Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad

Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad

Author: Software Engineering Daily July 9, 2026 Duration: 50:28

Eric Ries is the creator of the Lean Startup method and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup, which transformed how a generation of founders and engineers think about building products. It introduced concepts like the MVP, the pivot, and build-measure-learn that are now so widely adopted they feel obvious. Over two decades of working with founders, CEOs, and investors, Eric has observed that some companies built on those principles eventually betray the very customers and engineers who made them great. His new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, is his attempt to answer the question of whether it is possible to build a company that resists that fate.

In this episode, Eric joins Gregor Vand for a wide-ranging discussion about why so many great companies lose their way, and what software engineers and founders can do today to build or find companies that are genuinely resistant to corruption.

Sponsorship inquiries: sponsor@softwareengineeringdaily.com

The post Eric Ries on Why Good Companies Go Bad appeared first on Software Engineering Daily.


Dive into the deep end of the world's most ubiquitous programming language with the JavaScript Archives-Software Engineering Daily. This curated collection pulls from the broader archive, focusing entirely on conversations that dissect the ecosystem, its evolution, and its practical application in modern software engineering. Each episode features in-depth technical interviews with engineers, library authors, and industry leaders who have shaped the language. You'll hear detailed discussions on everything from the intricacies of frameworks like React and Node.js to the underlying mechanics of the V8 engine, from deployment strategies to the challenges of building at scale. The dialogue is substantive and geared toward practicing developers, offering insights that go far beyond surface-level tutorials. For anyone who builds with JavaScript, this podcast serves as an essential audio companion, transforming complex topics into accessible, thoughtful dialogue that illuminates the how and why behind the code we write every day.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 50

Software Engineering Daily
Podcast Episodes
Grafana’s Approach to AI-Native Observability [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:29
Advanced software systems have long been more complex than any single engineer can fully understand. Observability is the established solution to this problem, but with AI agents now generating code, deploying changes, a…
Building Software That People Love [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:26
Building great software always involves technical problem solving, but the best software goes beyond function. It feels fluid, coherent, and genuinely fun to use. This quality lives at the intersection of engineering and…
Mina the Hollower [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 43:48
Yacht Club Games is the studio behind the acclaimed Shovel Knight franchise. Their latest release is Mina the Hollower, which is a top-down action RPG inspired by classic Zelda and Castlevania titles. After many years in…
Foundation Models for Structured Data [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 44:00
Predictive modeling is a core element in modern systems, and powers capabilities such as fraud detection, loan approvals, and recommendation systems. These systems typically operate on structured, relational data stored…
Biome and the Future of JavaScript Tooling [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:56
Modern web development requires an ever-growing collection of tools including formatters, linters, bundlers, and plugins. Each tool typically has its own configuration, dependencies, and performance cost. As applications…
Preparing for Q-Day [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:18
Most of the cryptography securing the internet today rests on mathematical problems that classical computers cannot solve in any reasonable timeframe. That assumption is now being tested. Recent advances in quantum compu…
Developing Multiplayer Games in Godot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:21
Multiplayer games are among the hardest software systems to build, requiring developers to synchronize state across unreliable networks while maintaining fairness, performance, and a responsive player experience. Latency…
Web Native Game Development [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:08
The web has quietly become one of the most capable platforms for game development. Advances in WebAssembly, WebGL, and WebGPU have given developers tools that rival native desktop performance, while game engines like Uni…
The Hardware Bottleneck AI Can’t Fix [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:47
Software engineering has developed powerful tools for observability, data management, and continuous testing, but hardware engineering has largely not kept pace. The feedback loops, tooling, and infrastructure that softw…