:16:02) The future of AI in education (1:22:36) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references athttps://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 13 Mar 2025 | Inside UiPath’s $1.5B ARR Journey – Bootstrapping the company, hiring challenges, and the billion-dollar pivot (Daniel Dines) | 01:35:37 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with Daniel Dines, the Founder and CEO of UiPath, a company that started in robotic process automation (RPA) and is now making a bold shift into agentic AI. Dubbed “the boss of bots” by Forbes, Daniel has led UiPath from its humble beginnings to a $6.65 billion company that’s reshaping the future of automation. Daniel’s journey is anything but conventional. After working as an engineer on SQL at Microsoft, he felt a pull toward something more creative—building his own product. That decision led him back to Romania, where he founded the company that would eventually become UiPath. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • Why stepping out of your comfort zone is key to growth • The Jack London book that changed Daniel’s life • The benefits of bootstrapping vs. raising big VC money • Why letting go is the hard part of a pivot • How failure can unlock unexpected opportunities • A case for mixing work and life to build a strong company culture • Why empowering employees is good for business • What Daniel learned from UiPath’s journey to IPO • Daniel’s plans for his second stint as CEO • Why Daniel is optimistic about the impact AI will have on the future of work • And more! — Brought to you by: • Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm. Learn more. • Explo – Explo helps teams deploy customer dashboard portals. Get Started. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. — Where to find Daniel Dines: • LinkedIn: https://x.com/danieldines • X: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieldines/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:11) Growing up in communist Romania (10:00) The importance of breaking out of your comfort zone (13:41) Joy as a sign you’re on the right path (15:27) The Jack London book that made Daniel an entrepreneur (16:40) The beginnings of UiPath (18:50) Why writing code wasn’t enough for Daniel and why coding is creative (22:22) UiPath’s values (24:50) Why Daniel returned to Romania (28:00) Advantages of bootstrapping (30:50) Pivoting to become a product company from outsourcing (33:27) An early password management product that didn’t work out (34:55) The difficult pivot that led to the product that is UiPath now (39:10) How the early failures led to the big opportunity (41:37) Hitting product market fit (43:50) Why Daniel hired misfits, and the characteristics he looked for in hires (48:32) How Daniel protected UiPath's values and why he plans to renew the commitment (54:00) The importance of empowering employees at all levels to provide feedback (57:47) UiPath’s journey to IPO (1:01:30) Why Eric thinks he didn’t prepare Daniel psychologically for the difficulty of IPO (1:03:46) Synthetic volatility’s human cost (1:07:01) Why Daniel stepped down as CEO and why he’s resuming CEO duties (1:11:55) Daniel’s second stint as CEO: hiring people he likes and going all in on agentic AI (1:18:20) The promise of open source (1:19:24) Daniel’s thoughts on the future of work (1:24:36) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references athttps://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 20 Jun 2024 | Lessons From Co-Founding Facebook, And Now Asana | Dustin Moskovitz | 01:11:23 | |
Welcome to The Eric Ries Show. I sat down with Dustin Moskovitz, founder of not one but two iconic companies: Facebook and the collaborative work platform Asana. Needless to say, he’s engaged in the most intense form of entrepreneurship there is. A huge part of what he’s chosen to do with the hard-earned knowledge it gave him is dedicate himself and Asana to investing in employees’ mental health, communication skills, and more. All of this matters to Dustin on a human level, but he also explains why putting people first is the only way to get the kind of results most founders can only dream of. We talked about how to get into that flow state, why preserving culture is crucial, his leadership style and how he decides when to be hands-on versus when to delegate, and how Asana reflects what he’s learned about supporting people at all levels. Dustin sums up the work Asana does this way: “Our individual practices are meant to restore coherence for the individual, our team practices are meant to restore coherence for the team, and Asana, the system, is meant to try and do it for the entire organization.” I’m delighted to share our conversation, which also covers: • How he uses AI and views its future • Why he founded a collaboration platform • How he applied the lessons of Facebook to building Asana • Why taking care of your mental health as a founder is crucial for the company as a whole • His thoughts on the evolution of Facebook • The importance of alignment with investors • His philanthropic work • And so much more — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Dustin Moskovitz: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmoskov/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@moskov • Asana: https://asana.com/leadership#moskovitz Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Welcome to the Eric Ries Show (00:31) Meet our guest Dustin Moskovitz (04:02) How Dustin is using AI for creative projects (05:31) Dustin talks about the social media and SaaS era and his Facebook days (06:52) How Facebook has evolved from its original intention (10:27) The founding of Asana (14:35) Building entrepreneurial confidence (19:22) Making – and fixing – design errors at Asana (20:32) The importance of committing to “soft” values. (25:27) Short-term profit over people and terrible advice from VCs (28:44) Crypto as a caricature of extractive behavior (30:47) The positive impacts of doing things with purpose (34:24) How Asana is ensuring its purpose and mission are permanently enshrined in the company (41:35) Battling entropy and meeting culture (44:31) Being employee-centric, the flow state, and Asana’s strategy (47:51) The organizational equivalent of repressing emotions (52:57) Dustin as a Cassandra (56:51) Dustin talks about his philanthropic work and philosophy: Open Philanthropy, Good Ventures (1:02:05) Dustin’s thoughts on AI and its future (1:07:20) Ethics, calculated risk, and thinking long-term — Referenced:
— Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 10 Oct 2024 | Mission Over Money: How Sal Khan changed EdTech forever | 01:00:59 | |
Sal Khan arrived at the idea for Khan Academy truly organically. While working at a hedge fund, he took time in the evenings to tutor a younger cousin in math over the phone. Soon, a family tutoring network was in place, and from there, it was only a few years before Sal realized that the kind of help he was giving his family could – and should – be made available to everyone for free, across disciplines and geographic locations. Today, Khan Academy has over 170 million users and is available in 50 languages in 190 countries. To fully commit to his vision, he founded Khan Academy as a non-profit, providing advantages that companies focused on making money by any means necessary will never have. As you’ll hear, avoiding what he calls the “very strange” market forces around education has been one of the keys to Khan Academy’s ability to build deep trust and loyalty. It has also ensured a rare level of adaptability that has been especially important for Khan Academy’s role as a major early adopter of AI. Sal’s experiences with AI and education are widely applicable, as is his belief that we all have a duty to take a hand in shaping AI’s place in our world. Being open to new technology instead of fearing it can help us avoid the dystopian nightmares so many people have predicted are imminent. Equally important is his commitment to balance in all things, including salary and work-life choices not just for himself, but all Khan Academy employees. As he puts it, “Having a life can make you a better leader, thinker, and decision-maker.” His story, which has many chapters yet to come, shows that being a mission-controlled organization is no barrier to success in every sense. Other topics we touched on include:
— Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Sal Khan: • X: @salkhanacademy • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/khanacademy/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (04:24) Why Sal founded Khan Academy as a non-profit (06:10) How his day job as a hedge fund analyst made him think longer-term (09:26) How turning down venture capital has put Khan Academy in a better position for growth (11:24) Creating value as a non-profit (12:54) How nonprofits can fill in for government in education and healthcare (13:30) Sal’s skepticism about non-profits (16:01) The social return on investment framework (18:22) Khan Academy by the numbers (21:19) On making enough money and taking a risk to pursue a dream (22:17) The counter-intuitive hiring benefits of being a non-profit (27:46) Khan Academy as a leader in AI and education (30:05) Khan Academy’s top fears around adopting AI (32:36) How being trustworthy led to early GPT-4 access (34:04) Khan Academy’s AI experiments and results so far with Khanmigo (36:55) Sal’s hopes for AI and special needs education (38:52) Sal’s new book, Brave New Words (41:51) AI as an amplifier of human intent (43:38) The necessity of using technologies and tools we’re afraid of (44:45) Balancing material needs and self-fulfillment (48:20) Why Khan Academy has gone to fully remote work (53:18) Lightning round! You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/sal-khan/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 30 Jan 2025 | Redefining Education in the Age of AI with Amir Nathoo (Outschool) | 01:24:10 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Amir Nathoo, Co-Founder and CEO of Outschool, an education platform offering live online classes for K-12 learners. Amir’s own childhood inspired Outschool—while he went to traditional schools, his parents always encouraged his self-driven coding projects at home. Outschool is about empowering kids to take control of their learning and building a lifelong love for education. It’s a mission-driven company that’s impacting how we think about education and social change. In today’s conversation, we explore the intersection of business and social good and why education needs disruption. We talk about the following topics: • Amir’s thoughts on AI’s role in education • How maximizing profit and benefiting society can go hand in hand • The value of allowing children to pursue their interests • Why engagement is the number one metric at Outschool • What Amir learned from the secular homeschool movement • How traditional investors sometimes hold back disruption and why that’s a problem • And more! — Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. — Where to find Amir Nathoo: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirnathoo/ • Website: https://amir.io/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (02:58) Outschool’s launch at the height of the pandemic (03:38) What a fiscal sponsorship and Outschool’s relationship with the Edward Charles Foundation (05:18) Why Amir is thinking of having kids on his board (07:40) How the pandemic was a critical moment for Outschool to launch their non-profit (10:00) A case for tying for-profit with social missions (17:56) Why younger generations value purpose-driven brands (20:27) Outschool’s mission-tied metrics and why Amir is against double bottom lines (23:10) Amir’s early experiences coding (24:50) How Amir came up with the idea of Outschool (28:52) How secular homeschooling inspired Outschool’s direction (31:22) Why engagement became Outschool’s biggest metric and guided their mission (36:55) What Amir learned from homeschoolers’ dynamic education journeys (44:00) How systemic deficits are driving changes in education (46:40) How Outschool supports diverse educational perspectives (50:10) Outschool’s first value: stand with learner (52:38) Outschool’s unique structure and how they keep employees tied to the mission (54:45) The case for truth and open-mindedness in business leadership (58:06) Eric’s bad experience working with an unscrupulous leader (1:02:00) Amir’s thoughts on disruption (1:05:08) The role of alignment in Outschool’s positive investor relationships (1:08:31) The value of human-to-human interaction and AI’s role in education (1:12:50) Amir’s thoughts on using AI to write an essay (1:13:41) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 29 Aug 2024 | The Art of Pivoting: How TaskRabbit Reimagined the Gig Economy | Stacy Brown-Philpot (Google, TaskRabbit, HP, Nordstroms) | 01:20:08 | |
Stacy Brown-Philpot is a unique voice in Silicon Valley. She began her career as a public accountant and worked at Goldman Sachs before landing at Google. She was the COO and then the CEO of TaskRabbit, which she saw through its sale to Ikea. Today, she’s on a number of corporate boards including HP, Nordstrom, StockX, Noom, and Black Girls CODE. She’s also a founding member of the SoftBank Opportunity Fund, which invests in Black, Latinx, and Native American founders. Throughout, she’s been a consistent advocate for building cultures where people can bring all aspects of their rich and varied lives to work. The importance of setting out what you want to be and fully committing to it is the wisdom she’s held her entire life: “My grandmother's always telling me, if you don't stand for something, you fall for anything.” In our conversation, we touched on Google’s rise and its eventual tumble from its “don’t be evil” ethos, what it was like to pioneer the sharing economy at Task Rabbit and the pivots the company went through along the way, and why selling the company to Ikea was dependent on its mission because “they weren't going to buy anything just to buy it. They needed to buy something that they believed in because they're only a part of something that they believe in.” Stacy’s model of compassionate leadership is inspiring, as is the fun she’s had executing it for the last few decades, even when things were bumpy. She had a lot to say about both, as well as:
— Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Stacy Brown-Philpot • X: https://x.com/sbp04 • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacyphilpot/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:44) Meet Stacy Brown-Philpot (05:11) The heyday of Google’s “don’t be evil” culture (08:01) Google’s IPO (11:20) Stories from Google’s hyper-growth era (13:44) The shift to backing away from idealism (15:46) How the 2008 downturn changed Google’s DNA (24:13) The difference between cultures at Goldman Sachs and Google (29:43) Mistakes, apologies, and creativity (31:18) Stacy’s transition from Google to TaskRabbit (33:52) “the serendipity of what it means to be building something together” (35:00) Navigating culture change at TaskRabbit (42:31) Pivots at TaskRabbit (46:08) Cutting categories and losing revenue for a longer-term goal (47:35) Inside the TaskRabbit pivot war room (48:59) Stacy’s stories of taking client and customer calls from her couch (57:20) The Ikea acquisition and cultural alignment (1:00:15) Ikea’s foundation ownership model and its “vertically integrated” mission (1:01:27) Stacy’s reflections on her startup experience (1:04:05) Stacy’s view of the board’s role in a company (1:06:07) How she came to be on the board of HP and the companies that followed (1:07:26) The pandemic at TaskRabbit and on the Nordstrom board (1:08:21) George Floyd (1:11:20) Stacy’s views on DEI, where we are now, and its cyclical nature (1:14:45) Lighting round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 26 Sep 2024 | Contrarian by Design: Wade Foster’s Vision Behind Zapier’s $5B Business | 01:23:26 | |
Founded in 2011 in the distinctly non-Silicon Valley location of Columbia, Missouri, software integration company Zapier hit profitability in 2014. Today, the company is valued in the billions, and is poised to keep thriving as AI becomes a normal part of everything we do online. My guest on this episode of The Eric Ries Show is co-founder and CEO Wade Foster, whose ethos from the earliest days on has been: “If you're going to try and build a company, don’t do anything that doesn’t matter.” For Zapier, that has meant staying as close as possible to customers from the start in order to build a product they really want. It’s no wonder their journey to product-market fit was easier than most founders can ever dream of – a story Wade tells in the episode that involves the magic of an early adopter and a lot of hard work. From that customer delight, the company was able to build a flywheel and growth engine that have kept it steadily growing with minimal outside investment ever since, a path it fully intends to stay on. As Wade told me, they’re “willing to sacrifice a little bit of revenue for the durability of these customers over the long haul.” We also talked about how the company maintains its culture now that it’s expanded to 750 people, all of whom work remotely, and why product and marketing aren’t actually separate functions, especially at the beginning of a company’s life. Other topics we touched on include:
— Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Wade Foster: • Wade’s Zapier blog: https://zapier.com/blog/author/wade-foster/ • X: https://x.com/wadefoster • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:40) Introducing Wade Foster (06:33) The transition to Silicon Valley and defying received wisdom (09:18) Where the courage to do things differently comes from (14:08) The internship that made him realize he was an entrepreneur (17:07) The value of staying close to customers during product development (18:07) The genesis of Zapier (21:24) How Andrew Warner became Zapier’s first customer (24:43) The company’s ease in finding product-market fit (30:03) The early days of company-building (31:55) How they stayed small and worked with a single million dollar Series A raise. (32:48) Reaching profitability in two and a half years (34:50) On not buying into the need to burn cash and hire quickly (36:44) The unique power of the company’s distribution engine (39:25) Zapier is a classic Lean Startup story (41:14) How the company discovered its growth engine and validated its growth hypothesis (43:30) How Zapier’s flywheel works (47:46) The problems of over-funding and monetization (49:25) Building and maintaining trust (1:12:25) Zaper’s “build principles” (1:00:39) The power of story-telling for sharing values (1:04:57) Wade’s thoughts on and excitement about how AI will affect Zapier and work (1:10:34) How AI has spurred Zapier’s second founding (1:13:30) The vertigo of evolving beyond the founder-entrepreneur role (1:15:24) Lightning round – including Wade’s favorite Zap! — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 07 Nov 2024 | Risks, Rewards, and Building the Unicorn Chip Company Taking on Nvidia | Inside Groq with Jonathan Ross | 01:15:13 | |
The story of Groq, a semiconductor startup that makes chips for AI inference and was recently valued at $2.8 billion, is a classic “overnight success that was years in the making” tale. On this episode, I talk with founder and CEO Jonathan Ross. He began the work that eventually led to Groq as an engineer at Google, where he was a member of the rapid eval team – “the team that comes up with all the crazy ideas at Google X.” For him, the risk involved in leaving to launch Groq in 2016 was far less than the risk of staying in-house and watching the project die. Groq has had many “near-death” experiences in its eight years of existence, all of which Jonathan believes have ultimately put it in a much stronger position to achieve its mission: preserving human agency in the age of AI. Groq is committed to giving everyone access to relatively low-cost generative AI compute, driving the price down even as they continue to increase speed. We talked about how the company culture supports that mission, what it feels like to now be on the same playing field as companies like Nvidia, and Jonathan’s belief that true disruption isn’t just doing things other people can’t do or don’t want to do, but doing things other people don’t believe can be done – even when you show them evidence to the contrary. Other topics we touched on include:
— Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Jonathan Ross: • X: https://x.com/JonathanRoss321 • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-jonathan/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (04:24) Jonathan’s involvement with the DeepMind Challenge Match between AlphaGo and Lee Sedol (06:06) How Jonathan’s work Google and how it led him to that moment (08:46) Why generative AI isn’t just the next internet or mobile (10:12) The divine move in the DeepMind Challenge Match (11:56) How Jonathan ended up designing chips without the usual background (13:11) GPUs vs. TPUs (14:33) What risk really is (15:11) Groq’s mind-blowing AI demo (16:23) How Jonathan decided to leave Google and start Groq (17:30) The differences between doing an innovation project at a company and starting a new company (19:03) Nassim Taleb’s Black Swan theory (21:02) Groq’s founding story (24:12) The difference in attitude towards AI now compared to 2016 and how it affected Groq (25:46) The moment the tide turned with LLMs (28:28) The week-over-week jump from 8,000 users to 400,000 users (30:32) How Groq used HBM and what is it (the memory used by GPUs) (32:33) Jonathan’s approach to disruption (35:38) Groq’s initial raise and focus on software (36:13) How struggling to survive made Groq stronger (37:13) Hiring for return on luck (40:07) How Jonathan and Groq think about the long-term (42:25) Founder control issues (45:31) How Groq thinks about maintaining its mission and trustworthiness (49:51) Jonathan’s vision for a capital market that would support companies like Groq (52:58) How Groq manages internal cultural alignment (55:59) Groq’s mission and to preserve human agency in the age of AI how it approaches achieving it (59:48) Lightning round You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 24 Oct 2024 | AI’s Human Backbone: The Hidden Hands That Shape The Technology | Wendy Gonzalez (Sama) | 01:27:41 | |
Wendy Gonzalez is the CEO of Sama, an ethical AI company that provides training and jobs with equitable pay and benefits to those who face the greatest barriers to stable employment. Among the companies it provides AI development data to are Microsoft, Ford, Walmart, Google, and many others. But before its current incarnation, Sama was a very different organization. It began as a non-profit, the brainchild and lifelong passion of its founder, Leila Janah, who sadly passed away in 2020. Her vision was to provide under-served communities in sub-Saharan Africa with opportunities for what she called “dignified work.” She believed this was the fastest and most sustainable way for people to not only gain their financial independence but to spread prosperity in their communities. Wendy and I discussed the advantages of being a company that puts human potential and intelligence first in everything it does from numerous angles. Sama’s example shows beyond a doubt that everything we’ve been taught about how to succeed in business is far from the only way – or even the best way – to thrive. In addition, we touched on: • Why it’s difficult to think long-term as a non-profit • The relationship between human judgment and AI • Why Sama became a B-Corp • The power of putting clear ethical boundaries on the work you accept • Why choosing investors that align with your mission is make-or-break • The future of AI and multi-modal models • And more — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Wendy Gonzalez • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendy-gonzalez-a319788/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (05:17) The importance of our relationship to the people who make the products we use (06:42) The human care that goes into AI development (07:57) Sama’s mission (09:12) How Sama got to its leadership position in the creation of ethical AI (10:31) The focus on valuing human judgment in work (13:50) The Sama origin story (17:13) The informal economy vs. the formal economy (18:36) How Sama’s model helps break the poverty cycle (20:01) Giving human capital a chance to shine (21:30) Why Sama doesn’t pay people for training and the success of that approach (23:44) Leila Janah and her vision for Sama (27:38) How and why Sama converted to a for-profit company with a foundation attached (29:42) Identifying AI as the pivot (31:02) The difficulties of having a long-term plan in the non-profit world (32:49) Why Sama needed to build its own technology and raise the money to do so (36:10) How a non-profit becomes a for-profit (37:29) How Sama split into two entities: a company and a foundation (39:41) Sama’s governance structure including how the foundation is represented in the (43:56) Choosing mission-aligned investors (45:46) How Sama’s success disproves conventional business theory (52:00) Turning a liability into strategy (53:47) How Sama’s mission led it to create real value and be in position for the emergence of AI (58:06) The need for standards and ethical guidelines for the data supply chain (1:01:46) Combating bias and danger through visibility (1:03:57) The case for ethical data as a competitive strategy (1:07:21) Wendy’s thoughts on what the future of AI will bring (1:10:30) Lighting round, including the creation of Sama’s Ethics Guild (1:23:46) What Wendy wishes she’d known ten years ago You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 17 Apr 2025 | Lessons on co-founding Twitter, Medium and Blogger with Ev Williams | 01:22:17 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with Ev Williams—someone whose work has profoundly shaped the modern internet. Ev co-founded Twitter, created Medium, and before all that, built Blogger, the original blogging platform (and the one where my own blog, Startup Lessons Learned, still lives today). We cover a wide range of topics, but at the heart of our conversation is this: what does it mean to resist short-term pressures and build with long-term integrity? Ev reflects on the early days of the internet, the cultural shifts inside big tech, and what happens when the systems we design begin to shape us in return. He also shares the thinking behind his latest venture, Mozi—an app designed to make it easier for people to meet up in person, with less friction and more intention. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • The value of building strong relationships (and how they compound over time) • The inside story of Google’s acquisition of Blogger • Google’s “don’t be evil” policy, and a case for radical honesty • Why Ev believes social media’s downsides were inevitable • How data obsession can kill creativity • Ev’s “feel it” principle and what it means for entrepreneurs • The backlash against Medium’s login wall, and what it taught him about friction and trust • How strong governance and intentional culture can safeguard a company’s mission • Ev’s latest project, Mozi—an app that takes the hassle out of meeting up in person • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm. Learn more. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. — Where to find Ev Williams: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanwilliams/ • X: https://x.com/ev — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (02:29) How Ev feels knowing his company, Blogger, acquired by Google, is still going (06:01) Why many of Ev’s businesses have endured (13:26) Ev’s early years growing up on a farm and how he ended up at O’Reilly (20:46) The internet’s shift from idealism to reality—and why we still can’t see its full impact (28:00) Motivations driving founders, and how Ev realized it’s about creativity (30:55) Google’s ‘don’t be evil’ policy, and the importance of creating high bar values (37:45) Ev’s thoughts on what went wrong with social media and if AI companies can do better (45:00) The protective role of good governance (54:10) Insights gleaned from the book Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned (1:00:14) Why MBA-thinking and metric obsession are culture killers (1:05:23) A story about trusting in a hypothesis before data is there (1:06:35) Medium’s failure with the login pop-up (1:09:58) How good governance and strong culture empower torchbearers (1:12:34) An overview of Mozi, an app that helps make in-person meetups easier (1:16:10) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 23 Jan 2025 | Lessons on building a unicorn used by 84% of the Fortune 100 | Emil Eifrem (Neo4j) | 01:24:44 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Emil Eifrem, Co-Founder and CEO of Neo4j, an open-source graph database. Neo4j enables organizations to unlock the business value of connections, influences, and relationships in data. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • The origin story of Neo4j and why they chose open source • Open source as a means of production vs. distribution • How open source fosters trust and transparency • The pros and cons of doing business in the US • Why Neo4j updated their values and changed their stance on military contracts • What a Leader’s Guide is and how it keeps companies tied to their mission • The challenges of implementing AI • An explanation of RAG information retrieval and how it relates to LLMs • And more! — Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Emil Eifrem: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emileifrem/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (01:42) How Eric and Emil got connected (07:35) The origin story of Neo4j (13:38) Why Emil went with an open-source model (20:25) The benefits of being open source as a means of distribution (25:07) Why Emil has no regrets about going open-source (26:50) How open source builds trust (30:33) The difference in doing business in the US vs. Sweden (35:34) How Neo4j got to product market fit and early struggles (38:30) Why Neo4j declined the GSA schedule and why it was a mistake (46:22) Emil’s thoughts on changing his position, reworking values, and recommitting (51:40) Eric’s advice to avoid mission drift: A leader’s guide, and a two-way review (1:00:04) The challenge of implementing AI—and the possibility of massive opportunity (1:09:20) How Neo4j successfully implemented AI (1:11:55) An explanation of IR (information retrieval) and how it’s relevant to AI (1:22:44) What gives us trust in the AI system — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 10 Feb 2025 | Lessons on creating a $17 billion learning company, going viral with an owl, and ditching short-term thinking with Luis von Ahn (Duolingo) | 01:29:04 | |
In today’s episode ofThe Eric Ries Show, I am joined by Luis von Ahn, CEO and co-founder of Duolingo. With Duolingo, his mission was simple: make language learning accessible to everyone—not to build a for-profit company. Fast forward to today, and Duolingo has grown into a $17 billion business with a reported 90% of the online daily active users in the language learning market. In our conversation today, we discuss the following topics: • How hiring an intern led to Duolingo’s viral mascot • Duolingo’s revenue strategy that helped their stock be up over 100% in the past year • How only 10% of users pay but make about 30% of the revenue in the education app category • The newly published Duolingo Handbook and its critical role within the company • How turning learning into a game changed everything • Why Duolingo spent the first five years focusing on improving retention • Duolingo’s unique approach to experimentation and how to apply it • Why Duolingo isn’t focused on market investors but on building a 100-year company • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm.Learn more. — Where to find Luis von Ahn: • LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/luis-von-ahn-duolingo/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:10) How Duolingo’s passive-aggressive mascot, Duo, became an internet sensation (09:21) Why Luis took a chance on the Duo campaign—despite his doubts (11:30) Take the long view: Duolingo’s principle to build a lasting brand (12:52) Duolingo’s commitment to excellence (14:54) Luis’s journey to entrepreneurship (18:28) Luis’s MacArthur Fellowship “genius” award (20:13) The inspiration behind Duolingo’s mission and how they stay in alignment with it (26:16) Early learnings that shaped Duolingo into a fun product (29:14) How Duolingo gained an edge over Rosetta Stone (32:45) How a company with no revenue can be worth a billion dollars (33:10) The VC who pushed Luis and Severin to monetize (36:05) How Duolingo stays focused on long-term sustainability (40:12) A mistake Duolingo made by focusing on the quarter rather than long term (42:15) The importance of trust and “the cultural bank” (44:11) Duo class shares and ways Duolingo resists hyper-monetization (46:30) A case for staying under-monetized (48:23) Why Duolingo wrote a handbook, and the process of creating it (54:00) The cadence of evaluating the relevance of the handbook (55:01) Eric’s “two-way reviews” (58:34) An explanation of Duolingo’s “green machine” (1:01:42) Product reviews and a/b testing at Duolingo (1:06:32) Why Duolingo takes a stance against MVPs in their handbook (1:10:07) How Duolingo’s v1 meets Eric’s definition of MVP (1:11:45) Duolingo’s early strategy focused on retention (1:16:22) Duolingo’s testing philosophy (1:18:13) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references athttps://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 05 Dec 2024 | Inside iRobot: How the Roomba Sparked a Revolution in AI Robotics with Rodney Brooks | 01:25:20 | |
Rodney Brooks has spent his entire life at the intersection of robotics, computers, and AI. When the Roomba vacuum cleaner launched in 2002, his company, iRobot, brought all three into millions of people’s homes. iRobot had already succeeded with robots for space exploration, mine detection, search missions, and military applications. However, after the Roomba came out, it went public with a valuation of $600 million. By then, Rodney had been working on AI and robots for decades alongside the original creators of AI at Stanford and MIT. On today’s episode, we discuss:
— Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Rodney Brooks: • Website: https://people.csail.mit.edu/brooks/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodney-brooks-1a137517 • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/rodneyabrooks.bsky.social • X: https://x.com/rodneyabrooks Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Welcome to the Eric Ries Show (03:00) Taking iRobot public (04:33) The change in company culture from private to public (06:14) Rodney’s upbringing in Australia and early experiments with computers, robots, and mathematics (7:19) The era of the computer operator (9:37) Rodney’s arrival at Stanford in 1977 and move to MIT, at the dawn of AI (11:05) His relationships with the creators of AI (12:15) What innovators of AI and general intelligence thought they were creating at the time (13:17) Rodney’s first AI startup, Lucid (14:52) What Rodney learned about building startups from the experience (18:31) Starting Light Robot, the space exploration company that eventually became iRobot (21:29) The fourteen business models on the road to success, including toys (26:03) The pivot to vacuums (29:04) Learning about the minutiae of mass production (34:43) Rodney’s thoughts on the relationship between consumers and the people who make goods (38:08) Making robots that don’t take away human agency (40:57) Building a trustworthy robotics company (43:56) Balancing low-cost and reliable products (47:00) RobustAI, Rodney’s new company (51:54) The demand and need for warehouse robots (53:39) Building robots that work with people rather than against them (58:20) Talking to warehouse workers for insight into building robots (59:20) Building startups with a high degree of difficulty (1:05:29) The advantages of ambition (1:08:03) Predicting the patterns of technology (1:11:23) The role of luck in entrepreneurship (1:12:30) Rodney’s thoughts on the current hype around AI and machine learning (1:15:34) Rodney’s advice for today’s builders (1:16:28) Lightning round You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 06 Feb 2025 | He turned down $11 billion, here’s why | Craig Newmark (Craigslist Founder) | 01:10:34 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist—one of the internet’s most influential platforms. Despite its massive impact, Craigslist has remained intentionally minimalist, resisting the hyper-monetization strategies common in tech. Craig attributes his success to being in the right place at the right time, but his story reveals a deeper truth: a steadfast commitment to his values. We discuss how his moral compass shaped Craigslist, his approach to business sustainability, and his perspective on ethical entrepreneurship. In this episode, we cover: • The origins of Craigslist as a simple email newsletter • Why Craig resisted aggressive monetization and focused on community impact • The market research behind Craigslist’s minimal fees • How Craigslist maintained its mission even after Craig stepped back from leadership • Craig’s thoughts on AI, cybersecurity, and the future of journalism • How Craig’s strong relationship with customers kept him aligned with his values • Craig’s philanthropic work • Craig’s advice for new founders • And more! — Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Craig Newmark: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craignewmark/ • X: https://x.com/craignewmark — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:06) The origins of Craigslist (12:20) Why Craig used email in the beginning (14:03) Lessons from Sunday school that shaped Craig’s moral compass (15:34) How Craigslist promoted community (17:42) Craig’s resistance to the allure of maximum monetization (19:44) Why Craigslist became a private business, rather than a non-profit (24:15) How monetization works at Craigslist (27:11) Why Craigslist doesn’t need to drive engagement the way social media sites do (30:54) The size and scale of Craigslist (31:47) Current threats in cybersecurity (33:44) How Craig became interested in cybersecurity (35:34) How Craigslist maintained mission alignment after Craig left management (40:54) Craig’s perspective on contentment and why he’s remained fulfilled (42:25) Advice for aspiring world-changers (47:56) Craig’s thoughts on AI (51:08) Craig’s philanthropic work with journalism (53:24) Problems in journalism today (54:37) Craig’s involvement with Donors Choose (57:14) Craig’s pigeon rescue work (58:58) Advice for new founders (1:01:02) The importance of staying close to the customer (1:05:03) The case for avoiding exploitation (1:07:16) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 19 Dec 2024 | Hard-Won Secrets for Scaling Innovations in Finance, Gaming, and AI with Siqi Chen (Runway, Zynga) | 01:35:31 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Siqi Chen, a four-time founder and the CEO and CFO of his latest venture, Runway. Runway offers a modern, user-friendly platform for financial modeling, headcount planning, and departmental budgeting—proudly branding itself as “the finance platform your team doesn’t hate.” With its distinctive marketing and brand-building approach, Runway has garnered significant attention. (Full disclosure: I’m an investor in the company.) Siqi and I discuss his journey from building some of the most viral social games in Silicon Valley to founding Runway. We also delve into the challenges faced by technical founders, the art of viewing a business as a product, and how Siqi has sharpened his strategic thinking. Other key topics include: • Lessons from founding Serious Business • Critiques of Zynga’s strategy and the story of selling to them • Practical advice for building trust • Insights into Leaders in Tech and Stanford’s GSB program • The importance of crafting clear, universally understood company values • An overview of Runway’s platform, mission, and values • A fresh take on the fallacy of work-life balance • And so much more! — Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. — Where to find Siqi Chen: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siqic/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blader/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/founder/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Meet Siqi Chen (02:30) How Siqi came up with the idea for Mafia and the early years of gaming on Facebook (05:10) The early investors in Mafia (05:36) Siqi’s meeting with Keith Rabois and Max Levchin (08:15) How Siqi was influenced by the Lean Startup approach (11:04) How quickly Siqi’s career took off after moving to San Francisco (11:48) Founding Serious Business and creating Friends for Sale (14:20) How Serious Business raised $5 million (16:20) Why Serious Business sold to Zynga (17:20) The importance of prioritizing the business as much as the product (19:11) Siqi’s learnings and advice for new founders (23:25) What Siqi learned working at Zynga (27:18) Siqi’s time running product (29:20) Criticisms of Zynga and how they lost Eric’s trust (33:42) The importance of trust and maintaining vision and mission (39:15) An overview of Runway (44:38) What inspired Siqi to create Runway (50:43) What Siqi learned from user interviews (52:07) An example of time wasting inside a company (53:24) The values at Runway and why they changed (58:35) Why you should write reflective values after having a high-performance team (1:00:40) How Leaders in Tech shaped Siqi’s thoughts on values and building trust (1:03:13) How open feedback builds trust (1:08:20) The purpose of Runway (1:11:34) Siqi’s struggles with strategy planning (1:13:31) A top down approach to entrepreneurship and why it’s not common (1:16:38) The importance of employees understanding their contributions and impact (1:18:55) How Runway leverages AI (1:22:12) Runway’s dramatic launch with a timed lock (1:23:04) How Runway communicates value to customers (1:24:54) Runway’s process for brand building and high-quality design (1:28:40) Lightning round You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 12 Sep 2024 | The Oracle Of Silicon Valley Shares How to Create More Value Than You Capture | Tim O’Reilly | 01:40:23 | |
What is the relationship between technology and society? What happens to idealism over time? I’m fortunate to have discussed these questions and many more with Tim O’Reilly for this episode of The Eric Ries Show. Tim is the founder of O’Reilly Media, which has provided countless programmers and technologists with foundational information for doing their work well. He’s also been a long-time witness to the changes and growth of tech, and has consistently looked far ahead of other people, perhaps most famously in his book What’s the Future and Why It’s Up to Us. Many call Tim the Oracle of Silicon Valley. He thinks of himself more as “a voice in the wilderness” and someone who brings together people with great ideas to build new things. In our conversation, we covered how to build a business with a real ethos, how to gain competitive advantage by doing the right thing, and why thinking beyond the quarter, or even the year, is crucial for survival. As he said, “Companies need to think about the long term, which is: who is going to provide what you are the gatekeeper for if you basically have a relentless acquisition of all the value for yourself?” Ultimately, he believes – and I couldn’t agree more – that “we need to build an economy in which the important things are paid for in self-sustaining ways rather than as charities to be funded out of the goodness of our hearts.” Other topics we touched on include:
— Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Tim O'Reilly: • O’Reilly Media: https://www.oreilly.com/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timoreilly • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timo3/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:43) Meet Tim O’Reilly (06:25) How Eric and Tim met (08:38) On not getting caught up in trends of the moment (10:44) Tim’s early career and how his thinking evolved (13:10) From open source to Web 2.0 (14:06) Working to make the world a better place (16:11) How idealism is subsumed by the system we work in (18:25) Resisting the lure of profit (19:53) Thinking about companies as members of an ecosystem (21:20) Creating versus capturing value (23:38) Internet aggregators (26:45) Choosing value creation over-extraction as a means of sustainability (30:00) Ads and the lesson of screen placement (32:49) AI and Google (37:13) Values are a map of the world (39:56) How to build a company ethos (42:24) How adpoting values publicly makes them more powerful (47:46) Dune (49:31) Literature’s evolution (50:21) Anthony Trollope’s proto-feminist novel, Can You Forgive Her? (49:30) George Elliot’s The Mill on the Floss (51:22) The Dune movies (52:39) Turning books into movies (54:23) Tim’s favorite childhood books (58:29) Why doing good is the best path to success (1:02:22) Generative AI, value, and trust (1:12:25) How idealists talk themselves out of it (1:15:53) Lightning Round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 16 May 2024 | His First Company Went Public For $3.5 Billion, Now He’s Reversing Type 2 Diabetes For 100 Million | 01:35:35 | |
In this first episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with serial entrepreneur and intrepid explorer, Sami Inkinen. Sami has co-founded two companies: Trulia and Virta Health. After Trulia was acquired by Zillow for $3.5 billion, he rowed from California to Hawaii with his wife, unassisted. What can’t this guy do? Now, he’s on a mission to reverse type 2 diabetes in 100 million people with his latest venture, Virta Health. In this episode, we discuss: In the interview, we cover: • How Sami got started as an entrepreneur coming over to America with no experience • What it was like to IPO during his time at Trulia • What he’s learned raising money after a market crash and a zero-interest environment • The best way he found to get great talent • Why Virta is a mission-based company disguised as a for-profit company • What he learned rowing unassisted to Hawaii from California • Why he says you should create a mission that is both simple and ambitious • And so much more — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances https://mercury.com/ DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike https://try.digitalocean.com/eric/ Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader https://neo4j.com/eric/ — Where to find Sami Inkinen: • X: https://twitter.com/samiinkinen • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samiinkinen/ • Website: https://www.samiinkinen.com/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Welcome to the first episode of the Eric Ries Show (00:35) Meet our guest Sami Inkinen (05:20) Sami reflects on Trulia’s IPO (08:20) How Sami started in entrepreneurship (11:10) Sami’s founding story for Trulia (acquired by Zillow for $2.5 billion) (16:40) Why most people never end up starting a business (18:57) How to find better talent as a founder (23:15) Sami shares how much money he raised for Zillow and Virta (25:20) Sami’s lessons on how to get momentum for your startup (30:30) What changed when Sami took his company public (38:00) Why Sami decided to start Virta and take on type 2 diabetes (41:55) How type 2 diabetes can affect anyone, even a high-performing endurance athlete (47:36) Sami shares what he tells each founder when they ask for his investment (53:20) The importance of defining your mission that is both simple and ambitious (57:30) Trust leads to success (1:03:07) A mission-based company disguised as a for-profit company (1:08:10) How Sami built an economic model built on helping his customers (1:14:00) More details on how Sami set up Virta’s company structure (1:17:08) What is a GLP-1 drug and how Virta is a GLP-1 off-ramp (1:24:32) Sami’s approach to leadership (1:26:02) Why Finland maximizes human capital better than most (1:28:00) What are Sami’s thoughts on AI (1:30:15) How to become one with your pain — Referenced: • Virta Health: https://www.virtahealth.com/ • Virta Health YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/VirtaHealth • Trulia Acquired By Zillow: https://zillow.mediaroom.com/2014-07-28-Zillow-Announces-Acquisition-of-Trulia-for-3-5-Billion-in-Stock • Type 2 Diabetes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_2_diabetes • GLP-1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GLP-1_receptor_agonist • Ozempic: https://www.ozempic.com/ • Buddhist Parables Of The Arrow: https://grandrapidstherapygroup.com/second-arrow-of-suffering/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 06 Jun 2024 | How to Disrupt an Industry: Lessons from James Reinhart (ThredUp) | 01:28:30 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I talk with James Reinhart, founder of the second-hand resale platform ThredUp. A history major in college, James started his career as a teacher. That might not seem like it has much to do with fashion, but, as he explains, his early education and experiences actually led him not only to be a dual degree student at Harvard’s Business and Kennedy schools, but to a long-term view of ThredUp’s power to effect real change. We get into the reasons why having a harder mission can be counterintuitively easier and why, as he says, “intrinsically good businesses are good for bottom lines and good for the world.” Not only did ThredUp generate 80 million dollars in revenue in the first quarter of 2024, but James has an uncanny track record of being able to accurately predict what’s going to happen ten years ahead. Those details alone should be more than enough to pull you in, but they’re just a fraction of what we talked about. I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with the founder whose mission is to inspire the world to think secondhand first. • What it was like to be an entrepreneur at Harvard Business School before the days when everyone was doing it • How his education background fed into his business acumen • The value of investors who believe in you • The advantages of having a mission that all your stakeholders are passionate about • His experience going public and advice for founders • Why he built a company culture around humane principles based on employee feedback • The change he’s working towards and believes is possible • And so much more — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find James Reinhart: • X: https://x.com/jamesreinhart • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesgreinhart • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/james.reinhart/ • ThredUp: https://ir.thredup.com/corporate-governance/management-team — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Welcome to the Eric Ries Show (00:27) Meet our guest James Reinhart (06:04) James talks about being an entrepreneur at Harvard Business School and a dual degrees student at the Kennedy School (10:27) How his decision to take a teaching job after college presaged his journey as an entrepreneur (12:53) The story of ThredUp’s beginnings, including multiple pivots (20:24) The value of a supportive investor (22:00) How failure set the stage for the biggest counterintuitive pivot of all: taking on inventory (24:42 Identifying the true customer need: convenience + economic value (27:59) The moment when James realized the company’s power to make change (31:18) ThredUp’s mission statement (33:06) Being a for-profit company with social change as its purpose (35:43) Growing in order to increase positive impact: good businesses are good for the bottom line and for the world (39:22) The many advantages of taking the harder path to a solution (43:34) Protecting ThredUp’s company culture and stakeholder alignment (45:39) ThredUp’s IPO (48:17) Advice on going public (50:38) The connection between mission and long-termism (59:35) The value of being a history major in business (1:00:19) David Graeber’s The Dawn of Everything (1:05:35) ThredUp’s maker days (1:09:24) Trusting and believing in your employees (1:12:17) How ThredUp is a pioneering user of AI (1:14:05) James’s thoughts on the role of government in business and society (1:17:23) The power of transcending generations (1:20:08) Lightning round! — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 27 Feb 2025 | From Bootstrapping to $400 Million – The Hustle Behind Hipcamp with Alyssa Ravasio | 01:28:47 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Alyssa Ravasio, CEO and Founder of Hipcamp. Hipcamp is the platform that has revolutionized camping, with a mission to “get more people outside.” By making it easier for people to find camping on public lands—and then expanding to include private lands—Hipcamp significantly increased the supply of camping spots, making the outdoors more accessible to all. In our conversation, Alyssa shares how her childhood fostered a deep love of nature, and how missed opportunities ultimately led her to become a founder. We dive into Hipcamp’s mission and discuss how staying true to it has been key to the company’s success. We talk about the following: • How a rejection led Alyssa to create her own major, Digital Democracy • The early experiences that shaped Alyssa’s respect for nature • The problem Alyssa set out to solve when she started California Camping (now Hipcamp) • Why Alyssa took a coding bootcamp and the early days of bootstrapping Hipcamp • How Hipcamp expanded the supply of camping by opening up private lands • Hipcamp’s many value-enforcing practices, including tying performance reviews to values • The power of direct feedback, and why Hipcamp seeks diverse perspectives • The practice of treating the business as an ecosystem • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Save $1,000 today. • Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm. Learn more. — Where to find Alyssa Ravasio: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-ravasio-23114717/ • X: https://x.com/alyraz — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (02:28) Alyssa’s entrepreneurship journey (03:40) Alyssa’s outdoorsy upbringing that fueled her desire to democratize outdoor access (06:30) How film school rejection led Alyssa to design her own major at UCLA (10:20) Alyssa’s philosophy of using technology for good (13:40) Learnings from Alyssa’s first two startups (16:05) How Alyssa prioritizes Hipcamp’s mission with her employees (19:20) Hipcamp’s hiring process (20:24) How California Camping became Hipcamp (21:47) The initial idea behind California Camping (24:52) How Alyssa dealt with naysayers in the early days of building Hipcamp (28:00) How solving a customer’s problem on Twitter drew Alyssa’s first investor (31:22) The early days of bootstrapping Hipcamp (36:40) The power of a shared vision (38:07) Overcoming scarcity in outdoor spaces by adding private lands (42:15) Why the business model of Hipcamp is a win-win for all (47:10) Systems and cultural practices that keep Hipcamp aligned with its mission and values (54:15) A case for bringing teams together in nature (56:50) The current state of Hipcamp (59:42) How Hipcamp might scale impact with a fund in the future (1:03:15) The practice of treating the business like an ecosystem (1:10:14) Why a positive-impact business is also good business (1:12:41) Alyssa’s thoughts on AI, and how Hipcamp plans on utilizing it (1:17:03) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references athttps://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 01 Aug 2024 | How to build trust and win your customer’s attention with Seth Godin | 01:02:01 | |
This episode of The Eric Ries Show is all about the relationship between trust and success. I can’t think of anyone better to talk about it with than Seth Godin, author of the classic Permission Marketing, the best-seller This Is Marketing, and many other books, as well as a fantastic daily blog that has been going strong since the early days. He also co-founded two companies, Squidoo and Yoyodyne. While the world tends to view Seth as an expert on marketing, he sees what he does in slightly different terms. “What I write about is how do humans interact? What stories do we tell ourselves? What do we want? What's worth doing?” We talked about the roots of “the epidemic of unicorns,” the two approaches to gaining customer loyalty, how AI has permanently changed the means of production, how to build systems that create the conditions for great work to occur more easily, plus: • False proxies • The permissions hierarchy • The power of stories • The problem with business school • Continuous effort • Why Amazon lost customer trust • Seth’s definition of marketing • Chocolate cookies — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Seth Godin: • Seth’s Blog: https://seths.blog/ • Seth’s site: https://www.sethgodin.com/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sethgodin/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sethgodin Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:33) Meet Seth Godin (05:06) Seth’s book, Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers into Friends and Friends into Customers (06:31 The relationship between attention and trust (07:29) The hierarchy of permission (09:18) Seth’s essay Trading Trust (10:44) Amazon’s trust for profit trade-off (14:54) How fear of change erodes organizations (18:16) How new paradigms spread (20:34) Getting customers to love you (23:20) Why business schools don’t produce leaders (26:02) The need for internal systems to process feedback (26:40) The two choices a brand makes in order to earn trust (28:55) Continuous versus sporadic value creation (33:13) How taking shortcuts leads to a brittle company (35:35) The “holy trinity” of engineering, product, and marketing (36:35) Seth’s definition of marketing (39:27) The AI hype and future (42:33) AI, ethics and trust (44:40) How political money and ads changed Facebook’s culture (46:48) Money and the race to the bottom (49:30) Status, affiliation, and warm chocolate cookies (51:13) Aphorism lightning round — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 09 Jan 2025 | How She Built a Marketplace for a Million Nurses | Iman Abuzeid (Incredible Health) | 01:27:22 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I’m joined by Iman Abuzeid, the co-founder and CEO of Incredible Health, a platform transforming how healthcare systems hire nurses. After earning an MD, Iman pivoted to business and technology. She spent some time working in New York before enrolling at The Wharton School, where she earned her MBA. After graduating, she moved to Silicon Valley and worked as a product manager at AliveCor, where she met her future co-founder. Together, they launched Incredible Health, a company now valued at $1.65 billion. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • Why Iman chose a different way to apply her medical school training • The unique insights gained from NFX’s accelerator program • Incredible Health’s purpose and its downstream effects on quality of care • The evolution of Incredible Health’s MVP • The focus on profitability from day one • How to commit to your values • The importance of vetting investors • How Incredible Health has implemented AI • How Amazon’s single-threaded model inspires the way Incredible Health prioritizes • And more! — Brought to you by: Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Get $1,000 off. Runway – The finance platform you don’t hate. Learn more. — Where to find Iman Abuzeid: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/imanabuzeid/ Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (01:52) An overview of Incredible Health (02:48) Why Iman started Incredible Health (05:22) Why Iman went to medical school but decided not to practice clinical medicine (06:42) How Iman got into software (08:01) Iman’s background and why she is drawn to entrepreneurship (09:19) Why Roman and Iman left AliveCor to start their own company (11:00) How the partners at NFX helped Roman and Iman transform their original vision (15:55) James Joaquin's vision of "world positive" and how Incredible Health embodies it (18:15) Balancing the lofty mission of quality care with financial goals (20:20) The reasons for labor shortages in the healthcare industry (22:20) The tools Incredible Health has to help nurses manage their careers (23:18) What the MVP of Incredible Health looked like (26:00) Some statistics around the current size of Incredible Health (26:43) The values that Iman leaned into to overcome many difficult obstacles (29:22) How Iman has created so much value with a small team (31:49) Early decisions made that led to high impact and high growth (33:34) The world positive term sheet and how Incredible Health clarified its values (36:51) The three ways Incredible Health implements values (38:30) Eric’s culture bank and leader’s guide (39:50) Anecdotes from Incredible Health that illustrate customer obsession, speed, and (43:41) How the pandemic impacted Incredible Health (46:25) How Incredible Health upholds values and ensures accountability (49:00) Protecting the culture from outside sources (52:38) The future of product strategy and growth strategy at Incredible Health (55:21) Learnings from implementing AI (57:45) Building and retaining trust on both sides of the marketplace (1:02:23) The importance of neutrality with all employers (1:04:25) Prioritization and community standards (1:08:15) The company as a whole vs. individual contribution (1:11:24) Lightning round You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 10 Apr 2025 | The playbook for building a business to $1M/month with 3 employees, hiring great leaders, and rejecting Silicon Valley’s rules | Jess Mah (Rahway) | 01:24:29 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I'm joined by Jess Mah, an extraordinary entrepreneur who launched her first six-figure business in middle school and went on to co-found more than 10 companies collectively valued at over $1 billion. Jess rose to public acclaim and earned a spot on Forbes' 30 Under 30 while privately facing the reality that her startup, inDinero, was far from profitable. That moment of failure became her turning point. Without VC funding, Jess had to rethink everything: her approach to building companies, her work methods, and her true priorities. What emerged was a more sustainable approach to entrepreneurship that prioritizes long-term thinking, authenticity, and mental health. In our conversation, we explore: • The hidden upside of failure and how it transformed Jess's career • Why inDinero's failure to attract VC money was ultimately a blessing in disguise • How AI is lowering barriers to starting a business with less capital and fewer workers • Why authenticity beats performative positivity • How Jess manages her mental health and her iterative learning approach inspired by 'kodawari' • The “independent director problem” and how investor-beholden directors can undermine long-term strategy • Why funding private companies is a frequently overlooked way to create global impact • Jess’s 90-day trial method for evaluating executive talent • Jess’s work supporting other female founders • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Save $1,000 today. • Explo – Explo helps teams deploy customer dashboard portals. Get Started. — Where to find Jess Mah: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamah/ • Website: https://jessicamah.com/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (02:30) Why happiness eludes so many high achievers (10:15) Why Jess considers herself lucky that inDinero was not a rapid growth company (14:20) How Jess discovered that habits like meditation and exercise drive success (17:10) Silicon Valley Bank: why short-term thinking and exploitation are bad business strategies (24:00) Why it’s so hard to break out of the default culture of rapid growth (28:30) Why Jess walked away from the Silicon Valley playbook (33:11) Where Jess’s strength comes from (40:25) Why true accountability doesn’t require a combative board (44:43) What good governance looks like—and why it’s different for every company (50:10) Jess’s long-term approach to goal planning, both in life and work (51:34) Jess’s barbell approach: balancing cool businesses with world-changing tech (58:15) Jess’s approach to hiring and spotting well-matched talent (1:04:20) Strategies Jess uses to manage her emotions and learn from failure (1:10:54) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 15 Aug 2024 | Reid Hoffman challenges your thinking on AI, governance, and politics | 01:57:50 | |
The latest episode of The Eric Ries Show features my conversation with Reid Hoffman. Executive Vice President of PayPal, co-founder of LinkedIn, and legendary investor at Greylock Partners are just a few of his official roles that have changed our world. He’s also been a mentor to countless founders of iconic companies like Airbnb, Facebook, and OpenAI. He’s an author, a podcast host – both Masters of Scale and his new show, Possible, with Aria Finger – and perhaps most importantly a crucial steward of AI, including co-founding Inflection AI, a Public Benefit Corporation, in 2022. Reid has also long been a voice of moral clarity and a stabilizing influence on the tech ecosystem, supporting people who are working to make the world a better place at every level. He’s a firm believer that “the way that we express ourselves over time is by being citizens of the polis – tribal members.” That includes not just supporting the legal system and democratic process but also building organizations “from the founding and through scaling and ongoing iteration to have a functional and healthy society.” We talked about all of this, as well as AI, from multiple angles – including the story of how he came to broker the first meeting between Sam Altman and Satya Nadella that led to the OpenAI-Microsoft partnership. He also had a lot to say about how AI will work as a meta-tool for all the other tools we use. We are, as he said,” homo techne,” – meaning we evolve through the technology we make. We also broke down his famous saying that “entrepreneurship is like jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down” and: • The human tendency to form groups • The relationship between doing good for people and profits • AI as a meta-tool • What he looks for in a leader • The necessity of evolving culture • Being willing to take public positions • His thoughts on the economy and the upcoming election — Brought to you by: Mercury – The art of simplified finances. Learn more. DigitalOcean – The cloud loved by developers and founders alike. Sign up. Neo4j – The graph database and analytics leader. Learn more. — Where to find Reid Hoffman: • Reid’s Website: https://www.reidhoffman.org/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reidhoffman/ • X: https://x.com/reidhoffman Where to find Eric: • Newsletter: https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast: https://ericriesshow.com/ • X: https://twitter.com/ericries • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (01:15) Meet Reid Hoffman (06:01) The three eras of LinkedIn (08:21) The alignment of LinkedIn and Microsoft’s missions (10:39) The power of being mission-driven (18:42) Embedding culture in every function (21:08) The purpose of organizations (23:45) Organizations as tribes for human expression (29:08) Reid’s advice for navigating profit vs. purpose (38:33) The moment Reid realized the AI future is actually now (41:57) Home techne (44:52) AI as meta-tool (47:05) Why Reid co-founded Inflection AI (49:53) The early days of OpenAI (55:41) How Reid introduced Sam Altman and Satya Nadella (58:26) The unusual structure of the Microsoft-OpenAI deal (1:04:42) The importance of aligning governance structure with mission (1:09:56) Making a company trustworthy through accountability (1:15:59) Inflection’s pivot a unique model (1:19:53) Companies that are doing lean AI right (1:22:52) Reid’s advice for deploying AI effectively (1:26:21) Being a voice of moral clarity in complicated times (1:31:26) The economy and what’s at stake in the 2024 election (1:37:24) The qualities Reid looks for in a leader (1:39:43) Lightning round, including board games, the PayPal mafia, regulation, and more — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 20 Mar 2025 | How To Raise $125M Pre-Revenue and Why Harder Can Be Easier | Celine Halioua (Loyal) | 01:40:25 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I'm joined by Celine Halioua, founder and CEO of Loyal, a groundbreaking biotech startup developing drugs to extend dogs' healthspan and lifespan. Celine's journey combines her passion for animals with a bold scientific mission that looks beyond pets to potentially transform human longevity as well. Our conversation explores: • Why ambitious, moonshot visions can paradoxically make fundraising and team-building easier • The critical early pivot that positioned Loyal for its first drug approval • The undervalued power of listening deeply and asking the right questions • Loyal's philosophy of exceeding regulatory requirements to build trust and advance the field • Balancing the startup need for speed with scientific rigor and safety • How Celine's background led her to focus on the untapped potential of canine longevity • The competitive advantage of pursuing novel ideas before they become industry trends • Why founder conviction and scientific expertise were crucial to overcoming skepticism • Celine's approach to governance and maintaining mission control for the long-term • Navigating the challenges of Silicon Valley as a female founder in biotech • The realistic timeline and milestones for Loyal's drug development and approvals • Building for truly long-term impact beyond conventional startup timelines • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Vanta – Automate compliance, manage risk, and prove trust—continuously. Save $1,000 today. • Explo – Explo helps teams deploy customer dashboard portals. Get Started. — Where to find Celine Halioua: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/celinehh/ • X: https://x.com/celinehalioua • Website: https://www.celinehh.com/ — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:29) Early challenges Celine faced promoting Loyal (08:20) The early pivot that led to Loyal’s first drug approval (14:50) The importance of listening and asking questions (15:58) Why you have to love the mission (18:02) Why a lofty mission makes it easier to gain support (22:30) Loyal’s commitment to regulatory frameworks—and doing more than required (29:10) How to balance speed with safety and quality (34:36) Eric’s startup lesson on speed and compromises (38:22) How Celine became interested in the biotech space and canine longevity (47:32) The power of new ideas, and why it’s too late once it’s a trend (50:28) How Celine’s conviction and scientific expertise drove Loyal’s success (56:00) Celine’s advice to new founders: go deep (1:00:15) How and why Celine maintains control of Loyal (1:07:23) Breaking through the glass ceiling of Silicon Valley (1:15:50) Challenges of building a long-term company, and Loyal’s real milestones (1:21:11) The timeline of Loyal’s drug approvals (1:24:02) Lightning round — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 27 Mar 2025 | The Hired CEO with Founder Mode | Marten Mickos (MySQL, HackerOne) | 01:32:37 | |
In this episode of The Eric Ries Show, I sit down with Marten Mickos, a serial tech CEO who has been at the forefront of some of the most transformative moments in open-source technology. From leading MySQL through its groundbreaking journey to guiding HackerOne as a pioneering bug bounty platform, Marten's career is a masterclass in building innovative, trust-driven organizations. Our wide-ranging conversation explores Marten's remarkable journey through tech leadership, touching on his experiences building game-changing companies and, more recently, his work coaching emerging CEOs. We dive deep into the world of open source, company culture, and the nuanced art of leadership. In our conversation today, we talk about the following topics: • How MySQL revolutionized open-source databases and became Facebook’s database • The strategic decision to make MySQL open source and leverage Linux distributions • The art of building a beloved open-source project while creating a profitable business model • How a lawsuit solidified MySQL's position in the open-source database market • The role of transparency and direct feedback in building organizational trust • Why Marten was drawn to HackerOne's disruptive approach to cybersecurity • Marten’s transition to coaching new CEOs • Marten’s unique "contrast framework" for making complex decisions • And much more! — Brought to you by: • Wilson Sonsini – Wilson Sonsini is the innovation economy’s law firm. Learn more. • Gusto – Gusto is an easy payroll and benefits software built for small businesses. Get 3 months free. — Where to find Marten Mickos: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martenmickos/ • Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/martenmickos.bsky.social — Where to find Eric: • Newsletter:https://ericries.carrd.co/ • Podcast:https://ericriesshow.com/ • YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow — In This Episode We Cover: (00:00) Intro (03:15) The first time Eric used MySQL (07:10) The origins of MySQL and how Marten got involved (13:22) Why MySQL pivoted to open source to leverage the power of Linux distros (17:03) Open source vs. closed (18:56) Building profitable open-source companies (24:52) The fearless company culture at MySQL and the Progress lawsuit (29:30) The value of not cutting any corners (33:35) How a dolphin became part of the MySQL logo (35:55) What it was like to build a company of true believers (38:47) Marten’s management approach emphasizes kindness and direct feedback (42:12) Marten’s hiring philosophy (45:14) Why MySQL sold to Sun Microsystems and tried to avoid Oracle (50:24) How Oracle has made MySQL even better (52:22) Why Marten decided to lead at HackerOne (55:41) An overview of HackerOne (59:31) How HackerOne got started and landed the Department of Defense contract (1:03:19) The trust-building power of transparency (1:08:30) Marten’s successor and the state of HackerOne now (1:09:23) Marten’s work coaching CEOs (1:14:20) Common issues CEOs struggle with (1:16:45) Marten’s contrast framework (1:26:12) The book of Finnish poetry that inspired Marten’s love of polarities — You can find the transcript and references at https://www.ericriesshow.com/ — Production and marketing byhttps://penname.co/. Eric may be an investor in the companies discussed. | |||
| 05 May 2024 | Welcome To The Eric Ries Show | 00:02:15 | |
For too long, company builders have been told that purpose and profit are at odds -- that trading one for the other is inevitable. A burgeoning group of founders is proving that wrong, creating organizations whose commitment to their mission inspires the trust of customers, employees, investors, and other partners, leading to serious competitive advantage. Better companies mean a better world for everyone not just now, but far into the future. Join Eric Ries for conversations with a range of leaders from across industries as well as thinkers who are contributing to this new movement to tackle generational challenges by centering human flourishing. Where To Find Eric Ries: Website: https://www.ericriesshow.com/ X: https://twitter.com/ericries LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow Production and Marketing: https://penname.co/ | |||