Startups & Sandwiches: A Virtual Visit with Best-Selling Author and Leading Entrepreneur Eric Ries
Ries joined the Leeds community virtually to discuss entrepreneurship, values, and his forthcoming book on building enduring companies that help human society flourish.泭
The Deming Center for Entrepreneurship concluded its Startups & Sandwiches series for the spring 2026 semester on a high note with a virtual visit from , author of The Lean Startup,泭The Startup Way, and The Leaders Guide. Students filled Koelbel 218 to hear Ries insights on business and to learn about his forthcoming book, : Why Good Companies Go Bad ... and How Great Companies Stay Great.
Ries shared his journey from earning a degree in computer science to being swept up in the dot-com bubble, which he amusingly described as fun at first, but then humiliating. Over the course of his career, he has studied management and worked on innovation across big companies, governments and NGOslearning along the way how to master key business skills like accounting and governance.
A thought-provoking conversation covered a range of topics. Here are some of Ries insights.
On the reason for his new book.
Most of the ways that I was taught about how companies should be run and structured ultimately leads to them being corrupted. The reality, he said, is that there are many ways to make money without creating any value at all. It turns out that theres actually good evidence that we know how to build organizations that stay true to human flourishing over the long-term. Its time to define new best practicesreplacing the old ones that dont workthat will leave the world better than we found it.
The Defining Questions for Modern Business
In the Deming Center newsletter, "The Entrepreneurship Pulse," Executive Director Erick Mueller highlighted the central questions Eric Ries posed for tomorrows business and thought leadersquestions that push us to rethink the purpose of business and how it creates value.
- How do we build companies that are additive rather than extractive?
- How do we align AI creators with human thriving over "profit at all costs?"
- How do we dismantle shareholder primacy in favor of organizational purpose?
On the realities of entrepreneurship.
Ries drew laughs when he noted that entrepreneurship in the movies is often about a plucky protagonist with a great idea. As an example, he cited Ghost Busters, one of his favorite films. In real life, its very different. The hardest work is the foundational decisions, like what features to include in a product and defining customers. But in the movies, that stuff is so boring its limited to a two-minute montage.
Seeing thousands of startup stories throughout his career, Ries understands the dark side of entrepreneurship. Its not all puppies and rainbows. Theres also a lot of misery in the startup world, much of it driven by the misguided best practices weve been indoctrinated into that cause us to deviate from what we know to be right, he believes.
That tension often leads to decisions that are misaligned with personal values. Its time for this to endwe have to reconcile the formal definitions of what business is with our intuitive understanding of what business is for.
On founding the Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE).泭
The nice thing about doing something so impossibly difficult is that nobody expects you to succeed.泭
On the soul of a company.泭
It takes me in the book 11 chapters to give the concept of a corporate soul. Organizations, he explained, function like super organisms. He pointed to a study in which the researchers measured the ethical character of different organizations and used the assessments to accurately predict the organizations behavior in future situations. If you are a cog in that machine, what you do is not entirely in your own control, and often you end up creating effects that are contrary to your own values. And if that sounds scary to you because youre thinking of starting an organization, then good, it should scare you.
On mission-driven organizations.
While avoiding traditional buzzwords, Ries emphasized that true mission-driven organizations stand apart. It turns out we have great evidence that people love working at companies like that, buying from companies like that and love investing in companies like that. Their advantage, he said, comes from the most underrated aspect in businesstrustworthiness.
We have to reconcile the formal definitions of what business is with our intuitive understanding of what business is for.
Eric Ries, author and entrepreneur
On optimism and whats next for business.
Though clear-eyed about current challenges, Ries manages to stay hopeful. I think the era of shareholder primacy is actually already over its an idea that has basically caused its own intellectual collapse. Change, he believes, will come through generational turnover and a compelling alternative vision. If you've ever been navigating somewhere and you make a wrong turn, its not like you say, Blow up the car, well never get there; were all doomed. As long as people wake up out of unconscious behavior, then I think well be able to get people to recognize the need for this change and turn the car around.
On aligning your decisions with your values.泭
If you want to make change, the first step is to make sure that the actual decisions you makeno matter how immaterial they may seemare in fact aligned with your values. Thats your surprising power in your life and career.